Pensioner died ‘after being beaten with his walking stick’

A pensioner was beaten to death with his own walking stick by his step-granddaughter, whom he abused as a child, a court heard.

Lindsey Fletcher, 38, claimed she attacked 72-year-old Michael Eaton when he tried to sexually abuse her as he had done when she was a child, Sheffield Crown Court was told.

But prosecutor Dafydd Enoch QC said Mr Eaton was dominated by Fletcher and was the victim of her violent temper. The court heard the pensioner was found with 91 stab wounds in his back and had been beaten over the head with blunt instruments including his own walking stick when he was killed in his home on Christmas Day last year.

Mr Enoch told the jury: “If Mr Eaton did abuse her when she was a child, it was unforgivable and disgusting, but it does not entitle the defendant to kill him.”

Fletcher, of Doncaster, denies murder but admits manslaughter.