THE MAN accused of killing Pennie Davis has claimed the car key found beside her body has admitted it was crucial to finding the killer.

Giving evidence for a second day at Winchester Crown Court, Justin Robertson agreed with prosecutor Richard Smith QC when he said that “the key is the key to this case” and that whoever dropped it, killed her.

But Robertson told jurors that it was planted beside her body and accused his co-defendant Ben Carr and others of doing so.

He said: “There is no forensics linking me to this murder, other than that key which was planted in that field, there's nothing.

“I didn't drop that key in that location, I did not go near that location.”

Daily Echo: Forensic teams investigating the scene last year.

Robertson is charged with murder and conspiracy to murder. Carr, 22, of Edward Road, Shirley and Samantha Maclean, 28, of Beech Crescent, Hythe, are both charged with conspiracy to murder. They all deny the charges.

The prosecution claims Carr offered to pay Robertson £1,500 to kill Pennie, in a bid to stop her resurrecting historic claims that he indecently assaulted girls.

Under cross-examination from Carr's barrister James Scobie QC, Robertson denied his suggestion that he had “messed up” their plan to frighten Pennie and denied telling Carr that he had stabbed Pennie three times because she saw his face when she pulled off his balaclava.

Robertson spoke towards the public gallery, where Pennie's relatives were sitting, and invited them to visit him in prison and look him in the eye.

He also continued to threaten Carr from the witness box. He said: “Ben I promise you, for what you have done to Lian, I am coming for ya, for what you have done to Sam, I am coming for ya, for what you have done to this family and my family, I promise ya.”

When Mr Scobie suggested the regular phone contact between Carr and Robertson on the day of Pennie's murder on September 2, last year, in the field near Beaulieu where she kept horses, was to do with the plan to frighten Pennie, Robertson denied it.

He added: “I'm smart enough to know mobile phones can't be used to plan murders.”

He also denied Mr Smith's suggestion that the regular contact between them, in the week before her death, was the pair planning her “execution”.

Robertson laughed at the suggestion from Mr Scobie that he agreed to frighten Pennie if Carr paid him £400 and gave him some cocaine.

Robertson added: “I could walk into Tesco and rob more money than that, trust me.”

He later agreed with Mr Smith that Carr's claim, that he simply recruited Robertson to scare Pennie, was “total rubbish” and said if Carr had told him that he had been accused of indecently assaulting girls, he would have “ripped his head off” because he hates paedophiles.

But he denied he was offered money to carry out the murder, adding that contract killers cost at least £15,000.

When Mr Smith replied “not if it is Justin Robertson it doesn't”, the defendant laughed.

Under cross-examination from Maclean's barrister Jane Bickerstaff QC, Robertson agreed that he never told Maclean where he was going or what he was doing when she gave him lifts, let him use her phone or let him borrow her car.

Proceeding.