A COUPLE were brutally stabbed to death in their own home by a pal who discovered they had been plotting to blame him for a £28k burglary, a court heard today.
Stanley Elliott allegedly stabbed Geoffrey Hibbert, 61, and his wife Michelle, 29, after the couple returned from a night out in Basingstoke, Hants.
Elliott, 53, is accused of “savagely” stabbing Geoffrey 58 times in the neck and torso before stabbing Michelle seven times in the neck on Father’s Day last year.
Winchester Crown Court heard that Michelle had managed to call the emergency services, and used her dying breaths to name Elliott as her killer.
The horrifying call, which was made on Elliott’s phone, then hears her pleading for her life with someone who has entered the room, before emergency services arrived.
A jury was told that a defence statement from Geoffrey was found destroyed at the bottom of a bin at their property.
He had claimed that Elliott had borrowed a phone from him, which was later found at the scene of a burglary earlier last year.
The raid on Buzz Bingo in Baisngstoke saw £28,000 stolen, and Geoffrey had been charged in connection with it after his phone was found at the scene.
Elliott was also charged in connection with the same incident, and the pair had been due to stand trial at the end of last year.
But the court heard that Elliott was furious after learning that the Hibberts had planned to “throw him under the bus” in relation to the burglary.
The couple, who had a young son, had been out to a bar in Reading on June 19 last year and returned at around 1.30am.
Winchester Crown Court heard a motorcycle was caught leaving the road on a police car’s dash cam as officers arrived at the scene, and cops believe it was Elliott.
Prosecutor Sarah Jones, QC, told the court: “Michelle Hibbert replied to a friend that they had home safe just as they were approaching their house.
“It’s ironic she is reassuring someone she is home safe. She certainly was not safe.
“Within half an hour she and her husband had both been stabbed multiple times and were bleeding to death in their own home.
“Someone they had trusted… had turned on them and inexplicably and savagely murdered them in their own home.”
Miss Jones explained that CCTV showed the couple returning home in the early hours, before an argument broke out.
Cameras were reportedly disconnected from the Hibbert’s property, with emergency services arriving at around 2am.
Mrs Hibbert’s emergency call is due to be played to the jury later in the trial, with the prosecutor saying she named “Stan Elliott” as her attacker.
Miss Jones added: “It is immediately obvious that Michelle Hibbert is very frightened, that she and her husband are in very grave danger.
“She remains remarkably calm. She says she needs police, someone has stabbed her and her husband.
“During her death throes the operator asked Michelle Hibbert who had [stabbed her]. Perhaps it was this interchange that had brought her attacker back to the room.
“Before she could be stopped she replied with the name of the man the Crown say murdered her: Stan Elliott.
“Michelle then begins to shout and scream and says, ‘No, no, no’.”
Both Geoffrey Hibbert and Elliott had claimed that they had nothing to do with the burglary on the bingo hall.
Miss Jones added: “The Crown cannot say with certainty that Stan Elliott knew of the defence statement… but if he learned how Geoff Hibbert was going to respond with that statement, it may explain a loss of temper on the behalf of Stan Elliott.
“Whether he strongly objected to Mr Hibbert throwing him under the bus, we cannot say.
“We cannot say the burglary had anything to do with how they met their deaths. It may be a red herring.” Elliott denies two counts of murder, and the trial continues.
