THE former lover of a man accused of killing a Skegby pensioner has repeated his claim that he did not murder her.
Callum Adams appeared at Nottingham Crown Court today (Monday) as a witness in the retrial of Peter Kenneth Smith (48), who has denied murdering 71-year-old Hilda Owen in early 2007.
The widow had been found battered and strangled at her home on 1st March 2007 and the prosecution allege that Smith murdered her so that he could benefit financially.
The jury was told that Adams, who is serving a prison sentence for killing his partner Kevan Worrall and was taken to the witness stand in handcuffs, had had been arrested on suspicion of Hilda’s murder but released without charge.
Paul Mann QC, prosecuting, said: “You said to Kevan Worrall that you felt as if you may as well admit to the murder of Hilda Owen.”
But Adams, who had begun his evidence on Friday, once again denied that he had killed Hilda and that he only said that he had ‘under duress’ because Kevan was ‘a manipulator and a control freak’.
The jury was later told that Adams had moved to London on 21st February and had embarked on a relationship with another man. Shortly afterwards he found work on a building site at Regent Street.
The jury was told that at the time Hilda was murdered, which the prosecution say was on the night of 27th February, Adams could not have returned to Skegby because he was either with his new partner or at a bar called Bar Code in Vauxhall.
Peter Joyce, prosecuting, questioned Adams about whether he could have paid for a train or bus from London to Nottingham to which he replied, ‘no sir’.
The case continues.
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