How the brutal murder of a frail pensioner sent shock-waves through Skegby nearly 20 years
It sounds like a scene out of Dostoevsky's iconic novel Crime and Punishment.
Sadly, though, it was to be a real life horror story which descended on a normal street in Skegby nearly 20 years ago.
Inside a small terraced property on the everyday street lay the battered and bloody dead body of pensioner Hilda Owen.
Frail Hilda (71) has suffered 48 injuries at the hands of a claw hammer and screwdriver after being brutally murdered on 27 February 2007.
Police believed it could have taken Hilda anything between 15 to 24 hours to die after the savage assault.
Blood staining in the house indicated she had been struck from behind while sitting in a wooden chair and was then attacked on the floor.
Hilda, who died as a result of the severe head injuries she received, was discovered by her civil servant neighbour Peter Smith on 1st March.
But the suspicions of investigators soon began to focus on Smith after it came to light that he had got Hilda to change her will, leaving everything to him just two days before she died.
Calculating Smith, who had been dishonestly posing as her carer to collect £240 a month in benefits, was revealed to have scattered items around the murder room to make it look like a burglary had taken place.
But, during his trial at Nottingham Crown Court in December 2008, prosecutors revealed it could not have been a burglary as almost £18,000 was found untouched in her bedroom.
Evil Smith, who was mortgaged to the hilt and £33,000 in debt. was eventually found guilty of murder and handed a life sentence with a non parole period of 30 years.
It was an event which naturally sent shock-waves around the tight-knit community with one local businessman describing the betrayal felt in the area.
Geoff Shirley, who ran the village shop, said: "I thought he [Peter Smith] was the bee's knees.
"I thought he was ideal for Hilda, that he was a caring, good neighbour. I felt utterly betrayed when it turned out as it has. I was devastated.
"I honestly thought 'how could anyone have done that to Hilda?' She was so frail."
But that wasn’t the end of the tragic story with Smith’s conviction being quashed by the Court of Appeal in May 2010 after judges cast doubt on the reliability of fingerprint evidence used to convict him.
Smith would again stand trial for the callous killing in November 2012 and was this time sentenced to life with a minimum of 29 years.
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