A Narberth pensioner who beat cancer was tortured and murdered for a few hundred pounds, a jury heard this week.

The alleged killer, jobless John William Mason, spent most of the money on drinking and gambling, said Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting.

Mason, aged 55, denies murdering Angelika Dries-Jenkins, 66, in her two-storeyed detached cottage at Providence Hill on the outskirts of Narberth on June 1 last year.

Mr. Harrington told Swansea Crown Court how her body was discovered two days later by her daughter Eleanor, who was paying a surprise visit before her mother's 67th birthday.

Mrs. Dries-Jenkins, he said, had been beaten to death by a killer using a blunt weapon which had never been found. She suffered 'catastrophic' head injuries, but had also been tortured.

Mr. Harrington said police soon discovered that her car, a gold coloured Skoda Fabia, and her handbag had been stolen.

Those items, he said, could now be linked to Mason, as could clothing worn by the victim.

In addition, Mason had been wearing an electronic tag because of previous offending and this, along with CCTV cameras, revealed what he had done after the killing.

The Skoda was found in the St. Thomas Green car park in Haverfordwest. The ignition key displayed Mason's DNA and Mrs. Dries-Jenkins's blood was found on the inside of the driver's door.

CCTV cameras showed Mason walking along High Street on the day of the crime. At one stage, he looked into the window of the Town and Country estate agents - was this the point, asked Mr. Harrigton, that Mason realised there was blood on his jumper?

Mason then walked along a narrow alley to the Castle Lake car park. When another camera picked him up 40 seconds later, he was no longer wearing the jumper, which was found in a rubbish bin.

Shortly afterwards, he bought a pair of new boots and cameras then showed he was already wearing them.

At 2.01 pm, he entered Corals betting shop, but by then, said Mr. Harrington, there had been quite a change in his appearance.

Later, he called TP Taxis for a lift to his home in Maesybryn, Llandissilio.

Mr. Harrington said during the six days between the murder and his arrest Mason spent £236 which was provable, plus unknown amounts on drinks, but had withdrawn only £50 from his own bank account.

The shopping, he added, included a visit to Argos in Haverfordwest, where Mason was caught on cameras having his finger measured for a wedding ring - he was due to marry his fiancée Denise Evans a week later.

In the days following the murder, Mrs. Dries-Jenkins's bank card had been used, firstly in Whitland, and it was this money, claimed the prosecutor, that Mason had been spending.

Mr. Harrington said on June 7 Mason was arrested by detectives as he and Miss Evans fished at Llysyfran reservoir.

It was 'a strong point', he told the jury, to understand that the caution given by police to accused people include a warning that they might harm their defence if they do not say something during interviews that they later relied on in court.

Mason, he said, refused to answer any police questions. He did provide written statements, but they held 'nothing like the status' of answered questions.

The trial continues.

The discovery

Mr. Harrington told the jury how a woman paid a surprise visit to her mother only to find her lying in a pool of blood.

Angelika Dries-Jenkins was due to be 67 in two days time and her daughter Eleanor deliberately kept her visit a secret.

But in the early evening of June 3, 2011, she soon realised something was wrong.

Firstly, her mother's gold coloured Skoda Fabia was not parked in the layby outside her home in Providence Hill, Narberth, as it usually was.

Then she could not get her key to work in the lock of the back door. She looked through the kitchen window and noticed that furniture was out of place.

She then pushed the back door and found it had been unlocked all of the time. Inside, she saw signs of a struggle.

"She shouted out 'mum' and her mind began to race. One of her mother's slippers was on the floor and a chair lay on its side," he said.

Eleanor went into the living room and saw her mother lying on her side. She thought at first she may have fallen and went to help her, but then saw an 'horrific' pool of blood around her mother's head.

She dialled 999 at 6.56 pm.

That evening, said Mr. Harrington, Mason had taken a taxi to and from a pub. At the moment Mrs. Dries-Jenkins's lifeless body was being discovered by her daughter, Mason 'was back home and no doubt relaxing'.