An elderly widow was raped and murdered by a man who broke into her home in a crime which remained under investigation for more than 50 years, a court heard.
Ryland Headley is accused of forcing entry into the home of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne in Bristol in June 1967 before attacking her.
Headley, now aged 92, is on trial at Bristol Crown Court accused of raping and murdering Mrs Dunne.
Jurors were told her body was found by neighbours inside her home on Britannia Road in the Easton area of the city on the morning of June 28 1967.
Anna Vigars KC, prosecuting, told the court: “A number of the local women were worried about Mrs Dunne because they hadn’t seen her all morning and they also noticed that a sash window was open at the front of the house.
“The fact that she wasn’t out on the doorstep was unusual for her.
“So, two of the local women, Violet Allen and Hilda Stedman, then went over and found the front door shut and the sash window near the front door open as far as possible.
“They looked through the window and called for her through the letter box but got no response.
“When she looked through the window, Violet Allen could see Mrs Dunne’s legs by the side of the table so, with the help of two other women, she climbed in through the window and went over to her.
“Violet Allen took hold of Mrs Dunne’s hand and immediately realised that she was dead because her hand was ice cold.”
Mrs Dunne, who was using the front room as a bedroom, was found lying on a pile of old clothes and police found no evidence of any violent struggle in the house.
A post-mortem examination was carried out and the pathologist concluded Mrs Dunne died overnight between June 27 and 28.
A neighbour, who had been out walking her dog, had seen her stood on her doorstep at about 10pm that evening, while others heard noises overnight.
“The pathologist’s conclusion was that the abrasions, bruising and tearing of Mrs Dunne’s lips indicated that something firm had been pressed against her mouth,” Mrs Vigars told the jury of eight men and four women.
“His opinion was that the most likely explanation is that a hand had been forcibly held over her mouth.
“And so far as the straight bruise across the back of her neck, he thought that that was caused by the scarf which had been found under her body having been violently tightened from the front.
“Having examined her body externally and internally, he said that there was no natural cause for her death.”
Swabs were taken from Mrs Dunne’s body, which tested positive for semen but scientific examinations at that time were limited.
Mrs Vigars said police had also recovered a palm print from a window at Mrs Dunne’s home and that was compared to thousands of men and boys in 1967, but none matched the suspect.
“All of the material that had been gathered in the investigation was boxed up and it was kept by the police,” the prosecutor said.
“There it all was, sealed away, awaiting, at some stage, a fresh look.
“The police have never given up on solving the case of Mrs Dunne’s murder. From time to time, over the last 58 years the case has been re-examined.
“That involved, among other things, reviewing the material from the original investigation against the new and improving scientific techniques becoming available to the police.
“There was some limited work done on the case in 2009 and again in 2014 but there was nothing of substance that came out of that.”
In 2023 the case was re-examined and DNA testing of the swabs matched Headley.
“By 2024, scientists were able to do what was impossible nearly 60 years earlier and examine the semen for DNA,” Mrs Vigars said.
“The semen matched Mr Headley’s DNA with a match ratio that meant it was a billion times more likely to be Mr Headley’s DNA than that of someone else.”
Headley, of Clarence Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, is accused of the rape and murder of Ms Dunne on dates between June 26 and 29. He denies both charges.
The trial continues.