A woman accused of murdering her grandmother in her bed planned to spend some of the money on cosmetic treatment for her teeth and hair, a court heard yesterday.

Dennis Bartholomew, a Royal Mail colleague of Joanne Hussey, said she had told him she had been to take money out of Annie Garbutt's bank books and an amount between £15,000 and £20,000 had been mentioned.

Mr Bartholomew told Leeds Crown Court that Hussey said the money was going to be shared between herself, her mother Maureen and brother Richard.

"She was going to spend some of it on her house and get her teeth and hair done cosmetically," Mr Bartholomew said.

He said Hussey, 33, and her mother were wanting to get Mrs Garbutt, 77, to sign a document that would make her finances decided by them.

"She was saying she wanted her to sign her assets to them and they could do what they wanted. They were being siphoned off a bit at a time," he said.

Mr Bartholomew also alleged that on another occasion Hussey said she had hit her grandmother.

Questioned by Hussey's barrister, Neil Davey QC, Mr Bartholomew said he remembered her saying she had slapped Mrs Garbutt and pulled her hair while driving her in her car.

But he could not recall what he had said in his police statement, that the grandmother had hit Hussey first.

Mr Davey suggested Hussey and her mother wanted power of attorney over Mrs Garbutt's finances because she could not look after them herself. "I don't know that," replied Mr Bartholomew.

Hussey, of Grange Mount, Yeadon, denies murdering her grandmother, who suffered from dementia. She is alleged to have repeatedly struck her with a spade as she lay in bed at her terraced cottage home in The Clough, Mirfield, last May.

Prosecutor James Goss QC has said the killing was done for financial reasons. Hussey had admitted unlawfully killing Mrs Garbutt but said voices in her head had told her to do it.

Mr Goss alleged that was just an excuse.

Another colleague, Salvatore Cremona, told the jury yesterday he had had a relationship with Hussey while she was in a relationship with another Royal Mail worker and was aware she saw other men.

Mr Cremona said he had received a text message from Hussey, a week before her grandmother's death, which said: "Got to grandmother's earlier and found her dead. Police have been and she's been taken away. Head totally done in."

He said he did not know why she had sent the message and was taken aback when he learned the truth.

The court heard from postman Ian Robinson, of Clayton Heights, Bradford, who also had a relationship with Hussey. He said she could fly off the handle and would be verbally abusive if wound up.

The trial continues.