Couple killed 17-year-old boy to ‘give their children a good Christmas’, court hears | UK News

A couple murdered a 17-year-old boy to get money so they could give their children a “good Christmas” and hid his body in their loft for eight months, a court has heard.

Stacey Docharty, 28, and Gary Hopkins, 37, are accused of attacking Abdi Ali with a claw hammer and a 16cm-long knife at their second floor flat in Enfield, north London, in December 2017.

The body was not discovered until the following August.

Police found out about the body because Docharty and Hopkins let slip the details to friends who visited the flat, the jury was told.

The body was found by police in a “black and red duvet cover” with “plastic bags over his head”

Jurors at the Old Bailey heard Mr Ali had been hit over the head three times with a hammer and stabbed repeatedly in a “savage attack”.

Opening the case, prosecutor Gareth Patterson QC said that Docharty allegedly revealed a financial motive for the murder, explaining “she wanted to give her children a good Christmas”.

Mr Patterson also claimed the defendants “often took drugs” at their flat, around the time of Mr Ali’s death.

He told the court: “They hid it (the body) in their attic along with the murder weapons – a claw hammer and a knife” and that “they did this to try to get away with what they had done”.

In Hopkins’ police interview, he blamed others for Mr Ali’s death, saying he let the boy he knew as “Skeng” deal drugs from his flat.

The couple are jointly charged with murder, perverting the course of justice and preventing the lawful burial of a dead body.

Docharty has denied all the charges and Hopkins denies murder but admitted the remaining charges.

The trial continues.