Pensioner Anne James 'stabbed 30 times at the hands of grandson'
A man stabbed his grandmother 30 times and cut her throat in a brutal attack while her husband was ill in hospital, a jury has heard.
Gregory Irvin is alleged to have murdered 74-year-old Anne James, who was making soup and unpacking after a shopping trip, during a 15-minute visit to her home on February 28 this year.
A trial at Birmingham Crown Court was told that blood matching that of Mrs James was found on Irvin's jacket and on the accelerator of his Mini, after his grandmother was found dead on her pantry floor.
The 26-year-old denies murdering the pensioner after driving to her property in Doveridge Place, Highgate, Walsall, where she had lived for almost 40 years.
Opening the Crown's case, prosecutor Rachel Brand QC said Mrs James's husband had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia about a week before she was killed.
Describing the pensioner's movements on the day of her death, Ms Brand told the court: "By midday Anne James was at home. She was unpacking her shopping and was doing herself some soup for lunch.
"About half an hour later, she was lying dead in the pantry, just off her kitchen. She had been brutally killed, ladies and gentlemen.
"She had been stabbed over 30 times to her chest and her back, and her throat had been cut right across the front.
"The killer wasn't a stranger to her - it wasn't a burglar.
"On the contrary, the killer was somebody she trusted implicitly and who had always been welcomed into their home throughout his life - it was her own grandson, the defendant, Gregory Irvin."
Suggesting that jurors would have no difficulty in concluding that Irvin was the killer, Ms Brand added: "When he was arrested and questioned he answered 'no comment' to all the questions the police put to him.
"Since then he has said to people that he had no memory of the events of the 28th February in his grandmother's house.
"So he doesn't admit it, but you will hear in due course that the evidence only points one way."
The jury panel was told that it is likely to have to consider a partial defence of diminished responsibility based upon the defendant's mental state, which would reduce murder to the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Outlining the evidence against Irvin, of Bilboe Road, Bilston, Ms Brand said: "A council CCTV camera showed that, just after 12.20pm, the defendant drove up in his blue Mini.
"He parked on Sandwell Street and he walked down the lane to the door of his grandmother's house.
"Only 15 minutes later he was captured on the film as he walked out of Doveridge Place, got into his car and drove away.
"He must have had the presence of mind to carry away with him the murder weapon, as it has not been found."
Irvin is alleged to have removed a security camera and his grandmother's mobile phone from the house, and to have told a police officer the following day that he had not seen her on the day she died.
The trial continues.
