A VULNERABLE woman was allegedly stabbed and smothered to death by her friends before they helped themselves to Cheerios.
Helen Bloomfield, 52, was tragically found dead on a blood-stained mattress at her flat in Braintree, , on April 19 2024.
Amy Keely, 40, and Charlotte James, 29, deny her murder and have been on trial at Chelmsford Crown since September 8.
Jurors heard how Bloomingfield had been the victim of “sustained and repeated violence” nearly a month before she was found, reports BBC .
Prosecuting, Julian Evans KC said the vulnerable woman – who had previously been sectioned – sustained 44 injuries including stab and cut wounds.
He said Bloomingfield was smothered with a pillow in the early hours of March 20 at her address on Aetheric Road before the defendants helped themselves to Cheerios.
The court heard how Keely, who was in the witness box on Thursday, had first met Bloomingfield in 2022 and that she was her “friend” and a “cracking girl”.
She said they would often drink and take together and that she herself had been taking drugs for more than 20 years, including crack cocaine and heroin.
Keely revealed she was “gutted” to learn of Bloomingfield’s death.
And when Keely later appeared on Bloomfield’s doorstep a week later and found she wasn’t there, she said she thought she “had been sectioned”.
At the beginning of the trial, the court heard how blood stained scissors and fragments of mirror had been discovered at the scene as the flat appeared to have been “ransacked”.
Evans said the pair had unleashed their attack on Bloomingfield after they failed to find or drugs at her address, adding they “left her for dead”.
“The mood took a very dark turn and it led to you ransacking that flat and you turned it upside down,” he said.
Keely said she last took heroin at Bloomfield’s address in the February or March and that the discovery of her blood must have been as a result of taking the drugs.
Evans also said Keely and James had been named as suspects after witnesses claimed the pair had confessed their involvement.
The prosecutor said they had confided to Keely stabbing Bloomfield before James smothered her with a pillow while sitting on her chest.
But Keely denied “bragging” about killing Bloomingfield, saying: “They lie – everybody’s names have been in these people’s mouths.
“They don’t like me – I have not done or said any of these things that they said I have – it is all lies.”
Evans also told the court that the defendants had washed off blood in the bathroom helping themselves to cereal and left “Cheerios streaming across the surfaces”.
Keely denied this as the trial continues at Chelmsford Crown Court.
