A pensioner murdered her film director sister in her own home and took her Rolex watch before leaving her body to rot, a court heard.
Nancy Pexton, who turns 70 on Friday, is accused of stabbing to death Jennifer Abbott Dauward after turning up at her flat.
Prosecutors said Pexton stabbed her sister multiple times, then left the house with the Rolex, and called her doctor saying she had taken an overdose. Ms Abbott was never seen alive again.
Pexton was arrested in hospital just over a week later, five days after Ms Abbott’s lifeless body had been found by a concerned relative, and the victim’s beloved dog Prince was discovered locked in a bathroom.
Pexton denies murder, and said she was only visiting Ms Abbott to get hold of pills to help with her depression, suggesting a local drug dealer may have been responsible for the murder.
Opening the trial at the Old Bailey on Thursday, prosecutor WIlliam Boyce KC told jurors how homeless Pexton called her sister and spoke on the phone for just over 15 minutes, shortly after 11.30am on June 10 last year.
She arrived at Ms Abbott’s flat in Mornington Place, Camden, north London, shortly before 1pm, and left around an hour later, when she called her GP saying she felt suicidial, the court heard.
Pexton said she had a blackout about what happened earlier, jurors were told, but later gave a full account, and denied assaulting her sister.
He said: ‘The prosecution say that the defendant murdered her sister, Jennifer Abbott, on 10 June 2025.
‘They spoke by phone that morning, before the defendant then travelled to her sister’s flat by bus.
‘The murder took place in that time.
‘The defendant then left the flat and called her – Ms Pexton’s – GP, saying she had taken an overdose.
‘She was taken to hospital and stayed there until her arrest.
‘She said she could not remember what happened in the previous 90 minutes.’
Ms Abbott, also known as Sarah Steinberg, was found three days later, covered by a sheet, with significant injuries to the upper half of her body.
The prosecutor said: ‘It was obvious very quickly that Ms Abbott was dead. She was lying primarily face up, but slightly on her right side.
‘Her head pointed towards the window and her feet pointed towards the door of the room leading into the hallway.
‘Her right arm was extended under the coffee table, between which and the sofa she lay, and her left arm was across her body. She appeared to be wearing only her knickers.’
There is no evidence Ms Abbott was sexually abused, although there was duct tape over her mouth, the court heard.
Mr Boyce said Ms Abbott ordinarily wore a bracelet and a gold Rolex watch, which had diamonds in place of roman numerals.
Ms Abbott was so attached to the timepiece that she would often keep it on even while washing, the court heard.
But the Rolex, which had significant sentimental value, was not discovered on her dead body, and was instead later found among her younger sister’s possessions.
Mr Boyce said: ‘Ms Abbott was wearing the bracelet, but the Rolex watch was missing.
‘As you will hear, when police went to hospital and spoke to the defendant… they searched her property and in one of her bags was her sister’s watch – the watch she never took off, the watch to which she was greatly attached.’
The court heard Pexton told police her sister ‘asked me to look after it’.
Ms Abbott was 69 at the time of her death, and was nine months older than Pexton.
Mr Boyce said Ms Abbott was not in good health, and described as ‘frail and inactive’, although she regularly walked her dog, a large Corgi.
Mr Boyce told jurors the ‘traumatic nature’ of Ms Abbott’s death proves her assailant intended to kill the victim or cause her really serious harm.
He said: ‘You may think that the circumstances are such that there can be no sensible argument that she was anything other than unlawfully killed, that there was no legal justification or excuse for the killing, she was not killed in self-defence for example.
‘In short, say the prosecution, for sure Jennifer Abbott was murdered.
‘The central issue in the case is whether the defendant was responsible for the murder, or did someone else, after the defendant had come along, kill?
‘The prosecution say you can be sure that Nancy Pexton did kill her sister.’
The court heard Pexton arrived at her sister’s one-bedroom flat carrying some KFC fast food and diet coke, and left roughly an hour later.
She then called her GP, making allegations about her family members and saying she felt suicidal.
Prosecutor Mr Boyce said the doctor’s surgery flagged concerns with emergency services, who called Pexton.
Pexton is then said to have told the 999 call handler: ‘I’ve been abused by my family…I don’t want to report anything please, please because they’re very powerful, my family… they will kill me if I tell anything about them and I took… what was I saying?’
She added: ‘Last hour and a half I blacked out, I don’t know what I’ve done.’
The court heard Pexton told police she hugged her sister while the latter suffered a nosebleed.
This, she said, was the reason Ms Abbott’s blood was later discovered on her clothing – although a forensic scientist said it was more likely as a result of stabbing her sister multiple times.
She also said her sister claimed someone living in the same block of flats was due to turn up later to sell cannabis.
While in hospital, Pexton asked one of her two adult daughters to take her clothes – said to have been covered in blood – and either wash them or dispose of them, the court heard.
Pexton, appearing at the Old Bailey via video link and wearing a grey top with her long brown hair untied, denies murder.
Ms Abbott’s directoral credits include War of the Gods, a documentary about religion and power.
The trial continues.
