A police worker who received a 999 call from a dying mother after she and her husband were fatally stabbed has described how it was “one of the most harrowing calls” he had ever taken.

Michelle Hibbert, 29, and her husband Geoffrey died last year at their home in Basingstoke.

Stanley Elliott, 53, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of their murders. He denies the charges.

Sarah Jones QC, for the prosecution, told the court that Elliott had been asked to babysit the couple’s son at their home in Basingstoke while they went out in Reading in July 2021.

The couple considered him a friend, the court was told.

Mrs Hibbert made a 999 call using Elliott’s mobile phone to report that she and her husband had been attacked after getting home.

‘One of the most harrowing calls’

Christopher Charles, the call handler, said in a statement read out in court: “A female voice said words to the effect ‘I have been stabbed and my husband has been stabbed’.

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“My immediate reaction was the female seemed really calm. I remember asking the female who had done it and the female replied, I believed, ‘Tam Elliott’.

“I thought this was an unusual name, so I repeated it back to her, from recall there was no reply to this question.”

Mr Charles said that when he asked Mrs Hibbert about her injuries, “it caused her to focus on them and made her realise how serious the injuries were”.

She started “screaming and I didn’t get anything further from her”, he added.

“I am aware of agonal breathing when someone is dying and that is what I thought I was hearing.”

When officers arrived at the scene, he said, he had “never heard an officer sounding so scared and that’s what really sticks out”.

“It’s one of the most harrowing calls I have taken but I have tried not to dwell on it.”

Husband stabbed 58 times

Mr Hibbert died from 58 stab wounds and blunt force trauma injuries, the court was told, while his wife died of multiple stab wounds and was found lying partly naked on her bed.

Elliott might have believed that Mr Hibbert, who was to appear in court in relation to a £28,000 burglary at a bingo hall, was going to link him to the crime, Ms Jones said.

She added that this was a possible motive after a court document naming Elliott, from Sherborne St John in Hampshire, was found in a bin at the couple’s home.

The trial continues.

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