Georgina Edmonds Murder Trial: Jury Out

The jury in the trial of a man accused of torturing and bludgeoning to death a pensioner in her country cottage home retired today to consider its verdict.

Electrician Matthew Hamlen, 33, denies the murder of 77-year-old grandmother Georgina Edmonds in January 2008 at the cottage in Brambridge near Eastleigh.

During the three-month trial at Winchester Crown Court the prosecution claimed that Hamlen, from Bishopstoke, went to the house and tortured Mrs Edmonds for her bank card pin code before he used a marble rolling pin to murder her.

She was discovered in a pool of blood in the kitchen by her son Harry and two estate workers after the house was found in darkness.

The jury was also told there was a forensic DNA link to Hamlen from the rolling pin handle.

Hamlen's defence told the court that the prosecution case was circumstantial and there was no direct evidence he was the killer.