By Babatunde Solanke With agency report
The pain of astonishment and tears were heard at the Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday, 4 October, 2023 after Ring doorbell footage was shown to a jury in the trial of Natalie Bennett.
This is understandable. Bennet, 47, committed a sadistic act by stabbing her 25- year-old lover, Kasey Anderson, to death.
Anderson died a week before his 25th birthday in March this year after being slashed several times with a knife and suffering two stab wounds.
Richard Pratt KC told presided over by during the prosecution’s opening on Tuesday that a Ring doorbell camera attached to her next door neighbour’s property seemingly showed her “holding a knife to the head of the distraught and injured Mr Anderson”.
He said of this: “Thus, we suggest, she continued to demonstrate hostility towards him even after she must have known she had stabbed him in the chest.”
The prosecutor described how the footage showed various “coming and goings” at Bennett’s house during the day of March 11 2023. These included Mr Anderson being seen walking out of the address shortly after 10.30am in the direction of Croxteth Hall Lane, then returning with a white carrier bag a short time later.
In the afternoon, a woman called Claire Smith arrived with a small dog and carrying a white plastic bag before exiting again. Bennett was shown leaving at 4.18pm, while the deceased also left briefly at 4.37pm.
At 5.05pm, the defendant and Ms Smith were seen walking back into the former’s home. She would be seen leaving once more within half an hour, “pausing and throwing a drink can towards the front entrance” as she did so.
Then, shortly after 6.15pm, Mr Anderson was seen “with a broom in his hand, hitting out towards the front door” before Bennett was said to have spoken on the phone to Ms Smith – who “appeared again at the front gate within seconds of that call concluding”. Mr Pratt said that the Ring doorbell then showed Bennett “holding a pointed article in her right hand in the driveway”, adding: “We say that’s an important image for you to consider.”
The footage was then played to the jury, and seemingly showed Mr Anderson appearing in shot clutching at his chest before banging on the neighbour’s front window then collapsing to the floor. His girlfriend was then seen to aim a blow towards his head, prompting gasps and tears among members of his family in the public gallery.
“Our case is that, while Kasey Anderson was reporting to the emergency services, she is holding a pointed article in her right hand and appears to use it either to strike Kasey Anderson in the head or at least very close to his head. That action does not appear to have caused any notable injury, at least not one seen by the pathologist when he came to examine Kasey Anderson after death, but the prosecution say that it demonstrates a continuing hostility, we say, by this defendant towards Kasey Anderson,”Pratt told the court
The video was then said to show Ms Smith “checking on Mr Anderson” before she and Bennett re-entered her home. The latter subsequently reappeared and was described as “remonstrating with Kasey Anderson”.
The jury of four men and eight women were toldthat her next door neighbours “heard raised voices” coming from the address at around 5.30pm on Saturday, March 11, before finding Mr Anderson “banging and kicking at their door” roughly 45 minutes later. The 24-year-old was apparently “seeking help”, although the occupants were described as being “frightened by the disturbance” and instead called the police.
He too dialled 999 while sitting seriously injured on their doorstep to report that he had been stabbed. Mr Anderson “repeatedly told the operator that he was dying” but added that he “did not know who had stabbed him or where they were”.
Many of his answers were said to have been “incoherent”, with the casualty left vomiting such were the severity of his wounds. The call handler could hear Bennett’s voice in the background though and asked to speak to her instead, at which point she “effectively took over the call”.
She told the operator that Mr Anderson had “stab wounds all over him” which she believed were “a bit deep”. But the defendant claimed that she did not know who had stabbed him, saying: “He’s come in like that.”
He was later found to have suffered superficial slash wounds to his neck, right shoulder, lower back and left forearm, as well as a “shallow” stab wound to his right lower leg. But Mr Anderson had also sustained a “deep stab wound” to his chest, which damaged his left lung and heart.
After being rushed to Aintree Hospital, he underwent “what was hoped to be life-saving surgery” but died 20 days later in the early hours of March 31 – just over a week shy of what would have been his 25th birthday on April 8.
“The medical evidence suggests that this was not just one blow with a knife, but one of several wounds, “Mr Pratt said.
“The slash wounds may have been superficial in nature and the stab to the leg may be of a shallow depth, but together they demonstrate a concerted attack which provides the background for the fatal wound to the chest. It is our case that Natalie Bennett lied to the operator because she knew full well what she had done and had no excuse for it,” the prosecutor added.
https://get-latest.convrse.media/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.liverpoolecho.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fliverpool-news%2Fgasps-tears-court-ring-doorbell-27790293%3Futm_source%3Dtaboola%26utm_medium%3Ddisplay%26utm_campaign%3Dexchange&cre=bottom&cip=28&view=web According to Pratt, Ring doorbell footage recovered from the neighbour’s house showed Bennett “holding a knife to the head of the distraught and injured Mr Anderson” with her right hand and “using it either to strike Kasey Anderson in the head or at the very least hold it close to his head”. He added: “Thus, we suggest, she continued to demonstrate hostility towards him even after she must have known she had stabbed him in the chest.”
When officers arrived, she again alleged that he had arrived at her home “like that” and claimed that the first time she had seen him that evening was when she heard him banging on her next door neighbour’s home. Bennett would subsequently give no comment to detectives under interview.
Bennett will be sentenced on November 10. Judge Denis Watson KC told her: “You have been convicted of murder, for which there can only be one sentence – imprisonment for life.
“It is possible there may be some medical information that may touch on the minimum term I must assess before you can be considered for release. This is a sentence where there can be that only one sentence, which is imprisonment for life.”
Source: Liverpool Echo