Babestation ‘killer’ who ‘suffocated widowed foster mum, 79, after breaking into her home tried to spark gas EXPLOSION to destroy evidence’
Gareth Dack has been accused of murdering the 79-year-old with a cable before calling a sex line
A THIEF accused of strangling a widow with an electric cable before calling a sex line as she lay dead tried to destroy evidence of the brutal murder by sparking a gas explosion, a court has heard.
Penniless Gareth Dack has been accused of murdering 79-year-old Norma Bell, who fostered more than 50 children throughout her life, selling anything of value he stole from the widow's home before concocting a plan to cover his tracks.
Teesside Crown Court heard that Dack turned on the gas as he left the Hartlepool home for the last time, setting the house on fire in the hope it would explode.
Dack stands accused of inflicting 15 injuries on Mrs Bell in April last year, including several rib fractures, before calling the "soft-porn television service" Babestation as she lay dying on the floor.
Dack, 33, of Windermere Road, Hartlepool, denies murdering the pensioner at her home in Westbourne Road between April 2 and 3, and a charge of arson.
Mr Tehrani said: "When he decided to leave the premise one final time, we suggest to you, Gareth Dack decided to cover his tracks by setting fire to the house - for good measure he turned the gas on at the hob - no doubt hoping the gas would ignite and cause an explosion destroying any scientific evidence that he believed he may have left behind.
"Fortunately, the gas did not collect to the point it became combustible."
Outlining the prosecution case on the second day of the trial, Mr Tehrani said: "We suggest you can be sure, when you take account of all the evidence that you will hear, that Gareth Dack is in fact guilty of the brutal and unnecessary murder of Norma Bell and the arson.
"The prosecution suggest Gareth Dack suffocated Norma Bell and killed her.
"He stole the television and sold it for £60. He searched Norma Bell's home looking for money or anything valuable that he could dispose of."
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The jury has heard Dack was a drug-user who the week before had asked Mrs Bell, an accomplished book-keeper, to lend him £20.
Mr Tehrani said: "Mr Dack needed cash and he was going to do whatever it took to get the money from Norma Bell."
Dack is accused of attacking Mrs Bell and between midnight and 5am using her phone to call the "soft-porn television service" Babestation as she lay dead or dying on the floor.
He is accused of taking £700 Mrs Bell was looking after for one of her children and police found £405 in the glove box of his car.
The jury has heard that Dack was interviewed seven times by police but chose not to answer all "substantive" questions.
A week after he was charged, he told police he had been "badly advised" to remain silent and claimed his DNA was in the property because he had "done some work for Norma".
The prosecution did not accept that, saying Mrs Bell had a close family who would do jobs for her. Mrs Bell and her late husband John had looked after more than 50 children.
They had three children and six long-term foster children they treated as their own, the jury heard.