Letchworth murder: Half-sister 'killed with chicken pot'

Nikki Collingbourne was found dead at her flat in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, in May

A woman disguised herself with a fake goatee and wig before killing her half-sister with a chicken-shaped ceramic kitchen pot, a court has heard.

Nikki Collingbourne, 26, was found dead at her flat in Ivel Court, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, in May.

Yvonne Caylor, 53, is on trial at Luton Crown Court where she denies murder.

The jury was told Ms Caylor, of Grove Road, Hitchin, disguised herself as a man before going to the victim's flat and attacking her with the pot.

Opening his case, prosecutor John Price QC said family members found Ms Collingbourne's body in her kitchen in what was a "horrible and very distressing scene".

Nikki Collingbourne's family found her body at Ivel Court

"She was wearing only her underwear," he said. "There was a large amount of blood on the floor and it had pooled in the region where her head was lying.

"On the floor were a number of shattered or broken pieces of ceramic.

"They turned out to be the fragments of a ceramic kitchen pot that once it was put together it was in the shape of a chicken."

The court was told CCTV pictures showed a figure in a high-vis jacket going to the victim's first floor flat on the night on 23 May.

Mr Price said the person, who was wearing a fake beard and fake hair to conceal their identity, was recognised by Ms Collingbourne before forcing their way into her flat.

He alleged the murder scene had been "staged in some way, possibly to try and resemble a suicide", but deep wounds on Ms Collingbourne's wrists had been inflected by someone else "shortly before her death".

Although pathologists had been unable to ascertain exactly how she died, the "unusual and unnatural death" was "caused by someone else", Mr Price told the jury.

CCTV pictures showed a figure in a high-vis jacket visiting the flat on the night of the murder

The court was told more about the relationship between the two half-sisters, who had previously lived together.

Mr Price said Ms Collingbourne evicted the defendant "abruptly" from her flat in October 2015 following a disagreement.

He added Ms Caylor then made a "bogus complaint based on an exaggerated account of what went on" to police that she had been assaulted by her half-sister.

The murder trial continues.