Murder case has 'too many unanswered questions'

Andrew Hall denies murdering his friend and attempting to murder two other people

The case against a drug addict accused of murdering his friend for her jewellery is riddled with "gaps" and "unanswered questions", his lawyer has told jurors.

Andrew Hall denies stabbing Glenna Siviter, 50, to death at her home in Middlesbrough in December.

Prosecutors told Newcastle Crown Court the 36 stab wounds she had suffered showed her attacker intended to kill her, although the judge said the evidence against Mr Hall was all "circumstantial".

In his closing speech, Mr Hall's barrister Nicholas Lumley KC said the 46-year-old had "every reason not" to kill Ms Siviter.

The prosecution says she was killed at her home on Grimwood Avenue in the early hours of 11 December, with her body found hidden beneath her sofa four days later.

The court has heard Mr Hall and Ms Siviter were both drug users who had known each since childhood and were "like brother and sister".

"Glenna did not deserve to be harmed, never mind killed," Mr Lumley told jurors.

The barrister said there was "no hint" of a motive for Mr Hall to kill Ms Siviter, but there was "every reason for him not to have done this", adding: "Glenna was someone he liked and always wanted to help."

He said jurors had to be "sure" prosecutors had proved their case, but there were "simply too many unanswered questions here" and "gaps to be filled".

Contradictions 'ignored'

Mr Lumley said Mr Hall was working in construction and there was nothing to suggest he was lacking money so felt a need to steal Ms Siviter's "scraps" of "pretty tatty jewellery".

He said Ms Siviter had spoken of her concerns people were taking advantage of her and was "firing off in all directions", but had never once expressed any concern about Mr Hall to anybody.

Mr Lumley also said it could not be declared with any certainty when Ms Siviter was killed, adding her sister had been in the house after the suggested time of the murder and noticed nothing amiss.

He also said it was remarkable several other people, including two workers at the sandwich shop where she was a regular, "were convinced" they had seen Ms Siviter alive in the days after the time given for her death.

Mr Lumley said detectives had responded to those claims by looking at "completely incomplete footage" from the area's security cameras which had not shown Ms Siviter.

He said prosecutors had "assumed" they had "got their man" in Mr Hall and "ignored" or "swept under the carpet" anything that contradicted that.

The jury was told it was "not remotely surprising" DNA matching Mr Hall's was found in Ms Siviter's home or on her clothes as he was a regular visitor, adding: "These two were far from strangers from each other."

Mr Lumley said though she was found in the living room, it was not obvious at all where she had been killed as there were no blood stains and no evidence of a clean-up.

He said these questions were "important and difficult problems" for the prosecution.

Mr Hall, of Thorntree Avenue in Middlesbrough, also denies the attempted murder of two other drug addict friends in the days before the discovery of Ms Siviter's body.

The trial continues.