Scream heard on night 75-year-old woman was murdered in 1967, jury told

Independent

12 hours ago

A woman was heard screaming on the night a mother-of-two was allegedly raped and murdered in her Bristol home almost 60 years ago, a jury heard.
Louisa Dunne, 75, who had been twice widowed and lived alone, was found dead in her front room in Britannia Road, Easton, by neighbours on the morning of June 28 in 1967.
Police launched an investigation, including taking palm prints from thousands of local boys and men, but could not identify Mrs Dunne's killer.
They eventually boxed up evidence from the scene and a DNA match was allegedly made last year to a man called Ryland Headley, now 92, who is now on trial at Bristol Crown Court.
Headley, of Ipswich, Suffolk, denies charges of rape and murder.
On Tuesday, Anna Vigars KC and Ramin Pakrooh read statements to the jury of eight men and four women that were taken by police at the time of Mrs Dunne's death.
Violet Fortune, a married woman who lived close to Mrs Dunne's two-bedroom terraced house, said her family had gone to bed on the evening of June 27.
'I was awoken suddenly by what sounded like a scream,' Mrs Fortune said.
'It wasn't a long, piercing scream, but a crying out. It sounded muffled. I got out of bed and went to the window. I could see up and down the road by the light of the moon but there was no-one in sight.
'I stood at the window for about a minute then got back into bed. I had been back in bed for two minutes when I heard someone cry out.
'I could distinguish it was the voice of a woman. It lasted for about two to three seconds.'
Bus driver Sidney Gibbs, 36, whose garden backed onto Britannia Road, described how he had gone to bed at about 12.20am on June 28.
'Something then woke me up,' Mr Gibbs told police.
'I don't know what it was. A few minutes later, my young child woke up screaming. This is most unusual as she is a good sleeper.'
Mr Gibbs said he tucked his daughter back to bed and did not look out of the bedroom window at that time.
Harold Hodson, 64, told officers how he had gone to bed but was woken up by his dog.
'I heard a loud scream,' Mr Hodson said.
'It was a frightening scream. It was obviously an adult woman. If sounded as if someone was being attacked.
'There was a sound I can only describe as moans or being muffled. There were three or four of these moans.'
The statements from neighbours spoke of Mrs Dunne being well known in the local area and engaging in conversation with people as they passed her home.
On the morning of June 28, it was noticed that her sash window was open – this was unusual as Mrs Dunne was known to keep windows shut overnight – and she was not seen by neighbours.
Violet Allen climbed through the window and found Mrs Dunne dead in the front room, which she used as a bedroom.
'I went to her and felt her hand and realised she was dead,' Mrs Allen told police.
'She was as cold as ice.'
Ambulance attendant Alfred Maslin was called to the property and went into the front room.
'I saw the body of an old woman, lying on a pile of clothes,' he said.
'I did notice her knickers were around her ankles. I could see she was dead.'
Mr Maslin described seeing a number of handbags in Mrs Dunne's back room, with one brown bag left open and three keys loose on the floor.
He spotted that a sash window at the back of the house appeared to have been recently damaged, with the pivot catch broken away.
Sergeant Frederick Durbin, of Bristol Constabulary, said Mrs Dunne was found 'on her back between a piano and the foot of the single bed'.
'It didn't appear as if anything in the room had been disturbed, nor were there any signs of a violent struggle,' Sgt Durbin recorded.
Mrs Dunne's body was identified in her home by her son-in-law Raymond Robbins, 52, a bus driver.
Pathologist Albert Hunt estimated that Mrs Dunne, who was 5ft 3in and weighed less than seven stone, had died between 10pm and 4am.
She had been wearing three buttoned-up woollen cardigans, a blue skirt and underwear, a vest and stockings supported by garters. A scarf was found behind her head.
Dr Hunt noted 'extensive abrasions' to her lips, indicating something hard was pressed against her mouth.
'The most likely explanation is that a hand has been forcibly held over her mouth,' Dr Hunt said.
'The straight mark across the back of her neck has probably been caused by the scarf being tightened violently at the front.'
He recorded Mrs Dunne's cause of death as asphyxia due to strangulation and pressure on the mouth.
The jury previously heard how semen was discovered on Mrs Dunne's skirt and matched Mr Headley's DNA to a ratio that meant it was a billion times more likely to be his DNA than that of someone else.
Electoral roll records revealed that Headley had lived in Picton Street, Bristol, about one and a half miles away from Mrs Dunne's home at the time of her murder.
Headley was arrested at his home in Ipswich, Suffolk, in November last year and his palm prints were taken. They allegedly matched the print found at the scene.
The jury been told that Headley previously admitted breaking into the homes of two widows, aged 84 and 79, and raping them in Suffolk in October 1977.
His trial, expected to last up to three weeks, continues.