Drug-user stabbed massage parlour owner 'savagely and repeatedly', court told

Jill Hibberd was found dead in her newly-built detached home in Wombwell, South Yorkshire, having been "savagely and repeatedly" stabbed on May 30 this year, a jury at Sheffield Crown Court was told on Tuesday.

Kama Melly QC, prosecuting, said Lee Fueloep, 40, attacked Ms Hibberd so many times she had injuries to her body, face, neck, arms and legs, and inflicted damage to her kidneys, liver, lung and spleen.

Miss Melly said: "Mr Fueloep went to Ms Hibberd's home. Once inside they had a violent confrontation.

"The defendant lost control and stabbed Ms Hibberd savagely and repeatedly.

"He then moved her body, dragging it by her ankles so the body could not be seen so easily by passers-by."

Miss Melly said Fueloep then "rifled through the handbag of Ms Hibberd and left her home in her Audi TT."

The prosecutor said the defendant disposed of the car that evening and used the cash to buy "a large quantity of heroin and crack cocaine".

Miss Melly told the jury: "The behaviour of the defendant that night is, you might think, the behaviour of a drug addict who has come into money and is desperate to take enough drugs to just lessen the memories of his behaviour earlier that evening when he rained down those wounds upon Jill Hibberd."

The prosecutor told the jury that Ms Hibberd was a businesswoman.

She said: "One of the businesses she had owned was Fantasia - a massage parlour.

"She was a woman who took care of her home and her appearance.

"She was a woman who worked long hours and she was, according to her neighbours, a woman of routine."

Miss Melly told the jury that Fueloep "lived near to Jill Hibberd and did not live in the same self-sufficient manner".

She said: "The defendant was a drug-user and, as a result, would frequently get to the point where he couldn't live off his benefits and would, as an act of desperation, simply knock on people's doors in the local area and try and get money off them."

The prosecutor said Fueloep met another drug-user after the murder and told her "that he had done something bad".

She said he bought £200 of crack and heroin, which was more than his friend had ever seen him spend on drugs.

Miss Melly told the jury that the defendant and two friends took the drugs at his home, where he lived with his partner and her daughter.

The prosecutor said that, the following morning, the defendant saw the police activity in the area and told a neighbour "I hope they don't think it's me with my record".

Fueloep, of Willow Garth, Wombwell, denies murder.