A couple accused of killing a 17-year-old boy and hiding his body in their attic committed the crime so they could give their children a “good Christmas”, a court has heard.
Stacy Docherty, 28, and Gary Hopkins, 37, are charged with murdering Abdi Ali with a claw hammer and a knife at their flat in Enfield, north London, just four days before Christmas in 2017.
A jury at the Old Bailey was told the pair then wrapped his body into a duvet cover and left it in their loft for the next eight months.
The bloodstained murder weapons were also said to have been hidden there.
Police were alerted after the defendants let slip details about what had happened to associates who visited the flat, the court heard.