A MAN knelt in a pensioner’s blood and picked up a kitchen knife lying next to her lifeless body, the jury in a murder trial at Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Gordon Anderson, who discovered Amy Shepherd dead on the lounge floor in her sheltered housing flat, said in his police statement how he used a pass key to get in after repeatedly knocking and ringing the bell on the evening of August 2, 1994.

Mr Anderson’s wife, Sonia, was warden at The Folly Hall Gardens in Wibsey, Bradford, where Miss Shepherd, aged 86, had lived for 14 years.

The jury was told by prosecutor Richard Wright QC that Mr and Mrs Anderson had since died.

In his statement, made the day after the murder, Mr Anderson said he went to Miss Shepherd’s home that evening to put drops in her eyes.

After he had opened her door, he called out: “Are you there Miss Shepherd?”

He then saw her lying motionless on the floor in the lounge with her head towards the door.

Mr Anderson said he knelt beside her. She had no pulse and felt very cold.

When he put out his hand to help him get to his feet, he saw it had wet blood on it and there was blood on his trousers.

Mr Anderson said he then noticed a wooden handled kitchen knife on the floor between Miss Shepherd’s legs, the blade pointing towards her torso.

“I picked the knife up but then quickly dropped it,” he said.

He said he realised that it should not be touched.

He then raised the alarm, reporting: “Miss Shepherd is dead in a pool of blood.”

Mrs Anderson, who at that time had been warden at the complex for 17 years, told the police Miss Shepherd was “a smart woman who took pride in her appearance.”

She liked to drink Martini and lemonade at social events and she wore costume jewellery.

Miss Shepherd lived in a ground floor flat that she always kept locked, usually with the key in the inside of the lock and the security chain on.

Mrs Anderson said her husband went out at 7.50pm that evening to administer Miss Shepherd’s eye drops.

After the alarm was raised, she saw Miss Shepherd lying on the floor on her back with a pool of blood near her neck.

Her spectacles and false teeth were on the floor near her face.

Mrs Anderson said she thought she had suffered a heart attack and ruptured an artery.

Raymond Kay, 70, of Baker Fold, Halifax, is on trial denying the murder of Miss Shepherd.

The prosecution alleges there is “compelling” DNA evidence against Kay who had delivered meals on wheels to Miss Shepherd two months before her murder.

The court has heard that Miss Shepherd was sexually assaulted and robbed during an attack in which she was beaten, strangled and stabbed in the throat.

Kay, who was 46 at the time, was then living at one of two addresses in Bradford, Blenheim Road in Manningham and Reevy Crescent in Buttershaw, Mr Wright said.

A distinctive ring was missing from Miss Shepherd’s hand along with her keys, cash, a watch and a second ring.

“The clear inference is that her killer had targeted her as a suitable candidate for robbery,” the jury was told.

The trial continues.