An 86-year-old woman died after she and her husband suffered ‘frankly horrific’ injuries when they were beaten, gagged and ‘hog-tied’ by an intruder searching for £30,000 in cash, a court heard. 

Vasile Culea, 34, is said to have subjected Freda and Kenneth Walker to a ‘savage and merciless’ attack at their home in Derbyshire on January 14 this year. 

Derby Crown Court heard the retired seamstress was found dead in the kitchen by emergency services the following day after neighbours expressed concerns for the couple. 

She had been gagged, the jury was told, and she had at least two coverings over her head that were knotted – a pillowcase and a bin liner. 

Mrs Walker had also been ‘hog-tied’ with her ‘wrists bound together, the lower limbs bound together and the two tied together’. 

Jurors were told she would have had a reasonable chance of survival had she not been ‘abandoned without any assistance’ and ‘with coverings to her face obstructing her airway’. 

Meanwhile, town councillor Mr Walker, 88, who suffered a brain injury, was found to have been gagged and bound at the wrists and knees, with his bindings also tied to each other. 

He died some months later, although his death was not connected to the attack. 

On the first day of his trial on Tuesday, Culea admitted the manslaughter of Mrs Walker and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Walker. 

He denies charges of murder, attempted murder and wounding with intent. 

Opening the Crown’s case, prosecutor Michael Auty KC said: ‘The issue in this case is what the defendant’s intention was. 

He added: [Mr and Mrs Walker] They had been abandoned to their fate. 

‘In choosing to attack victims in the way that he did, that demonstrates that the attack was completely devoid of any mercy. We say that tells you something about what his intention really was.’

After jurors were shown a photograph of Mr and Mrs Walker, pictured when he was made an alderman a year before the attack, Mr Auty added: ‘We do not anticipate that there will be any dispute that during the period of time that the frankly horrific injuries were inflicted… that there was anybody in the home other than Kenneth Walker, Freda Walker and the defendant. 

‘We say that the defendant, for reasons I shall come to, attacked this elderly couple in the sanctuary of their own home. 

‘His attack was far beyond any justification, savage in its nature and sustained.’ 

Describing how Mr Walker had hidden £5,000 bundles around his ‘cluttered’ bedroom after withdrawing £30,000 to fund home improvements, Mr Auty went on: ‘It is not entirely clear how the defendant came to learn of the existence of the £30,000. 

‘What this case is really all about is that he decided he was going to have it.’ 

Culea, of Church Warsop, Nottinghamshire, was caught on CCTV as he conducted four ‘reconnaissance mission’ circuits of the area in his car, and a further three on foot, the court heard. 

The defendant, who is being assisted during the case by a Romanian interpreter, is also alleged to have worn a high-visibility jacket in a bid to ‘go about unnoticed’. 

The trial continues. 

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