A MURDER suspect left DNA all over the scene of the "brutal and needless" killing of a supermum of 50, a court heard.

Norma Bell, 79, was strangled in her Hartlepool home before it was set alight by intruder Gareth Dack, a jury was told.

Prosecutors say 33-year-old Dack hoped to cause an explosion at the terraced house to destroy evidence and cover his tracks.

But DNA linking him to the scene was found on a used match, the gas hob and two mobile phones.

It is alleged that cocaine addict Dack was penniless and went to the house to steal money or items he could quickly sell.

Teesside Crown Court has heard how he sold to a friend for £60 a boxed 49-inch television taken from Mrs Bell's home last April.

Relatives say £700 was also missing from the grandmother's terraced home – which was likely to have been in her bedroom.

The bedroom had been ransacked before it was set alight along with the reception room where former shop worker Mrs Bell was found.

The killer also turned on two gas rings which filled the kitchen with fumes before the fire brigade arrived, the jury heard.

Mrs Bell, who had three sons of her own and six long-term foster children, had been killed before the fires were started.

Dack's DNA was also found on the combination lock of a brief case, and a sample which "could be" attributed to him was discovered inside a handbag.

When his car – parked outside Mrs Bell's home in Westbourne Road – was searched, more than £400 was found in the glovebox.

Days earlier, he had been pleading with friends for money, took out a loan with his partner, and visited Mrs Bell asking for £20, the court heard.

The jury heard how out-of-work asbestos lagger Dack grew up in the same street as Mrs Bell, who fostered more than 50 children with her late husband John over 30 years.

He was childhood friends with one of the couple's sons, and claims he visited the house regularly to carry out odd jobs for the widow.

Forensic scientist Dr Gemma Escott told the jury that the there were many items in the house which had a "mixed profile" DNA – meaning more than one person had come into contact with it.

The expert said it would be a billion-to-one chance that the sample found on the used match came from anyone other than father-of-four Dack.

The killer is said to have watched soft porn channels on television and rang sex lines while the victim lay dead or dying just yards away.

A voice recognition expert said there is "strong support" for the theory that Dack, of Windermere Road, Hartlepool, was the caller.

Dr Escott said a mixed profile of DNA including Dack's was also found on a ligature - an electrical cable, wrapped tightly around Mrs Bell's neck while she was still alive.

  • The trial continues.