Pensioner who mistook waterfront home for B&B ‘fatally dragged away by landlord’

A pensioner who wandered into a waterfront house and climbed into the bed thinking it was her bed and breakfast was discovered by the owner, dragged down by her ankles and trampled on, and she heard a murder trial.

Margaret Barnes, 71, suffered injuries similar to those expected in a ‘high-speed traffic collision’ and died shortly thereafter on 11 July last year, Caernarvon Crown Court was told.

David Redfern, who allegedly spotted the drunk semi-nude pensioner, has denied killing her outside his home in Barmouth, North Wales.

The jury heard that Redfern, 46, who is 6ft 1in and weighs 21 stone, has anger management issues.

The court heard Ms Barnes, from Birmingham, was visiting friends in Barmouth when she went to a Spar store on 10 July last summer.

There she bought some gin and at about 10pm she walked over to the Wavecrest B&B – pulling her little bag on wheels and carrying her handbag.

But she ended up at Belmont House, a large five-story house on the same side of the street but several doors down from Wavecrest, the court heard. Belmont House has been renovated by Redfern and his partner, Nicola Learoyd-Lewis.

Prosecutor Michael Jones KS said: “Ms Barnes was drinking, and whether she thought it was Wavecrest, she went to bed.

“She got the defendant’s bed and breakfast address wrong, but it was a mistake that ultimately cost her her life.”

She went upstairs to a bedroom, removed her false teeth, placed them on a bedside table and poured gin into a glass, the court heard, while holding a bottle of tonic.

The prosecution alleges that when Redfern and Mrs. Leroyd-Lewis came they found the “fragile” pensioner there “almost naked at the bedside” with her belongings strewn on the floor in disarray.

The court heard Redfern call Mrs. Barnes a “bandit” and pulled the seven and a half stone woman down by her ankles and stamped her out.

The jury was told that Redfern was heard saying, “Maybe the good world didn’t do it, I dragged her down the stairs by her ankles.”

The court later heard that he told the police that she was aggressive towards him.

Her suitcase was wheeled into the street and Redfern allegedly taunted the injured woman as she tried to collect her belongings in her suitcase while on her hands and knees.

Jurors heard he told officers he didn’t know who threw the bag.

Emergency services were called and a female neighbor was asked to perform CPR but she had breathing difficulties and succumbed to her injuries.

The prosecution said it was “obviously surprising” that Redfern had found a frail old woman in one of his beds, but that “what followed next was appalling”.

“However unexpected her presence may be, Mrs. Barnes sustained ‘catastrophic, fatal and brutal’ injuries at the hands of the defendant ‘who is the bully,'” said Mr. Jones.

Dr. Brian Rodgers, a Home Office pathologist, found that Mrs. Barnes had died from blunt force trauma. There were broken ribs and a broken neck, consistent with being dragged down stairs, the allegation claimed.

The prosecutor said a kick or stamp outside Belmont’s home ruptured her liver and a chord of blood in her stomach.

Mr Jones said the defendant had used “violence, vicious and willful language” and by acting out of temper or without justification was “guilty of her murder”.

He claimed Mrs. Barnes “rushed” towards his girlfriend in the bedroom and intervened because he thought his girlfriend was in “danger”, by “bear-hugging” Mrs. Barnes outside the building.

Judge Mr. Bourne K. C in the three-week trial. Redfern denies murder and manslaughter. The trial continues.