A statistician was murdered in a “dosshouse” in Greater Manchester by a man who later stole his labradoodle after a disagreement over money, a court has heard.
Ian Connell, 39, is accused of strangling Donald “Prentice” Patience, 45, after a row and returning later to break into his property to take the dog, named Layla.
Police were called out to a “burglary in progress” at Patience’s end terrace house in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, on 22 August after a postal worker saw Connell acting suspiciously.
When officers arrived, Connell had the white labradoodle on a lead outside the property and told them Patience was away in Scotland and had given him permission by phone to force entry because he needed his dog walking.
The Crown Prosecution Service said that was the first of “many lies” from Connell and that at some point from 19 August he murdered the statistician and then “callously” went about his day-to-day life as his victim’s body lay decomposing underneath a pink duvet cover at the bottom of the stairs.
Connell was among a number of people accused of preying on Patience’s “good nature” to borrow money, the court heard.
Jurors in the murder trial at Manchester crown court were told that Patience was born in the Highland town of Alness and graduated from Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University as an actuary in 2001.
His job involved undertaking statistical analysis for pensions but he became unwell from the high-pressure job and spent a short time in a Priory clinic.
Patience moved to Greater Manchester in about 2005 and set up a Domino’s pizza restaurant franchise in Bury with one of his brothers. In a statement read to the court, his former wife, Kirsty Banks, said she had met him while working there and they married in 2012 and had three children.
Banks said Prentice had a car accident in 2015, which left him temporarily unable to work and that he “started to drink more” and eventually became “addicted to painkillers”. The couple argued when Patience later refused her pleas for him to return to work, she said.
A former colleague at Domino’s, Paul Parker, told the court he had received a Facebook message from Patience in March 2023 asking for help after his car had been stolen and his phone was missing.
When he arrived, he did not go inside the house but could see the inside was a mess. Parker said: “There was crap everywhere. He looked thin. He was like a homeless person. He had long hair, a beard.
“His dog, Layla, didn’t look great and looked as if she needed a bath. It looked like a dosshouse. I could see there was writing on the walls in the two receptions rooms.”
A witness statement was also read out from Glen Denning, an associate of Connell, who said the pair would take drugs together and that Connell would regularly get money from a man he called his “boss”.
Denning recalled an occasion when Connell allegedly complained he was no longer receiving cash, as he told him: “He has fucking stopped giving me money. He is taking the fucking piss. I don’t know why.”
Connell, from Bolton, denies murder. He has also pleaded not guilty to an alternative count of manslaughter.