HATRED, fear and a cocktail of emotions is what drove the former step son of Pennie Davis to concoct an "evil" plot to have her killed, a court heard.

After a break in proceedings over Easter, the murder trial of mum of five Pennie Davis resumed at Winchester Crown Court today, with the closing speech by the prosecution.

Prosecutor Richard Smith QC told jurors it was a "genuinely tragic case" that saw the 47-year-old brutally executed in a field near Beaulieu, in a bid to silence her.

He said she was killed at the hands of Justin Robertson in what was a murder "hatched" as a plan by Ben Carr, who wanted to stop her resurrecting historic claims he had indecently assaulted girls.

Mr Smith said Carr recruited 36-year-old Robertson to execute Pennie and Samantha Maclean assisted with the plan, through transport and communications.

Mr Smith told jurors that when Pennie sent messages to the fiancé of Carr's dad, threatening to go to police again about allegations against 22-year-old Carr, Carr felt as if his life was about to fall apart and he needed to do something urgently.

The prosecution say he recruited Robertson, who he had been dealing drugs with, manipulating him with a story that Pennie was a paedophile.

A "justification" which was repeated by Robertson when he confessed to the killing to two different people, the prosecution say, and repeated by 28-year-old Maclean to her childminder days after the murder.

Mr Smith told jurors that it was a "meticulous" plan that may well have succeeded if Robertson had not dropped the key of Maclean's car beside Pennie's body in Leygreen Farm.

He said: "It is a cold thought, chilling for many sat in this court, but for the loss of that key, the police may have never actually unraveled this jigsaw.

"It was the key to the whole discovery of those involved."

Mr Smith said that there is "overwhelming" evidence pointing to Robertson's guilt and that any suggestion that he was in Beaulieu that day, September 2, last year, to burgle was "incredible".

He said Carr had come up with a story to "fit" the evidence and that he would have only needed an alibi if the plan was to kill Pennie, as she would not be alive to say it wasn't him.

Mr Smith said: "His emotions has led him to do something that ordinarily he wouldn't done. It's tragic but it's true."

Mr Smith admitted that Maclean's involvement may have been less than Carr and Robertson, but he said her decision not to give evidence from the witness box was because she knew her answers would not stand up to cross examination.

Robertson is charged with murder and conspiracy to murder.

Carr and Maclean are charged with conspiracy to murder. They all deny the charges.

Proceeding.