Jurors have been sent out to begin their deliberations in the trial of a 70-year-old man who is accused of the murder of 86-year-old widow Una Crown in 2013.
Retired postmistress Mrs Crown was found with her throat cut, stab wounds to her chest and her clothing set on fire in her bungalow in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, on January 13, 2013.
Police did not initially consider her death suspicious and there was a two-day delay in preserving the scene due to what prosecutor John Price described as a “grave error of judgment by police officers who went to the house”.
Former kitchen installer David Newton, of Magazine Close in Wisbech, was charged last year with murdering Mrs Crown on January 12, 2013.
He denies the charge and is on trial at Cambridge Crown Court.
Prosecutor Mr Price told jurors, when opening the case, that “male DNA, the profile of which matches that of David Newton” was discovered by scientists in 2023.
He said this was “on nail clippings, which had been taken from the fingers and thumb of the unburnt right hand of Una Crown”.
He said the clippings had been taken at a post-mortem examination in 2013 and were tested again in 2023 using a technique that had not previously been available.
Henry Grunwald KC, defending, suggested to jurors in his closing speech that the DNA may not be Newton’s.
He said that if the DNA was from Mr Newton, it may have been left on or around a lock on the back door of Mrs Crown’s bungalow which Mr Newton had helped to fix on a previous occasion.
“Maybe Una Crown had touched a bit of his DNA when she’s locked up the night before,” said Mr Grunwald.
The trial continues.