CAMBS: Drug users jailed for burgling murder victim’s home
Magazine Lane, Wisbech, immediately after the body of Una Crown had been found. - Credit: Archant
A DRUG user who broke into the home of murder victim Una Crown, 86, and stole a television, stereo and DVD player has been jailed for ten months.
Factory worker Dainius Stelmokas, 29, of De Havilland Road, Wisbech, forced his way into the bungalow in Magazine Lane on April 4.
Prints left at the scene led to Stelmokas, who at first claimed he had been at home at the time of the break-in.
“Eventually, he did admit being involved in the burglary,” prosecutor Josephine Jones told magistrates at Kings Lynn when the case was first heard in April.
The case was referred to Cambridge Crown Court for sentencing after prosecutors suggested it because of “public feelings running high in Wisbech”.
She said Stelmokas sold the wide screen TV to a second hand shop in Wisbech, from where it was subsequently recovered. He was “a heavy drug user”, with drug-related debts of £700, Mrs Jones told the court
Detective Constable Becky Mainwood said after Monday’s sentencing: “Whether Stelmokas knew the owner had been murdered is unclear.
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“However his actions have caused the family further pain at a time when they were already grieving.”
Mrs Crown’s body was discovered in the bungalow on January 13.
She had been stabbed and then set on fire in an apparent effort to disguise her injuries and destroy evidence.
She had not been seen alive since Friday, January 11, but had spoken to a friend by telephone at about 5pm on the Saturday.
A £10,000 reward is being offered by independent charity Crimestoppers for information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the killer.
Anyone with any information should call the Major Crime Unit on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.
(A 58-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder remains on bail until July 2.)
