A woman fatally slashed her sister in the neck and snatched her diamond-encrusted gold Rolex watch, a court has heard.
Nancy Pexton, 69, is accused of killing her sister Jennifer Abbott at her flat in Camden, north London, on 10 June 2025.
On 13 June, a neighbour forced Ms Abbott’s door open after becoming concerned that he could not hear her dog barking.
He found her body on her living room floor with a wound to her neck and gaffer tape over her mouth.
She was not wearing her Rolex watch, which she was “greatly attached to” and never usually took off, jurors heard.
Pexton, of no fixed address, is on trial at the Old Bailey charged with murdering Ms Abbott.
Opening the case on Thursday, prosecutor Bill Boyce KC said there was no evidence that Ms Abbott was alive after Pexton visited her on 10 June.
Ms Abbott was last seen on footage from a doorbell camera as she returned to her block after walking her dog at 7.36am that day.
The sisters had spoken by phone at 11.36am, with Pexton travelling by bus to her flat at 12.45pm and staying for an hour.
After allegedly killing her 69-year-old sister, Pexton called her GP and said she had taken an overdose, Mr Boyce said.
She was taken to hospital by ambulance where she stayed before her arrest on 18 June, jurors heard.
Mr Boyce told jurors: “She said she could not remember what had happened in the previous 90 minutes, which was the period we say she was undoubtedly in her sister’s flat, the period we say she murdered her sister.”
In the two days after Ms Abbott’s death, there were numerous missed calls from her son Brad Carlson, who lives abroad, the court was told.
Jurors heard Ms Abbott’s body was found at her Mornington Place flat on the afternoon of 13 June.
The victim’s niece, Mai Pexton, had gone to the property and banged on the door, screaming for her “auntie”.
A neighbour decided to break down the door with a scaffolding pole because he could not hear Ms Abbott’s corgi dog Prince barking, which he found unusual, the court heard.
He called emergency services after discovering Ms Abbott’s partially naked and decomposing body on the floor.
She had a large, gaping “slash-type” wound across her neck and gaffer tape across her mouth, jurors heard.
Ms Abbott’s corgi had been locked in the bathroom and was freed by firefighters, Mr Boyce said.
The prosecutor told jurors: “It was in desperate need of a lavatory but was fed and watered and given to Mai to take away in good health.”
He told the court Ms Abbott that usually wore her Cartier bracelet and gold diamond-encrusted Rolex watch, which was of “real sentimental value”.
The watch that Ms Abbott “never took off” and was “greatly attached” to was later discovered when police searched Pexton’s bag, Mr Boyce said.
The defendant allegedly replied: “Oh yes, that’s my sister’s. She asked me to look after it.”
A post-mortem examination found that Ms Abbott had sustained a number of stab and slash wounds and a single defensive wound to the right hand.
Before being admitted to hospital, Pexton allegedly told a 999 call handler that she had been abused by her family but she did not want to report anyone because they were “very powerful” and would kill her.
The defendant also claimed that she “blacked out” and did not know what she had done.
Pexton, who had been wearing a black cowboy hat and blue dungarees, was said to be covered in her sister’s blood “from top to bottom” in the wake of the killing, the court heard.
While in hospital, she allegedly asked one of her daughters to take the clothes and either wash them or throw them away, jurors heard.
The defendant explained the presence of blood from hugging her sister as she suffered a nosebleed.
But Mr Boyce suggested Ms Abbott’s blood went everywhere when Pexton slashed and cut her 10 times.
Pexton allegedly told police she had “always been close” to her sister and they shared “secrets” and the “depths of our feelings”.
She claimed that when she left Ms Abbott, the victim was in good spirits, jurors heard.
The day before police found Ms Abbott’s watch in Pexton’s bag, she had said: “I don’t know if Jennifer was wearing her Rolex watch that day. She would never take it off, she always wore it.”
The defendant, who was nine months younger than the victim and turns 70 on Friday, was effectively homeless and had been staying near Baker Street.
Mr Boyce said the central issue in the case was whether Pexton, who has two adult daughters, was responsible for killing her sister.
She has denied murder and the Old Bailey trial continues.
