Jury told of a 'heart set on murder'

First Edition

THE MAN accused of killing Matthew and Alison Manwaring had 'set his heart on murdering somebody', an Old Bailey jury was told yesterday.

Michael Stuart-Moore QC, for the prosecution, told the jury in his closing speech that Benjamin Laing had carefully planned these killings. 'His motive was a mixture of the desire to murder and to make a profit from it,' he said.

Mr Laing, 25, a driver, of East Ham, east London, denies murdering the Manwarings on 23 April last year.

Mr Stuart-Moore told the jury the police had found a notebook with a 'masterplan for murder' in Mr Laing's bedroom.

Anthony Scrivener QC, for the defence, said this was not a 'one man' murder. 'There is nothing to connect the defendant to the shooting, the cutting up of the bodies, there is no blood or fingerprints,' he said.

The trial continues today.