A WOMAN found drowned in her bath was raped and murdered by a man she had known years earlier, a court was told.

Jean Whitfield was discovered by the man she lived with after he returned from a nightshift at the petrol station where he worked.

Yesterday, John Milford QC, prosecuting, told the jury at Teesside Crown Court they could conclude that Michael Wade had raped Mrs Whitfield, and to avoid being arrested and dealt with for rape he killed her.

He said: "This was a deliberate drowning. This was a man who could overpower this woman and put her in the bath and keep her head under water until she was dead."

Mr Wade, 43, of no fixed address, denies raping and murdering Mrs Whitfield at her home in Birtley, near Gates-head, in August last year.

Mr Milford told the court Mrs Whitfield suffered from depression and arthritis. She rarely left the flat and suffered from agoraphobia. She had started to drink to excess following the death of her eight-year-old son in an accident a few years earlier.

Mrs Whitfield had met Mr Wade several years before when they both lived on a caravan site at Birtley, but a few days before she died Mr Wade returned to the site looking for Mrs Whitfield, said Mr Milford.

Another man at the site gave Mr Wade a lift to Mrs Whitfield's new home at Plover Lodge, Birtley.

Mr Milford said Mr Wade was introduced to Dennis Fallon, with whom Mrs Whitfield, lived.

Mr Milford said the day that Mrs Whitfield died, Mr Fallon woke up in the afternoon, after his nightshift, to find Mr Wade at the flat. However, before he left for work Mr Wade had gone. When he returned after work, he discovered her dead in the bath.

When Mr Wade was interviewed by the police he told them he had had sex with Mrs Whitfield but denied raping her. He said he had gone back to the flat but the key he had did not fit and he climbed in through the window.

He said he did not see Mrs Whitfield and believed she was asleep in bed.

The case continues