Man accused of murder says drugs gang killed Halesowen pensioner Cynthia Beamond
The alleged killer of a pensioner has told a court she died at the hands of a drugs gang who had just robbed him of cocaine he had in his possession for his work as a drugs courier.
Leo Barnes told Wolverhampton Crown Court he was visiting the Halesowen home of Cynthia Beamond to hide because he feared he was being followed by either the police or gangsters after completing a deal nearby.
Barnes, aged 33, had known 80-year-old Mrs Beamond since he was a child through his grandparents. It is alleged he killed her at her home on June 27. He is also accused of murdering 67-year-old Philip Silverstone at his home in Belsize Park, London, the next day. He denies both murders.
Giving evidence to the court yesterday, Barnes said while he was at her home in Juliet Road, she answered a knock on her door and three men came in, including a white man bearing a knife, a taller black man and a shorter black man.
"They came in and said to me 'look, you are getting jacked here. We know you are selling drugs.' The white man had a knife and threatened me for my drugs.
"They asked whether the lady was a customer," he said.
Barnes told the court one of the men then put his hand over her mouth and she subsequently panicked and began screaming 'hysterically,' before trying to escape, which resulted in the short black man going to the kitchen to get a saucepan and hitting her over the head, knocking her to the floor and leaving her semi-conscious.
Barnes, of Runcorn Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham said he was then ordered to clean up the blood left behind in the kitchen and part of the hallway, before being forced to help load her Vauxhall Astra with a television, while they also stole a sat nav and jewellery. He got into the Astra with the three men, who drove back to where his car was parked in nearby Raddens Road before fleeing after hearing sirens.
He said he subsequently did not know what to do and sold off many of the stolen items through a Cash Generator branch in Northfield because he was trying to think how he could pay his dealer back the £2,100 cost of the drugs that had been taken.
