Woman, 29, looked like a ‘crazed animal’ as she ‘attacked sugar daddy, 65, with a bottle before knifing him to death’
A WOMAN looked like a “crazed animal” as she attacked her sugar daddy with a bottle before knifing him to death, a court heard.
Lauren Harris, 29, lunged at 65-year-old Mark Wilcox at his home in Wales and began punching and kicking him, it is said.
Jurors were told her pupils were “massive” as she grabbed a vodka bottle and smacked her older lover over the head with it.
Harris then allegedly stabbed the grandad and left him to die in a pool of blood in his armchair.
Mold Crown Court was told Harris had invited her pals David Webster and Thomas Whiteley over to Mark’s home last November for a night of “drinking and drug-taking”.
Webster today described the moment Harris looked like a “crazed animal” as she attacked Mark.
He said: “The look in her eyes – her pupils were massive, it was just the speed at which she did it.”
The defendant, who denies murder alongside Harris and Whiteley, claimed he tried to grab the vodka bottle but Harris was still “irate, kicking off and shouting”.
He told the court she then stabbed Mark with “no warning whatsoever” as he and Whiteley struggled to get her to stop.
Webster added: “I tried telling her to calm down, but she wouldn’t calm down. She said: ‘I’ll stab you, as well’.”
The court heard the trio stole Mark’s Volvo but crashed less than a minute after leaving the horror scene.
A post mortem showed Mark was stabbed twice in the chest and suffered “significant blows to the head”.
He also had injuries consistent with having been struck with a solid object – “such as a blood-stained vodka bottle”.
In video footage played to the court from her police interview, Harris could be seen denying she was involved in the fatal stabbing.
She said: “I’m in here because of what them two have done. It wasn’t me.”
Harris also claimed “no one’s done anything wrong” when she was arrested on suspicion of murder.
She added: “Why am I getting nicked for it? It doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve done f**k all, anyway.”
Jurors were told Harris has previous convictions for assault – including unlawful wounding in 2022 involving use of a knife against a partner.
She allegedly embarked on a relationship with Mark because he wanted to “look after her in his retirement”.
But Harris “took advantage” of the dad-of-two, who repeatedly let his younger lover borrow money and invited her to stay at his home.
Prosecutor Andrew Ford KC said: “Mr Wilcox was a gregarious, generous man whose generosity spilled over with the people he met, including, sometimes, strangers.”
The court was told Mark’s sons were so concerned by the relationship they started a WhatsApp group called the “Dad Brigade” to keep an eye on him.
By the time of his death, more than £12,000 had been withdrawn from his bank account between June and November 2023.
The court was told Mark previously worked for the Ministry of Defence and the BBC before retiring aged 65.
Harris, Webster, 43, and Whiteley, 33, all deny murder.
The trial continues.
