A horrified girl of 15 found her mother's naked body in the loft of their home, a murder trial jury has been told.

Police had already searched the quayside house at Port Solent, near Portsmouth, for 45-year-old accountant Glenda Hoskins, but had failed to find her body, Winchester Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

Mrs Hoskins's daughter Katie found her body after climbing a ladder to the loft.

Denies murder

Victor Farrant, 28, denies murdering his former girlfriend in February 1996 and has also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of prostitute Ann Fidler, 43, two months earlier.

Jeremy Gibbons, QC, prosecuting, said scientists using the Esda test were able to discover from impressions on a notebook in Farrant's flat some of what had been written originally.

One note said: "Read this and take it very seriously, it is not a joke. Do not ask any questions or say anything and then make your choice. Do not say or do anything other than what I instruct you to do or say."

A second note read: "I will not repeat myself, you will not get a second chance. If I have to use violence to get what I want I will. It will make no difference to me."

It continued: "Now this is what you are going to do. Face me and get completely undressed then come and give me a kiss. You know how I like it."

Not just private fantasy

Mr Gibbons said the notes were not some private fantasy in Farrant's living room.

Victor Farrant ... pleads not guilty

He said: "We submit, when you look at the big picture, the way the relationship had so recently soured, these documents were written for her to read and for her to obey."

Mr Gibbons said the defendant had sexual intercourse with Mrs Hoskins and then drowned her in the bath.

He said on the same night Mrs Hoskins was murdered, the defendant drove her car to Ramsgate, Kent, and took a ferry to Ostend, Belgium.

Matching DNA profile

Farrant, a building labourer, was detained in France in July 1996 and brought back to Britain a year ago.

Semen matching the defendant's DNA profile was found on Mrs Hoskins's body.

Blood which matched the profile was found at Mrs Fidler's house and his finger and palm prints on weapons with which she was attacked.

Scientists said the chances of DNA at both scenes coming from someone unrelated was one in 15 million.

'Murder in his heart'

Mr Gibbons said Mrs Fidler was found in the kitchen of her home in Eastleigh, Hampshire after she had been beaten by Farrant "with murder in his heart".

He said she had been attacked with an iron and three broken bottles.

She received a blood transfusion of nine pints and Mr Gibbons said: "If this defendant had left Mrs Fidler lying in that kitchen on her back rather than being slumped against the tumble dryer, she probably would have died."

The trial continues.
 

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