House cleaner stabbed nine times

Gary Chester-Nash bragged to girls about stolen knives court told

A Cornish house cleaner was stabbed nine times in a "horrific" and "brutal" attack, a court has been told.

Jean Bowditch, 59, was killed at a house where she was working in Carbis Bay, near St Ives in west Cornwall, on 12 October last year.

There were "clear signs of a struggle" and a trail of blood leading from a bedroom to the living room where she was found, Truro Crown Court heard.

Homeless Gary Chester-Nash, 27, denies murdering Mrs Bowditch.

The prosecution claimed Mr Chester-Nash had a "fascination with knives", and had arrived in Penzance by train from London six days before Mrs Bowditch's murder.

Jean Bowditch's body was found by elderly house owner

Prosecutor Geoffrey Mercer QC said that just days before the killing the defendant told a girl that one of a number of knives he had in his possession "would be good to kill someone with".

He showed them a box of knives he had stolen from a boat in Penzance, telling them he used them to "threaten and rob people".

Mr Mercer said Mrs Bowditch was found by the owner, 80-year-old widow Catherine Alexander.

The body had five knife wounds to the back and four to the front, including two to the heart.

The court heard that two days before the murder, Mr Chester-Nash burgled a house in nearby Lelant and on the day of the killing he broke into a cottage at Lelant but stole nothing.

Mr Mercer said the defendant had admitted both burglaries.

Mr Chester-Nash was arrested at Truro railway station on the day of the murder wearing shoes which had Mrs Bowditch's blood on them, said Mr Mercer.

The case continues.