David Hill, 48, agreed with Nicholas Campbell QC, prosecuting, at Leeds Crown Court yesterday that it was "false, deliberate and a lie" when he told police in his interview as a significant witness that he had been to Ropergate in Pontefract to book a hairdressers' appointment for his son before he discovered grandma-of-five Molly Wright in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of her bungalow.


In later accounts, Hill, of Lakeside Meadows, told police he driven to the Airedale Triangle to look for a customer who owned him money before deciding to visit the 73-year-old to give her the day's takings from the greetings card stall they shared at Castleford indoor market.
The prosecution claims the dad-of-two battered Mrs Wright repeatedly over the head with a heavy, curved weapon after "losing his temper" during a confrontation at her home on Redhill Gardens on Wednesday September 27 2006.
Hill claims he discovered her body, but denies murder.
The jury had previously heard that when police asked Hill why he had changed his account he said he knew police had already made an arrest and he did not want his wife or anybody to know that he let someone "walk off without paying the full amount".
He told Mr Campbell he had been "concerned" about the account he gave police in his first interview, and had asked the family liaison officer if he could see it and change it before his arrest.
He said he couldn't remember exactly what he had told police in that interview, but agreed he "lied" about going into Pontefract.


Hill told Robert Smith QC, defending, that when he arrived at Mrs Wright's bungalow on the day of the alleged attack he knocked on the living room window and front door but received no response, so he jumped over a fence into her back garden.
Hill said he entered the bungalow through the patio doors, where he saw blood over the fridge and Mrs Wright lying on the kitchen floor.
He said: "I ran over to Molly and I was shouting 'Molly, are you alright? What's happened?' I went over to her and crouched down next to her."


He told the jury he noticed she had a wound on the left hand side of her head and when he put his hand under her head, her hair was clotted with blood.
He said: "I have got this vision when I put it underneath her head I could feel flesh or brain on my hand. I thought I have got to get rid of these."
He said he dialled 999 and ran outside shouting: "Somebody help me."


He received help from Mrs Wright's next door neighbour, Eric Smith, and said when they returned to the bungalow he tried to give Mrs Wright mouth-to-nose rescusitation until the police and ambulance arrived.
Mr Smith, opening the defence case, told the jury that Mrs Wright died in "appalling circumstances" and: "Whoever killed her you may think was callous and uncaring and determined to end her life."


He said Hill – who has been married to Mrs Wright's youngest daughter Maxine for more that 20 years – had "never in his life shown any sign of violence" and apart from one drink driving conviction, had never committed a criminal offence.
He suggested was a "decent, kind and considerate man", and it was more likely that the person or persons who killed Mrs Wright were strangers.
He said: "Did that happen when she discovered him or them searching her home for valuables or cash? Were they disturbed in the process of what they were doing?"


He said it was "significant" that bureaux in the living room and bedroom were found open with papers scattered over the floor and that it would suggest that someone entered her bungalow and was in the process of searching – possibly for cash – when they were "disturbed by Mrs Wright herself".
Mr Smith told the jury Hill would not need to look for money because he knew where cash was kept.


He said £10,012 in cash was found in various places in the bungalow, but it did not mean other money had not gone missing.
He told the court an open electrical box at the side of Mrs Wright's home could indicate that "bogus officials" were at work and that such crimes had been committed in the area.
He suggested the prosecution case that Hill killed Mrs Wright on the spur of the moment – possibly over financial matters – and then claimed to find her body did not fit the evidence.


Hill said that Mrs Wright handed him a plastic carrier bag full of "cut" bank statements on the morning she was killed, saying: "These will bring you luck."
Mr Smith said this was "by no means as unusual as it seems" and that Mrs Wright had been diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia in 1993.
He said there was evidence she hadn't been taking her anti-psychotic medication before her death.


The prosecution claims Hill "altered" and photocopied bank statements to hide that he was taking money from the joint buisness account he shared with Mrs Wright.
The court heard Hill accepted he wrote cheques from the account to his personal account, but Mr Smith told the jury: "The question you have to ask is was he concealing that fact from her and, if so, does it take you along the road to concluding he was a murderer?"


Proceeding.
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