WARSOP MURDER TRIAL: Wife is a ‘slag’ but not guilty of murder, court told
Police on Sandy Lane Warsop
A WOMAN accused of plotting to kill her wealthy husband has been called a ‘slag’ by her own barrister but he says that doesn’t make her guilty of murder, a court was told.
Charlotte Collinge (45) is alleged to have taken three men back to her house to murder her 61-year-old husband Clifford.
Mr Collinge was found dead with a fractured skull and 30 broken ribs at the home in Sandy Lane on 8th October last year.
The five week trial at Nottingham Crown Court has heard how Charlotte Collinge met Stephen Shreeves, Kelvin Dale and Robert Proud in the Crates and Grapes wine bar in Warsop.
CCTV footage shows her lifting her skirt and flirting with the men before she is thrown out by the landlord.
The three men then go back with her to the large detached house just before 9pm.
Mr Collinge was at home with a friend known as Stan Boardman. Shreeves and Dale said they got into a fight with the two men while Charlotte Collinge and Proud left to buy cocaine.
Mr Collinge was found dead with 46 separate injuries at about 10pm. Shreeves and Dale admit striking Mr Collinge but deny causing the injuries that killed him.
In his closing speech, Stuart Rafferty QC, defending Charlotte Collinge, told the jury not convict Charlotte Collinge for the way she lives her life.
“You’ve all seen the footage in the Crates and Grapes,” he said. “She’s a slag, it’s a terrible thing to have to say, it’s an awful word. But it doesn’t make her guilty of murder.
“This is a court of law not a court of morals.
“You may not like her,” he said. “You don’t have to. You may feel sorry for her but none of these things matter.
“She has been crucified in this case. She has been dragged as low as you can get.
“However she has behaved, that does not make her guilty of murder.
“You’ve heard rumours about her life in Warsop,
“She has taken men home from time to time, that doesn’t mean she’s going to fall down on her back and open her legs for anyone at anytime.
“People get jealous, people have axes to grind that is how the rumour mill works. Don’t forget they lived in ‘the big house on the hill’ and weren’t Warsop people.
“The rumours extend to Cliff - the dirty old man hiding in the cupboard filming the men she brought home to have sex with - that’s just a rumour.
“The prosecution have brought this case on the basis this was a four person, contract killing. If they don’t prove that then that is their fault, not this defendant’s fault.”
Charlotte Collinge; Shreeves (40), of Laurel Avenue, Church Warsop; Dale (27), of Forest Road, Warsop and Proud (36), of Greendale Close, Warsop, all deny murder.
The three men also deny causing actual bodily harm to Mr Boardman.
The trial continues.
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Saturday 18 May 2013
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