Gay lodger argued with landlady before murder
Antonietta Guarino, a 61-year-old Trowbridge landlady, and her gay lodger had argued over his boyfriend before he murdered her, a jury in Bristol has been told.
The lodger, Marc Riley, admitted murdering Guarino this year and disposing of her body in the Avon river, the Wiltshire Times reports.
His boyfriend, David Carr-Burstow, 20, has denied murder but admitting aiding in the disposal of the Italian landlady’s corpse.
Mrs Guarino’s daughter, Giuiletta Bogacz, took the stand at Bristol Crown Court and described the argumentative atmosphere in the house at the beginning of 2009, for which Riley stopped paying rent.
She told the court: “She phoned me up a couple of days after she had been home after Christmas and told me Marc had taken her to one side and said he wasn’t happy with where his boyfriend was living.”
“He wanted his boyfriend to move into her house with them. I said no, she shouldn’t do that.”
Mrs Bogacz, 35, insisted Mrs Guarino’s subsequent refusal to allow Riley, 24, to let his boyfriend move in had not been related to his sexuality. “She told him they couldn’t move in there together and suggested he start to look for a place where they could move in together,” she said.
A walker found Mrs Guarino’s body in late February.
The trial continues.
