Sex worker brutally murdered in Leeds tower-block flat suffered more than 100 injuries
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Louisa Hall was murdered at the tower block on Oatland Court, Little London, in October 2023.
Steven Francis, who lived at the flat, is on trial at Leeds Crown Court charged with her murder.
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The 59-year-old claims he had left Miss Hall in the premises that afternoon and had returned to find her lifeless naked body around an hour later.
But prosecuting for the Crown, Stephen Wood KC described Francis’ account as “fanciful”, saying he continually lied about how Ms Hall had come to be in his flat.
Opening the case, Mr Wood told the jury that a 999 call was made by Francis at 5.15pm on October 2, 2023.
He claimed to have come home to find 43-year-old Ms Hall laid naked in his flat. Arriving paramedics found her covered in bruises, running from her head to her legs.
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Hide AdDespite attempts to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead at 5.47pm.
A pathologist found 117 fresh blunt-force trauma injuries to her head, chest, abdomen legs and arms. Of those, 45 injuries were found to have come from an unknown weapon.
An injury to her neck was also “compatible with forceful strangulation by hands or a ligature”, Mr Wood added.
The pathologist said the head injuries were so serious they could have been fatal on their own.
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Hide AdFrancis was arrested on suspicion of murder and interivewed, where he claimed to have not known the woman, had bumped into her Leeds city centre that day and she had followed him to his flat.
He then claimed he left her there while he caught a bus to visit a friend whom he had recently bumped into. But Francis claimed the friend was present and so returned by bus to find Ms Hall unconscious.
But Mr Wood said Francis had simply lied throughout.
- CCTV showed Francis with Ms Hall in Beeston in the early hours of October 25 - hours before he claimed to have seen her in the city centre and long before she was murdered.
- The friend he claimed to have been visiting later told police he had not seen Francis for around 13 years.
- Footage from the flats failed to show Francis leaving the block in the hours he claimed to have been visiting the friend.
- The bus pass Francis said he scanned while travelling to visit his friend was never used on that day.
- He claimed he did not take drugs, but urine and blood samples found a high concentration of crack cocaine in his system.
- Francis’ DNA was recovered from Ms Hall’s neck.
Mr Wood said: “It was a series of lies to distance himself from the death of this woman in his own flat.”
He asked the jury: “Does there come a point that fanciful theories are overtaken by the blindingly-obvious truth?”
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Hide AdAs well as murder Francis is also facing additional charges dating back to 2016, which he denies.
This involves another woman for which he is accused of two counts of rape, false imprisonment, robbery and ABH.
The trial, which is expected to last around nine days, continues.