Murder trial told of blood on lawyer's shoes

A SOLICITOR was probably naked apart from his shoes when he battered his wife to death, a court was told yesterday.

It was alleged that forensic science evidence from the shoes showed that Warren Green stood astride his wife Julie as he bludgeoned her with a lump hammer.

Mr Green, 27, a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, of Wigan, Greater Manchester, pleads not guilty to murdering Mrs Green at their home in October 1991.

Michael Kallisher QC, for the prosecution, told Liverpool Crown Court that Mr Green informed police he always slept naked and sometimes walked around the house without clothes.

Mrs Green, 24, a student nurse, suffered 16 blows to her head shortly after she returned from her hospital night shift on the morning of 31 October.

Mr Green, who was off work, claimed to be in bed asleep at the time. He told police he believed his wife might have been dealing in drugs and killed by someone she knew in that connection.

But yesterday, the second day of the trial, Mr Kallisher said police found a pair of black slip-on shoes in a bedroom cupboard.

'The bloodstains originated as a result of airborne blood - splashing blood - from a source approximately level with the shoes themselves,' he said. 'This means the blood was being splashed from ground level, on the inside of the shoes. The picture this paints is the wearer of the shoes standing astride Julie's head while hitting her with the hammer repeatedly.'

Mr Kallisher said: 'The Crown says the strong probability is that the murder - occurring shortly after getting out of bed - was committed by him, wearing nothing except these shoes.'

Mrs Green's blood was found to be common with just 1 in 22 of the population and Mr Kallisher emphasised there could be no doubt the blood on the shoes, which her husband claimed he had not worn for months, was hers.

The court has heard that Mr Green was set to gain at least pounds 120,000 from insurance on his wife - as well as a pounds 80,000 mortgage on their home - and that Mrs Green was having an affair with a mutual friend. Mr Green had also developed a passion for a woman at his office in Salford.

Bloodstains found in the bathroom indicated attempts to wash blood away. In an attempt to create a bogus defence, Mr Green appeared on television, on 6 November 1991, to appeal to the public for help in recovering a set of keys which he said had disappeared from the house. Police later found the keys hidden under the floorboards of the house.

The man with whom Mrs Green had a 'close passionate affair' - Stuwart Skett, a Scout leader, told the court: 'I was very fond of Julie. I thought a lot of her. I think she felt much the same.'

He admitted having sexual intercourse with Mrs Green on a number of occasions, sometimes at the Greens' home. Mr Skett also agreed he was interviewed at length by police about the killing, but told the court that he knew nothing about the murder.

The case continues today.