A neighbour has told a court how “huge bangs” on the floor above prompted her to run to the flat where pensioner Mary Logie was allegedly beaten to death with a rolling pin.
The witness said she heard a sound like someone “hammering” to get her attention.
She told jurors murder-accused Sandra Weir opened the door of the flat to her, was crying and said the pensioner had fallen, leaving blood “everywhere”.
The incident happened hours after the neighbour heard a loud bang and the sound of a woman saying “ouch”, the court was told.
Mrs Logie, 82, was pronounced dead at her home in Leven, on January 5 this year.
Weir, 41, is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, where she denies murder and has lodged a special defence of alibi.
She is accused of killing the pensioner by repeatedly striking her on the head and body with a rolling pin or similar instrument.
Neighbour Gwen Smith, 64, told day three of the trial that she lived below Mrs Logie’s flat and would see her quite regularly.
The witness said she was in her own flat on the morning of January 5 when she heard a noise.
“I heard a banging on the floor and a woman going ‘ouch’,” she told the court, later describing the sound as “loud” and “heavy”.
“It was just a big thump and then there was the ‘ouch’,” Ms Smith said, adding that she thought a pregnant woman next door had gone into labour.
She agreed with prosecutor Alex Prentice QC that there was “absolute silence” from Mrs Logie’s flat until later on that evening.
The witness told how she was watching soaps on television at about 8pm after having tea with her son and daughter when she heard another noise.
“I heard huge bangs on the floor … somebody hammering on the floor to draw my attention,” she said.
She said she phoned up to Mrs Logie’s flat and then ran upstairs when she got no answer.
Ms Smith said Weir was inside the flat and answered the door to her.
“She said to me ‘she’s fell and there’s blood everywhere’,” the witness told jurors.
The witness added that she then saw Mrs Logie lying on the living room floor and could see a rolling pin on the couch.
“I think it was quite obvious what had happened to her,” she told the court, adding that she then shouted on her son to call for an ambulance.
She said Weir was crying and later described her as having “tears in her eyes”.
Earlier, the court heard Weir had a drug problem and had run up a debt of £320in the month Mrs Logie died.
Unemployed Aaron Robertson, 44, told the court he had supplied Weir with heroin over a period of about six months and that she was taking a quantity costing about £70 every two days.
He said she had a credit arrangement with him and by January of this year had a debt of £320.
The debt was paid off on January 14, the court heard.
Mr Robertson gave evidence to the court after Mr Prentice told him he would have immunity from being prosecuted over a criminal offence so far as Weir was concerned.
Weir faces eight charges in total, including attempting to defeat the ends of justice and stealing unknown quantities of money, two rings and Mrs Logie’s bank card or cards.
Prosecutors also allege she used Mrs Logie’s bank card to steal £4,460 at cash machines around Fife between December 2014 and January 4 this year.
Weir denies the charges against her.
The trial, before judge Michael O’Grady QC, continues on Thursday.
