VASILE CULEA TRIAL: murder accused denies intending to hurt elderly Derbyshire couple

Vasile Culea denies murdering Freda Walker and the attempted murder of Ken, but pleaded guilty to her manslaughter and inflicting grievous bodily harm on him, at Derby Crown Court.

A concerned neighbour found Mrs Walker dead of ‘multiple blunt force injuries’ in the kitchen, ‘hog-tied’ by her wrists and right ankle, with a pillow case and a black bin-liner over her head. Mr Walker, who had also been gagged and bound, survived with similar injuries, but died seven months later from natural causes.

On Wednesday, Culea admitted punching the couple and said he was wrong to do so, but denied kicking or stamping on Freda, and claimed he accidentally stood on her after she slipped and fell.

"Did you want to hurt anyone that night?" his barrister Clive Stockwell QC asked.

"No. Not even a second."

Culea admitted tying the elderly couple up with plastic ties so he could search the house, but denied putting anything over their heads, even though six layers were found over Mrs Walker's head.

He found £300 in a handbag and fled after hearing a car pull up outside.

"I thought they would enter the house and release them," he said. "I was terrified. I was scared. I am responsible for what happened."

He said when he left the house Mr Walker was moving his legs and Mrs Walker was breathing.

"Are you seriously suggesting someone else came into the house, found them and put those covers over their heads?" prosecutor Michael Auty QC asked him.

Culea told the court that two weeks earlier he overheard two Romanian men in a Polish/Romanian shop in Shirebrook discussing a 'wealthy house that could have been broken into'.

When Mr Stockwell asked if he knew their names, 34-year-old Culea said: "Maybe, but I don't remember."

He decided to burgle the Walkers’ home on January 14 after losing around £250 in betting shops that morning, on top of £11,000 of gambling debts.

Culea, of Grove Road, Church Warsop, admitted watching the elderly couple through a window for more than an hour before entering through an unlocked back door. The trial continues.