A TIMELINE shows the movements of two alleged killers in the minutes before a pensioner was strangled to death in his own home, a court heard.
Leighton Snook, 28, and a 16-year-old boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, deny murdering 83-year-old Donald Ralph in his Aldham home before making their getaway in his car.
A trial at Ipswich Crown Court heard evidence from Det Con Paul Keaney, who took the jury through CCTV footage allegedly capturing the movements of Snook and the teenager on the afternoon of December 28.
The jury were played footage captured outside the Co-op, in Mersea Road, Colchester, which the prosecution alleges shows Snook and the teenager strolling across a zebra crossing in the direction of the shop’s car park at 3.38pm.
The prosecution says Snook was making a call to a Colchester taxi firm, as further footage showed a taxi pulling into the Co-op car park at around 3.42pm.
After the two figures get into the taxi, CCTV footage played to the court showed the same cab driving along Halstead Road, Eight Ash Green, at 3.58pm.
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The jury were played footage taken from residential CCTV in Halstead Road, near a dental practice and outside a petrol station, which allegedly showed Snook and the teenager walking in the direction of Aldham shortly after 4pm.
The same cameras then snapped Mr Ralph’s Volvo driving down Halstead Road towards Colchester at about 4.30pm.
The prosecution alleges Snook and his teenage accomplice killed Mr Ralph, a farm worker and gamekeeper, during a desperate bid to get thousands of pounds from him to pay a drugs debt.
A shotgun and rifle, along with Mr Ralph’s light blue Volvo V50, were stolen from his home.
A post mortem examination revealed the nature lover and keen fisherman had been killed by strangulation.
His bruised and bloodied body was found by his niece Tina Ralph on December 29 after she became concerned about her uncle’s well-being.
The teenager, from Leicester, has admitted burglary.
Snook, of no fixed address, denies burglary and both defendants deny the theft of Mr Ralph’s Volvo.
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