‘Killed at random’
Teen followed woman home, then ‘calmly walked into house and knifed pensioner’
A TEENAGER ‘walked calmly’ into a family home and stabbed a pensioner to death with an eight-inch blade in a random killing, a court heard.
Daniel Rounce allegedly followed Linda Love to her house, strolled in an unlocked door and killed her exhusband Gerald Wickes, 79.
Prosecutors claim the teenager had tracked elderly Ms Love after passing her as she walked home, through a wooded area and under a railway bridge, from a lunch with friends. Prosecutor Steven Bailey, opening the case, said Mr Wickes had gone to visit Ms Love and their adult son Gary Wickes in Eyres Monsell, Leicester, in February last year.
The couple, who still enjoyed a close relationship, were chatting in the lounge when Rounce appeared, Leicester Crown Court heard. Mr Bailey claimed when Mr Wickes told Rounce, 17 at the time, that Gary was in the house, he pulled out a large knife and stabbed him once.
The prosecutor added Rounce had ‘ walked calmly in and within a minute-and-a-half had stabbed Gerald through the diaphragm and the heart and then left, leaving him to die’. Mr Bailey said Mr Wickes died at the scene ‘within half an hour’.
Rounce, who had gone missing from sheltered accommodation nearby the day before, was then seen walking up and down the street for around 40 minutes, during which time he removed a layer of clothing.
Earlier, he had been caught on CCTV at the Wickes’ house 20 seconds after Ms Love had returned from her lunch.
Rounce was arrested several hours later three miles away wearing ‘a great number of layers of clothing’, which the prosecution insisted was part of a plan to take off items to change his appearance.
A knife, which had been concealed, was recovered from nearby woodland and allegedly had on it DNA from Rounce and Mr Wickes. Mr Bailey said: ‘This was an attacker who knew exactly what he was doing.’
Rounce denies murder and possessing a blade in a public place. The trial continues.