A HOMELESS man allegedly broke into his grandmother’s home in Helston and murdered her in a brutal attack in which he stabbed her repeatedly in the neck.

Cameron Dancey-Stevenson, who denies murder, is now at the Langdon Hospital in Dawlish. He was said to have had a grudge against 62-year-old Alison Stevenson because she had reported him to the police for breaking an order to stay away from her cottage in Meneage Road.

A jury at Exeter Crown Court was told that he entered through a window and killed Mrs Stevenson before calmly using her washing machine and drier to clean his blood-stained clothes.

He was due in court for breaching a restraining order later on the day when he is alleged to have murdered her on May 25, 2021, and feared he would go to jail because of her complaint about him.

He told his father five days earlier that he was angry with her and said ‘I’m going to ****ing sort her out when I get out’.

Dancey-Stevenson, aged 26, who was living rough in the edge of Helston but is now at the Langdon Hospital in Dawlish, denies murder.

He says an unknown intruder broke into his grandmother’s cottage and attacked her.

Mr Tahir Khan, KC, told the jury there was a mass of forensic evidence that put Dancey-Stevenson at the scene, including his grandmother’s blood under a fingernail and a bloody footprint at the house.

He said Dancey-Stevenson had mental health problems which had led to Mrs Stevenson becoming too frightened to allow him into her house and seeking a court order to prevent him going there.

She called the police when he broke the order early in 2021 and he admitted the breach and was due in court for sentence on May 25, the day her body was found.

Retired care home owner Mrs Stevenson had arranged to meet her family later that day and they became concerned when she did not turn up, going to her home and finding her dead in her bed with very serious stab wounds to her neck.

A pathologist found her carotid artery, jugular vein, vocal cords and larynx had all been cut and there were so many knife wounds that it was not possible to say where one ended and the next began.

Mrs Stevenson had defence wounds on one hand and one arm which suggested she had tried to deflect the knife during the attack.

Mr Khan said evidence from the smart electricity meter at her home showed a spike in usage between 2.30 and 5 am which was consistent with the washing machine and tumble drier being used by Dancey-Stevenson to clean bloodstained clothes.

He described the killing as brutal and said: 'We say Dancey-Stevenson is the killer and the whole evidence points conclusively to him. He had a history of being violent towards others, including her.

'He appeared to have a grudge against her for reporting him to the police.

'Nothing was stolen from the house and he had made significant threats to harm her in his telephone conversation with his father.

'He was in the vicinity of her address on the night in question and got in through a kitchen window which he used as his favourite entry point.'

The trial continues.