Widow's death: man accused

A MAN charged with murdering Sarah Anne Burke, a 99-year-old widow, in a Cornish residential home appeared before Penzance magistrates yesterday. Del Christopher Hampson, 21, unemployed, of Redruth, Cornwall, was charged with murder between 18 and 21 December.

Hampson, who made no application for bail, was remanded to appear before Camborne magistrates on New Year's Eve.

Mrs Burke, the oldest resident at The Green, a county council home in Redruth, suffered a fractured jaw and cheekbone when she was attacked in bed. She was found unconscious and heavily bloodstained, never regained consciousness and died in Treliske hospital, Truro, three days later. A post mortem established that she died of shock.

She was due to celebrate her 100th birthday on 14 January and a daughter, Mrs Doreen Leverton, 63, of Mount Hawke, near Truro, said her family and staff at the home had been preparing a special party.