Gareth Dack, 33, is alleged to have strangled 79-year-old Norma Bell - a foster mother to more than 50 children

Gareth Dack, 33, is alleged to have strangled 79-year-old Norma Bell - a foster mother to more than 50 children.

The widow's body was found in her home in Westbourne Road, Hartlepool, when firefighters smashed their way in.

Teesside Crown Court heard on Thursday afternoon how she had a ligature - part of an electrical cable - tightened around her neck.

Dack, of Windermere Road, Hartlepool, denies charges of murder and arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Caring mother-of-nine Mrs Bell was well-known in the town for fostering children along with her late husband, John.

A jury panel was sworn in for a trial which they were told is likely to run for more than two weeks.

Prosecutor Christopher Tehrani, QC, told the jurors not to let emotion get in the way of their job deciding the facts.

He said: "Please remain cool and dispassionate at all times. It may be that you become upset about the circumstances of Norma Bell's death.

"Do not allow your emotions to take over when you are assessing the evidence that you will hear from the prosecution and the defence.

"If you allow your emotions to take over, it will only cloud your judgement."

Dack, dressed in jeans and a purple shirt and tie, spoke only to confirm his name.

Relatives of Mrs Bell sat in the public gallery alongside several police officers, just yards away from him in the dock.

The jury of seven women and five men was selected after being asked a number of questions.

Those living in Hartlepool were excluded, along with anyone who might have a connection with any of the witnesses.

The court heard that a post-mortem examination showed Mrs Bell had suffered 15 recent injuries, and had been strangled.

Mr Tehrani told the jury that drug-user Dack had no money in the weeks before the killing and had borrowed from friends and loan companies.

He had also asked Mrs Bell - who lived in the same road as his parents - for £10 to put petrol in his car.

The prosecutor said it is the Crown's case that his reason for visiting the pensioner's house was to get money.

A new boxed television taken from the property was sold by Dack to another man for £60, and his fingerprints were on it, the jury heard.

When his car - parked opposite Mrs Bell's home - was searched, there was more than £400 in the glovebox.

Mr Tehrani said £700 had also been stolen from the three-storey terraced property before it was set alight.

The jury heard that Dack's DNA was found on a number of things in the house, including two mobile phones, a door handle, a used match, the ligature around Mrs Bell's neck and on the inside of her handbag.

Mr Tehrani told the jury: "The fire officers entered the premises and found Norma Bell unconscious and on the floor in the rear reception room on the ground floor.

"Two fire officers carried Mrs Bell out of the house to an ambulance where she was found to be dead. 

"It was noted that there was an electrical cable tightly applied to the neck. 

Two seats of fire - rear ground floor reception room and in Mrs Bell's bedroom on the first floor.

"The fires had not been started accidentally. Further, two of the gas rings on the hob in the kitchen had been turned on and were releasing gas.

"Fortunately the gas had not accumulated to the point where it could have become combustible. 

"Finally, it appeared the house may have been searched."

A post-mortem examination carried out by pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton identified 15 "recent injuries" including rib fractures. 

Mr Tehrani said: "There was no soot or any evidence of carbon monoxide, a by-product of smoke, in her airways which suggests she had died before the fire started.

"There was bruising into the soft tissue of her neck, including some muscles, and fractures of bones and cartilage in her neck.

"The case of Mrs Bell's death was a result of pressure to the neck by way of strangulation.

"The strangulation was by way of the application of the ligature, the wire cabling recovered from around her neck, and possibly manual strangulation.

"The fractures and the bruising on her back could be the result of someone kneeling on Mrs Bell while applying pressure to the neck while they strangled her.

"The prosecution submits that Gareth Dack is the person who murdered Mrs Bell and then set fire to her house."

In weeks and days before the murder Dack was penniless and had resorted to borrowing cash from loan companies, friends and from Mrs Bell - a friend of his mother's.

A week before he allegedly killed her, she had lent him £10, the court was told.

"His DNA was found inside the home, on Mrs Bell's handbag, on the knobs of the gas hob, on the ligature around her neck and on her clothing," said the prosecutor.

"When police seized the car and searched it they found £405 in cash in the glovebox. You will hear evidence that Mrs Bell kept £700 in cash in the house.

"Between just before midnight and 05.30am on April 3, someone used the telephone landline at Mrs Bell's home to phone soft-porn television service where customers may talk to scantily-clad ladies while they watch them on the television.

"The caller spoke during two of the telephone calls. You will hear evidence from an expert in voice analysis who has compared Gareth Dack's voice to that of the caller to the television station.

"The expert believes there is strong support for the contention that Gareth Dack was the caller."

The court heard how a fire examiner concluded that both blazes had been ignited at around the same time.

Dr Bolton's report says Mrs Bell died by strangulation by the wire cable and possibly manual strangulation. The ligature was wrapped around her neck while she was still alive.

A crime scene examiner found Gareth Dack's DNA on swabs taken from the knob of the gas cooker, two mobile phones, Mrs Bell's  handbag and two brief cases.

On the lid of wheelie bins in the back yard of the property, police recovered prints from Nike trainers which matched a pair recovered from Dack's home.

Dack had been off sick for some weeks prior to the attack, and had been borrowing small sums of money from friends because he was short.

He had been lent £10 from Mrs Bell on Easter Sunday - March 26 - and been forced to apologise after he couldn’t repay her as promised.

Dack was childhood friends with one of Mrs Bell’s sons, but they had not been close as adults, keeping just intermittent contact.

The son was the last person to see his mother alive, when he took her fish and chips at 7.25pm and stayed 15 to 20 minutes before returning home via a Chinese takeaway.

At around 8.30pm, Dack had a row with his girlfriend Charlotte Stokes, and he left their home Windermere Road.

By 10pm, Dack had arrived at the home of pal Raymond Mcloughlin carrying a brand new boxed 49ins TV which he sold for £60.

The television, the prosecution say, was stolen form Mrs Bell’s front reception room.
Dack returned to his friend's house at 1am where the two of them smoked a cannabis joint and had two lines of cocaine.

When he left Mr Mcloughlin’s home shortly after 1am, he drove away in his car - parked opposite the pensioner's home when firefighters arrived at 8.20am

Mr Tehrani said: "Between 11.13pm and 5.25am, the killer is said to have used Mrs Bell’s telephone landline to call a premium sex telephone number in order to listen into explicit conversations other callers were having with scantily-dressed ladies on a television station called Babestation.

"The person who made the last two telephone calls, rather than just listen as he had done before, spoke to the lady he phoned.

"These telephone calls lasted just over three minutes and just under six minutes. A recording of these two calls has been obtained by the police."

A voice-recognition expert has said "there was strong support" for the proposition that the caller on those two last calls is Dack, the jury was told.

Mr Tehrani told the jury they must consider the evidence at the end of the trial, and posed a number of questions.

He said they will need to consider how Dack's DNA was found on "so many" items in the house - including the ligature used to strangle the pensioner, her briefcase, and her underwear.

He asked how a television and mobile phone taken from the property ended up in the suspect's possession, and why his car was parked so close to her home.