Yvonne Caylor on trial for murder of her half-sister Nikki Collingbourne

A 53-year-old woman disguised herself with a goatee beard, wig, heavy framed glasses and a hi-vis jacket before killing her half-sister, a court heard today.

Yvonne Caylor had allegedly made herself look like a man before she walked to Nikki Collingbourne's flat and launched the attack with a chicken-shaped ceramic pot.

Ms Collingbourne, 26, was found dead in her underwear lying in a pool of blood at her flat in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, by members of her family.

Trial: Yvonne Caylor (right) had allegedly made herself look like a man before she walked to Nikki Collingbourne's (left) flat and launched the attack with a chicken-shaped ceramic pot

John Price QC, prosecuting, said today: 'There is no issue Nikki Collingbourne was unlawfully killed by someone. The issue you will have to decide is by whom?'

Caylor, from Hitchin, denies murder on May 23. The trial at Luton Crown Court heard Ms Collingbourne was found dead the day after - next to a shattered pot.

It is believed she was struck on the back of the head with the pot. 

Caylor is alleged to have carried out the killing after being charged with burgling her half sister's flat and attempting to pervert the course of justice. 

Mr Price said there was a substantial age discrepancy between Ms Collingbourne and the defendant, who shared the same father.

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Although Caylor was British she spent much of her adult life living in the USA, before returning to the UK.

He said: ‘Nikki Collingbourne travelled to the States in September 2011 and for a while lived with Yvonne Caylor. It did not appear to be a successful arrangement and returned to the UK in August 2012.

‘In June last year for a short time she lived with Nikki at her flat in Ivel Court and would have become quite familiar with the building

‘The co-habitation in flat 16 did not last long. It ended abruptly October 3 to 4 last year. There was a disagreement and Nikki Collingbourne evicted the defendant from her flat.

‘The police became involved and the defendant called police on October 3 to complain she had been assaulted. The prosecution say it was a bogus complaint based on an exaggerated account of what went on. 

Caylor, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, is facing a murder charge over Ms Collingbourne's death

‘Nikki was arrested and questioned about the assault. She was released on police bail. She got home at 8pm that Sunday evening and discovered in her absence from midnight on Saturday to early Sunday evening it appeared someone had entered her flat and property had been removed.’

Mr Price went on: ‘As part of their investigation police spoke to Nikki Collingbourne's late mother.

‘Police saw her on October 23 she told them on afternoon of October 6 - the afternoon of the burglary complaint - Yvonne Caylor had phoned Ms Hibbert-Jones and urged her to give a false account about the ownership of some of the property taken from the flat.’

He alleged the defendant had also rung Ms Collingbourne, in breach of her bail terms, saying: ‘We need to talk. We need to talk.’

Ms Collingbourne reported this to the police. As a result Caylor was charged with burglary and doing an act tending to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Price said: ‘We submit these were serious offences - breaking into another person's home and then in effect to cover it up.

‘We suggest any competent criminal lawyer would have advised her she was at very serious risk of an immediate prison sentence.’

Caylor's case was placed in an eight-week warned list at Cambridge Crown Court beginning on May 23 - the day of the killing.

‘That she was murdered that day was no coincidence, he told the jury. Mr Price said that in April, Caylor had gone to a fancy dress shop in Baldock and tried on a wig.

He said that in May this year the victim's mother Rena Hibbert-Jones was in frail health and was in the Lister Hospital in Stevenage for a severe respiratory disease.

Ms Hibbert-Jones, who has since died, was due to return home and she tried to contact Ms Collingbourne to arrange her to collect her from the hospital.

He told the jury of seven men and five women that there was concern that Ms Collingbourne could not be contacted.

Three women family members obtained a spare key and on the evening of May 24, two of them went in.

‘They found Nikki Collingbourne. She was very obviously dead. She was lying on the floor of her kitchen.

‘They immediately called the police on the emergency 999 number. It was a horrible and very distressing scene. Nicky was lying on her back. Her feet were facing the door.

‘She was wearing only her underwear. There was a large amount of blood on the floor and it had pooled in the region where her head was lying.

‘On the floor were a number of shattered or broken pieces of ceramic. They turned out to be the fragments of a ceramic kitchen pot that once it was put together it was in the shape of a chicken.’

Mr Price said Ms Collingbourne must have been struck on the back of the head with the pot that was later put back together. He said it had been picked up, wielded and brought it down on her head with two hands. 

Ms Collingbourne (right), 26, was found dead in her underwear lying in a pool of blood at her flat in Letchworth by members of her family. Caylor (left) is standing trial over the death 

‘The nature of the head injury indicates a degree of force applied in causing it to have rendered her unconscious,’ he said.

He said Ms Collingbourne wrists bore similar, deep incised wounds which he said were not self inflicted.

He went on: ‘A bizarre feature was the fact that in her right hand she was holding by the handle a small hand brush that comes with a dustpan and brush set. That she was found holding the brush is evidence that the scene had been staged in some way. Possibly to try and resemble a suicide.

‘If that was the case it was very incompetently done. The brush would have fallen from the hand before she hit the ground.’

Two pathologists examined her body and were unable to ascertain death.

‘But she died a violent death and it was not at her own hands. Despite the uncertainties in the pathological findings the pathological evidence points to the conclusion that this was an unusual and unnatural death that was caused by someone else.

‘Wounds to her wrist indicated they had been inflicted to her body shortly before her death. They were not typical of self inflicted wrist wounds. She was unconscious but alive when the blade that caused them was applied,’ he said.

He said she was murdered by an intruder on May 23 sometime between 8.24am and 12.01pm.

CCTV showed a figure in a high visibility jacket entering the flats just before half past eight and leaving just before noon.

‘That individual went straight to the first floor. The visible facial hair would suggest the person is a man. The person went directly to the flat and used the letter box to knock at the door.

‘It is somebody quite short and of plump build. That person was wearing gloves. He had reddish hair, a similarly coloured goatee or Van Dyke beard and heavy framed spectacles.’

‘The hair and beard are fake. So too might be the spectacles. Nikki tried to close the door but the intruder forced their way into the flat. It suggests she saw someone who had frightened her and wanted to keep her out of the flat.

‘Despite the disguise she had recognised the intruder. So obviously is this a false beard and wig its purpose may have been to conceal the intruder's identity from the cameras.’

The case, which continues, is expected to last for two to three weeks. 

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