Robert Smith QC, defending, said in his closing speech at Leeds Crown Court yesterday that the 73-year-old may have been battered to death by a stranger or strangers in her bungalow on Redhill Gardens between 1pm and 3.20pm on Wednesday September 27 2006.

He said there had been a number of bogus official offences in the area where Mrs Wright lived and pointed out that an electricity box was open at the side of her home.

Mr Smith also told the jury the prosecution case was "riddled with inconsistencies" and "speculation".

Mr Hill denies a prosecution claim that he was altering bank statements to hide that he was "secretly" taking money from a joint account he shared with Mrs Wright for their greetings card and toy stall at Castleford indoor market.

He claims his business partner knew he was writing himself cheques from the account.

Mr Smith said: "What Mr Hill has done is write cheques and make a bank transfer. Is that any reasonable basis for losing his temper and reaching for a curved weapon that was to hand and starting to beat Mrs Wright about the head with it with such force that her head was fractured in two places?"

He added: "Now members of the jury, does this provide a sensible explanation. Does this add up to a sensible motive for murder?"

Mr Smith said the prosecution had suggested Mrs Wright could have threatened Hill with exposure: "Expose what?"

"Would she get on the telephone to (his wife] Maxine and say: 'David's taken £1,900 from the business account and put it into his personal account over five months'?

"Well it's his business."

Mr Smith added: "Is this the best the prosecution can come up with? Of course it's the best. There isn't anything else."

He said it was "likely" Mrs Wright had "cut and pasted these bank statements in a delusional state of mind".

Hill claims she handed him a bag contained "altered" bank statements and pieces of paper on the day she was killed, saying: "This will bring us luck".

Police seized the bag from his car, where he says he put them so he could take them home to show his wife.

The court has heard Mrs Wright – who had suffered from chronic paranoid schizophrenia – was being prescribed anti psychotic drug risperidone.

Mr Smith said Mrs Wright last received a box of 56 tablets on July 11 2006 and although she was supposed to take half a tablet twice a day, there were still 46 and a half left at the time of her death.

He added: "She had taken nine-and-a-half since they were prescribed."

The court has heard Mrs Wright had been known to say "this will bring you luck" and phrases like "it's in the bag" and "it's out of the bag".

Mr Smith said when Hill had seen Mrs Wright at the market at 11.30am that morning she was the "happiest he had seen her in a long time".

He asked if what was said in a 16 second telephone made to Hill from Mrs Wright's landline at 12.14pm that day could "transform this man from the perfect brother-in-law anybody could wish for, the most caring man who's never shown temper to anybody in his life into a monster? To batter his mother in law in that way?"

The prosecution claims the call was "unusual" and Hill said he does not remember it, but it may have been about stock they needed.

Mr Smith said evidence from Hill's son, Nicholas, 16, about a phone call he made to his father at 3.20pm – just four minutes before Hill dialled 999 – was the "key".

The prosecution claims Hill was on his way back to Mrs Wright's bungalow after killing her to "discover" her body.

But the teenager said at 3.20pm, his dad sounded "normal, like himself".

Justice Simon has begun summing up the case to the jury.

Proceeding.

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