Death of former postmistress, 86, who was stabbed four times ‘was treated as non-suspicious’

The violent death of an elderly housebound widow who was stabbed four times was initially considered by police as “not suspicious”, a court heard.

Una Crown, “a tiny lady” who was 4ft 10in tall and of “slight build”, had her throat cut and was fatally stabbed in the chest with wounds to her heart and both lungs, Cambridge Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

David Newton, a 70-year-old former boxer, is accused of murdering the 86-year-old former postmistress 12 years ago in Wisbech, Cambs.

Her body and clothes had been set on fire and two other separate fires were ignited in her bungalow, jurors were told.

Mr Newton, who lived around the corner from Mrs Crown, was first arrested 18 days after her burnt body was discovered lying in a pool of blood in the hallway of her bungalow by John Payne, her nephew by marriage, on Jan 13 2013.

Jurors heard how officers had initially treated the widow’s death as “not suspicious”, and allowed relatives of Mrs Crown to be in the house for two days following the discovery of her body.

John White KC, prosecuting, labelled the decision by officers a “grave error of judgment” and cited the danger it presented in undermining the subsequent investigation.

He told the court: “This delay in preserving the scene and the start of the investigation came about because of a grave error of judgment by police officers who went to the house on Jan 13 2013 in response to the emergency call.

“They decided that the death of Mrs Crown was not suspicious.

He added: “This should not have been allowed to happen until after the interior of the house had been forensically examined because evidence in the house can be lost or the scene disturbed.”

“Even with the benefit of hindsight, it may seem difficult to understand how those officers managed persuade themselves that this death should not be treated as suspicious, given they could see Mrs Crown had a wound to her neck, there was a lot of blood on the floor where she lay and there were three separate seats of fire within the house.”

Mr White explained to the court how “ineffective” Mr Newton was in trying to set fire to the body to allegedly conceal evidence of the murder.

“If he had wished to burn down her house, there were other obviously far more effective ways of trying to do so. Did he just enjoy setting small fires?” he asked of the dozen jurors in court.

Mr Newton was first arrested on suspicion of the murder on Jan 31 2013.

He was interviewed twice, once on the day of his arrest, and again four months later. In July, police told him he would not be charged.

However, 10 years later in March 2023, he was asked to provide fresh DNA evidence from a mouth swab.

His DNA was found to be a match on DNA that had only been discovered on Mrs Crown’s fingernails in 2023, the prosecution said.

Mr Newton denies murder and has claimed that he was at home watching the “usual Saturday night rubbish” on television on the evening of the killing.

Judith Payne, Mrs Crown’s niece by blood and John Payne’s wife, was among the family members sat in the public gallery and in a statement read to jurors, she said: “She did not belong to any outside groups or clubs and as there was no bus down where she lived.

“She did not go out anywhere unless her friends or family picked her up – so she was quite housebound.”

The trial is expected to last between four and five weeks.

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