A woman cut off her mother's head, put it in a carrier bag, took it out at a family friend's allotment and kissed it, a court heard.
Odessa Carey, 36, is accused of murdering her 73-year-old mother of the same name but is too unwell to go on trial at Newcastle Crown Court , jurors have been told.
The pensioner's headless body was found lying on her bed at her home in Ashington, Northumberland, last April.
Her daughter was arrested at another address in Guide Post, and police found a head in a bag under the sink.
Nicholas Lumley QC, prosecuting, said the day before she was arrested, the daughter had visited the allotment of a friend of her late father and she had blood on her hands and arms when she turned up.
Lumley said: "She had with her a bag, the contents of which she showed to the allotment holder.
"It was a human head. She kissed it.
"It can only have been her mother's head."
Lumley said the allotment holder did not have a phone and did not contact the police, but went to the pub and told someone what he had seen.
It was only the next day that someone else he had told contacted the police, and the daughter was tracked down and arrested.
Carey is attending court and the proceedings, known as a trial of facts, continue.
