A HAMPSHIRE mum of five was killed for the "cheap price" of £1,500, a court has been told.

The case against three defendants accused of conspiring to murder Pennie Davis began this morning where details of the plot to kill her were outlined by the prosecution.

Richard Smith, prosecuting, told jurors at Winchester Crown Court how it was Justin Robertson who had agreed to kill Mrs Davis for money for his friend Ben Carr who had a long standing grudge against her.

Mr Smith said: "He had agreed to kill her for the defendant Ben Carr. It was he, Ben Carr, who had the plan."

Jurors were told how the plot only unravelled when Robertson made the mistake of dropping car keys at the scene of the murder at Leygreen Farm where Pennie kept horses.

It is claimed that he lost them during the course of the attack in which he repeatedly stabbed Pennie, a supermarket worker from Blackfield.

Prosecutor Mr Smith said that the reason Carr wanted 47-year-old Pennie dead was because years earlier she had made allegations that he had sexually assaulted someone.

Those claims were made in 2006 when Pennie was in a relationship with Carr's father Timothy.

Although reported to the police at the time no further action was taken against the claims, which Carr strenuously denied.

He said:"Ben Carr bitterly disliked Pennie Davis. Perhaps that is not strong enough, perhaps he came to hate Pennie Davis."

That hatred was 'reignited' in 2014 when Carr learned that Mrs Davis was threatening to return to the police about those allegations.

It came about as a result of his father's plans to remarry, said Mr Smith. Mrs Davis came to hear about the intended marriage and sent messages on social networking site Facebook telling Timothy Carr's fiancée of the allegations and wishing her 'good luck'.

Mr Smith claimed that Carr decided that Pennie Davis needed to be silenced for good.

"The only way to bring it to an end once and for all was to have her voice silenced and that is what he decide to do."

Mr Smith continued:"He needed someone else to plunge the knife on his behalf, that someone members of the jury would have to be close enough to him to be trusted."

He said that Carr and Robertson knew each other and met regularly though an association with drugs, and that led Carr to recruit Robertson.

Mr Smith said:"That association might have made it in Carr's mind the obvious and to put it bluntly 'only' choice.

"But under pressure of emotion, time and necessity it seems that is the very man he decided to recruit and settle upon."

In order to convince Robertson, said Mr Smith, Carr told him that Pennie had sexually abused him when he was a young boy, which was a lie that would help justify the killing.

"In choosing that justification he settled upon something he no doubt thought would appeal to Justin Robertson's misguided sense of what is right and what it wrong, added Mr Smith.

They agreed that Carr would pay Robertson £1,500 for taking Pennie's life, "a cheap price indeed," said Mr Smith.

After recruiting Robertson the prosecution say Samantha Maclean also came in on the plan as she was a very close friend of Robertson.

The case against them includes evidence say the crown, that Pennie was followed in the days before her death.

Mr Smith said:"When it became clear that that she (Pennie) had horses at Leygreen Farm, a relatively remote and quiet place, it dawned on them that was a good a place as any for their plans."

Mr Smith explained that as part of the case, police officers have examined the phone records of all those involved and were able to track the defendants movements.

Justin Robertson, 36, of no fixed abode, denies murder and conspiracy to murder.

Samantha Maclean, 28, of Beech Crescent Hythe, denies conspiracy to murder.

Benjamin Carr, 22, of Edward Road, Shirley, denies conspiracy to murder.