IT worker accused of Essex couple's fentanyl poisoning murders 'took out £20,000+ in loans'

An IT worker accused of poisoning a married couple with fentanyl and creating a fake will for them had taken out thousands of pounds of loans, a murder trial has heard.

Stephen Baxter, 61, and his 64-year-old wife Carol Baxter were found dead at their home in West Mersea, Essex, on 9 April last year.

Luke D’Wit, 34, of Churchfields, West Mersea, denies their murder and is on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court.

PC Samantha Claxton, of Essex Police, told the court D’Wit had three loans to his name, two for £7,000 and one for £7,500.

She said the first loan, for £7,000, was taken out in October 2020 and was to be paid back over 60 months.

Ms Claxton said two more loans – one for £7,000 and one for £7,500 – were both taken out in December 2022 and to be paid back over 36 months.

Prosecutors allege D’Wit created a fake will for the Baxters on his phone making himself a director of their shower mat company – Cazsplash – the day after they were found dead.

Ms Claxton agreed with Adam Davis KC, defending, that “certainly by April 2023 Cazsplash was a failing company by the looks of it” with “significant debts”.

The court heard Cazsplash owed approximately £62,000.

Solicitor Christopher Andrews said, in a statement read by prosecutor Alex Stein, that Mr and Mrs Baxter had signed wills in his office in Colchester, Essex.

He said he prepared the wills in 2021 and that the couple “hadn’t decided what to include about (their company Cazsplash) in their will”.

Mr Andrews said whoever drafted a document making D’Wit a director of the firm, which prosecutors say was a fake will created by D’Wit on April 10 2023, “does not have an understanding of how a business is run”.

The document said the couple’s daughter Ellie would be the “100% shareholder and complete owner”, but that D’Wit would be “the director and person with significant control”.

Mr Andrews said the document appeared to be “handing control to one person then to another without the logic of how it would work”.

He said that in his opinion it was a “very odd document to draft by two people who run Cazsplash”.

Stephen Clarke, technical consultant manager for medical device firm Medtronic, said data from Mrs Baxter’s pacemaker was downloaded after her death.

He said the download happened in July 2023 and that the data went back as far as May 2022.

Mr Clarke said analysis of the pacemaker data gave a “three-hour window of expectation of time of death of 11am to 2pm April 8 British Summer Time”.

He said that from April 9 last year there was “no spontaneous heart rhythm being generated by Mrs Baxter”.

The trial continues, with jurors sent home for the day to return at 11am on Tuesday.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know