Lounge chair used in Batehaven double murder: court

By Veronica Apap
Updated November 5 2012 - 6:36pm, first published September 22 2008 - 11:40am
Kenneth and Margaret Keyte, who were found dead in their Batehaven home in August. Tracey Lee Pratt is charged with their murder.
Kenneth and Margaret Keyte, who were found dead in their Batehaven home in August. Tracey Lee Pratt is charged with their murder.

Police believe a lounge chair was the main weapon used in the murder of Batehaven couple Kenneth and Margaret Keyte last month.Documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court yesterday said the couple was killed by blunt force trauma and a bloodied lounge chair found near the bodies had been used to "inflict severe injuries to both victims".They had also sustained injuries from being kicked.Tracey Lee Pratt, a neighbour of the Keytes, appeared in court yesterday via audio-visual link, charged with two counts of murder and one of affray.Director of Public Prosecutions lawyer Paul Stanley applied for a forensic examination of Pratt, 43, allowing police to collect a hair sample, a sample of cells from the inside of her cheek, photographs and measurements of her height, weight, arm length and leg length.The documents tendered to the court said a dark coloured hair was found in 70-year-old Mrs Keyte's hand during the post-mortem examination and may have belonged to her killer.Investigators found shoe prints in the bloodied carpet of the Keytes' home and palm and fingerprints in blood left on the leg of a lounge chair.Two fingerprint experts had confirmed to police that the prints were Pratt's, the documents said.She had allegedly been involved in a previous altercation with Mr Keyte, 86."This was over a cat being caught in a rabbit trap," one of the documents said. "Mr Keyte expressed fears to people that he was fearful of a woman who lived in the same building."The court also yesterday dealt with an unrelated charge of affray against Pratt.Police allege on August 21, about 11 days after the alleged murders, Pratt went to the door of another of her neighbours and began banging on the door.She allegedly yelled at the occupants, spat on them and kicked their door.Police reported that Pratt was aggressive when they arrived and violently resisted arrest.She was taken to a mental health facility, released the next day and arrested and fingerprinted.It was those prints which were later allegedly matched to latent prints found at the Keytes' home.Pratt is due back in Wollongong Local Court on October 7 over her affray charge.She will face Nowra Local Court on December 2 over the murder charges.

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