TWO burglars sparked a murder investigation into the death of a 31-year-old woman after breaking into her house and finding her body in the bath, a court heard.

Police believe Pauline Stevenson, who was largely immersed in water and covered with bedding and clothes, had been dead for six months when the youths made the gruesome discovery in January 1998.

A month later her husband, former Bacup man Martin Dott, 35, was arrested and accused of murder. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge at Manchester Crown Court.

Anthony Morris QC, prosecuting, told the court Dott was jealous after discovering his wife was seeing someone else while he was in prison.

The jury heard how Mrs Stevenson and Patrick Ward became close after Dott was sent to prison in January 1996 but fled from Bacup to Oldham before his release because they were "fearful of what might happen when he was free". Dott, then living in Pennine Way, Bacup, met up with his wife again when she and Ward appeared in court for burglary. Dott and Mrs Stevenson left court together when Ward was remanded into custody and he later moved into her Oldham home.

But Mrs Stevenson and Ward continued to exchange letters "in the most affectionate terms" and she visited him in Strangeways prison. One of Ward's letters was found at the house after the murder and Dott's fingerprints were on it.

Mr Morris told the court: "The prosecution say not only was there a close bond of affection between them but that this defendant clearly knew about it. It was a source of friction between husband and wife which led eventually to the killing."

The prosecution believe Mrs Stevenson died on the weekend of June 28 and 29, 1997, when neighbours heard a man and Mrs Stevenson quarrelling.

Mr Morris went on: "The man was shouting and the woman screaming and crying apparently in fright. It lasted for some time before it suddenly went very quiet."

The prosecution allege Dott attacked his wife violently before dragging her dead or dying body to the bathroom.

A pathologist was unable to ascertain the cause of death because the body had been immersed in water for so long and was decomposed but said death was at the end of June or in early July and that there were three possible causes - strangulation, suffocation or drowning.

Police found a rope in the bath beneath the body.

(Proceeding)

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