Killings suspect was 'desperate to leave UK'

A double murder suspect was "desperate" to leave the country shortly after the elderly couple were battered and stabbed to death in their Wolverhampton home, a jury heard.

Ireneusz Bartnowski allegedly sent a text to his sister pleading for cash to help him return to Poland two days after the killings.

The 22-year-old confessed to breaking into the house where the bodies of Giuseppe Massaro, aged 80, and his 77-year-old wife Caterina were found last April, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

He admitted using a claw hammer to get inside while it was unoccupied, said prosecutor Mr Peter Grieves-Smith QC yesterday.

But the couple returned to the house in Woden Road, Park Village before Bartnowski left, it was claimed. In his police interview, read to the jury, he added: "As regard to the murder, I shall speak about it during the court hearing".

He claimed to have been offered £500 by acquaintance, Wojciech Ostolski, to "open" the property because it was next door to his sister's home and he could access it from the back. Bartnowski said during the interview: "I went to the rear and forced the window with a claw hammer."

Once inside, he claimed to have opened the front door for Ostolski and maintained that the pair searched the house.

Then Mr and Mrs Massaro returned home, said Bartnowski during the interview.

Ostolski, aged 32, who is not charged with the murders, denied ever being inside the home of the victims.

Bartnowski sent a text message to his sister on April 23 which read: "Please help me get at least £60. I really have to get to Poland," the court was told.

Ostolski said in a police interview read to the jury: "He wanted to buy a ticket quickly. He was desperate to leave."

Bartnowski, officially of no fixed address, denies murdering the couple. Ostolski, from Chervil Rise, Heath Town, pleads not guilty to handling goods stolen from their home.

The trial continues.