A Scottish mum-of-two made desperate pleas to police for help before being brutally murdered in a frenzied claw hammer attack, a court heard.
Cancer survivor Nicola Stevenson’s 101 call was not picked up and emails to a police officer were never answered.
Her body was found five weeks later stuffed head first into a wheelie bin.
After her death, lodger Richard Canlin used Nicola’s benefits to buy himself a snooker table and Xbox, visiting the same cashpoint to withdraw money from her account.
He applied to the housing association to sign her flat over to him the day after murdering her, a court heard.
Canlin, then 41, was described as a liar who invented an elaborate alibi when he was arrested two days after the body of Nicola, 39, was found stuffed in the discarded household bin in a park.
Canlin had been living with Nicola as her lodger for more than a month before she disappeared.
Nicola, originally from Edinburgh, was described as a vulnerable woman who was only four foot nine inches tall.
She suffered from Russell-Silver Syndrome, a form of dwarfism, the jury were told.
She needed a stick to walk and used a mobility scooter to get around when she left her home in Lewes, East Sussex.
After telling a friend her lodger was kicking off again, Nicola used the non emergency 101 number to call Sussex Police on October 10 - the afternoon the Crown say she was murdered. The call was not answered.
Minutes later she emailed a female police officer to beg for help.
She wrote: “Could you call me ASAP. Richard Canlin is getting abusive towards me as I want him out.”
When there was no response, she tried again.
In a second and final email to the same officer, she wrote: “Could you call me ASAP please.”
Five weeks later her body was found in a wheelie bin.
Prosecutor Carolin Carberry QC told Lewes Crown Court: “A little after midday on November 13, the body of 39-year-old Nicola Stevenson was discovered by a dog walker in a wheelie bin.
“She had been killed in a brutal attack which left her with numerous skull and facial fractures and a fracture to her neck.
“Her body was in a state of decomposition.”
Ms Carberry told the jury Canlin had been a lodger for about a month to six weeks before she disappeared.
“After she went missing Richard Canlin told neighbours she had gone away to Scotland.
“He did not report her missing, he did not try to contact her.
“Instead, he made an application for the tenancy to be put in his name.
“He used her bank card to buy a snooker table and an Xbox on her benefits and he continued to collect her pain medicine from the pharmacy.”
It wasn’t until November 13, five weeks after she disappeared, a man walking his dog investigated the contents of a wheelie bin dumped near football pitches.
Carberry said: “He pulled bedding out and saw the bottom half of a clothed body with the bare legs bent at the knee.
“She had been placed into the bin, head first, legs bent at the knee.
“He immediately called police.”
After identifying the remains police went to Nicola’s flat where they found a claw hammer stained with her blood and Canlin’s DNA on the handle.
A rolled up bloodstained carpet was found and a sheet was discovered in the washing machine still covered in blood.
Forensic examination of the flat showed DNA matches for blood on a living room chair and extensive staining and splatter marks in her bedroom.
Blood splatter marks on the walls were consistent with her being attacked in her bedroom.
In interview, Canlin claimed he was Nicola’s brother and he had been in Nottingham during her disappearance.
Caroline Carberry said CCTV and mobile phone data clearly showed he was in Lewes.
He claimed another man was responsible for her murder - but there was nothing to link the other man to the scene.
A post mortem examination established she died following blunt force trauma to the head.
Canlin is accused of murdering Nicola, last November in Lewes, East Sussex.
A jury was told he is accused of murdering her between October 10 and November 13, 2019.
Nicola’s body was discovered by a dog walker in undergrowth at a recreation ground in Lewes, East Sussex on Wednesday November 13. Canlin, then aged 41, was charged on November 17. He denies murder.
The trial at Lewes Crown Court in Hove, expected to last two weeks, continues.
