Murder accused 'pitied' injured victim
Prostitute Emma Bate told a murder trial that she had felt pity for businessman Richard Sherratt when he lay injured during a robbery at his flat.
But she had been "desperate" for money for drugs and wanted to get home as fast as she could to walk her dog.
Bate, originally from Cannock, admits robbing and defrauding 57-year-old Richard Sherratt with her boyfriend, Paramjit Singh, but denies murdering him.
Mr Sherratt, formerly of Stourbridge and Kinver, who suffered 38 injuries during the robbery, died from blood blocking his airways after the couple left his Bridgnorth flat in the early hours on June 14 last year.
Mr Peter Grieves-Smith, prosecuting, questioned Bate about whether she felt pity for Mr Sherratt, who was being held down on his bed with Singh's hands around his throat.
She replied: "Of course I did but kept going because I needed the money.
"I didn't want Richard lying there with my boyfriend's hands round his neck.
"I was desperate for the money."
She agreed with Mr Grieves-Smith that she had wanted to leave the flat quickly because she was concerned about her dog having a walk but added that she then tried to call drug dealers from a car outside before leaving. Earlier Bate told the jury at Stafford Crown Court that she had a bath and Singh burned their clothes after returning to Birmingham following the robbery.
She claimed Singh told her to remove her clothes to put in the washing machine.
But when she got back to the living room she smelled burning from the balcony of her 12th floor flat in Osborne Tower, Gladstone Street, Birmingham.
She asked what he was burning and he told her it was the clothes and, when she asked why, she says he replied that it was because he had hit Mr Sherratt. Bate, aged 26, told the jury that she and Singh spent the rest of the night smoking crack before going out next day on a spending spree using Mr Sherratt's bank cards.
She claims that she did not touch Mr Sherratt and did not know he had died until a policewoman told her the next day.
Singh, aged 32, of Willmore Street, Birmingham, has already admitted murder and robbery.
Michael Smith, aged 51, of Horton Street, Tipton, who was driving the car that took Bate and Singh to Mr Sherratt's flat in Old School Mews, on the night of June 13 last year, denies robbery.
The trial continues.
