Man ‘watched millionaire couple dying on phone app after poisoning them and rewriting their will,’ court hears

15 February 2024, 12:54

A man used an app on his phone to watch a married couple dying, having allegedly poisoned them with the opioid painkiller fentanyl, a court has heard.

Luke D'Wit, 34, rewrote a will for Stephen and Carol Baxter the day after they were found dead at their home in Mersea Island in Essex, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

He denies murdering the couple, who the court heard he had worked for and befriended.

Tracy Ayling KC, prosecuting, said Mr Baxter, 61, and his 64-year-old wife were found dead sitting in their individual armchairs in their conservatory on Easter Sunday - April 9 - last year.

She said that on April 10, D'Wit created a will on his phone which made him a director of the couple's shower mat company.

Ms Ayling said D'Wit had installed a "mobile security surveillance application" on his phone.

She said this allowed him to monitor a camera from another device.

Ms Ayling said that police who analysed D'Wit's phone found images of Mr and Mrs Baxter "in their armchairs" on the afternoon of April 7 last year, with one timed at 5.14pm.

She said that doorbell camera footage captured him walking towards the Baxters' address "looking at a phone" that day.

"The prosecution case is that he was looking at these images of the Baxters in their conservatory sitting in their armchairs," the prosecutor said.

"The same chairs they were discovered in by (their daughter) Ellie (Baxter) two days later."

She said that the couple "did not move at all" after the images were taken.

The trial was earlier told that Mrs Baxter had a thyroid condition and a pacemaker.

"If she had moved after those... images were taken, the pacemaker would have recorded it," said Ms Ayling.

Continuing to address the jury, she said: "Why was Mr D'Wit watching Mr and Mrs Baxter in the conservatory?

"Was he watching them die?

"Both were already incapacitated.

"Was this when Mr D'Wit made everything pristine, cleaning up the cups and not leaving any trace?"

She said D'Wit did not leave the Baxters' home until 7.55pm on April 7, when he was captured by a doorbell camera.

"He was the last person to see them alive," said Ms Ayling, continuing to open the prosecution's case.

"He watched them dying on his phone."

The trial continues, with jurors asked to return at 10.30am on Monday when evidence in the case will begin.