Eastbourne murder trial: '˜violent' robber was living with Tracy Patsalides in the weeks before her killing

Tracy Patsalides (pictured) was found dead at the Eastbourne seafront shelter she had been living in

Wayne Marshall, 38, is charged with murdering Tracy, but his defence barrister today suggested prosecution witness David Morgan might actually have been the one who killed her.

Tracy’s body was found by police at 2.55am on June 12 this year. She was 40 years old.

Homeless woman was '˜strangled and her throat stamped upon' at Eastbourne seafro...

Marshall, of no fixed address, denies murder. The trial continued at Lewes Crown Court today.

The jury heard evidence from David ‘the painter’ Morgan, who had lived with Tracy in the weeks preceding her death in a shelter on Eastbourne seafront.

He said: “I was homeless and it’s a nice place with a bit of shelter from the weather.

“I am an addict so I used to inject there in the evening sometimes, heroin.”

Tributes to Tracy were laid at the seafront shelter

He said that it was these injections, as well as a cut to his hand, that caused his blood to be found at the scene.

Mr Morgan told the court that while he lived in the seafront shelter for several weeks, he moved in with a friend in the town two days before the killing.

But defence barrister Nicholas Atkinson QC said Mr Morgan was a ‘dangerous individual’ and brought up his history of crime.

Mr Atkinson said: “You are a robber. You have a history of robbing from women and you move around the country.”

He read a list of Mr Morgan’s previous convictions for robbery and theft to the jury, for which he had received a sentence of four years in jail and another of 42 months.

The court also heard about Mr Morgan’s 2015 conviction for ‘supplying or conspiring to supply’ heroine and crack cocaine.

Mr Atkinson said: “It is one thing being a victim of drug abuse perhaps, but now you are sharing the victimhood by supplying drugs.”

He asked Mr Morgan if he knew where Tracy got the heroin that caused her to overdose in May this year, an overdose which she survived.

Mr Morgan said he did not know where she got it.

He acknowledged his history of offending, but said it was not who he was anymore.

Nearing the end of his questions for the witness, defence barrister Mr Atkinson asked him: “Somebody had rifled Tracy’s pockets [after she died]. Were you that somebody?”

Mr Morgan said he was not.

Mr Atkinson continued: “Did you kill her?”

Mr Morgan said he did not.

The trial continues.