A woman bludgeoned her mother-in-law to death using a rolling pin after she had been staying with the family for six months, a court has heard.

Rajvinder Kaur, 37, who denies a charge of murder, is accused of causing multiple injuries to the head and neck of 56-year-old Baljit Kaur Buttar.

Bill Mousley QC, prosecuting, told Winchester Crown Court that a paramedic, John Pike, was called to Kaur’s home in Southampton, Hampshire, on February 25 2011, after receiving a report that a woman had suffered a heart attack.

But when Mr Pike arrived, he found Ms Buttar, known as BB, naked and dead in the bath having suffered serious head injuries.

The jury was shown a video taken of the scene which showed the bathroom floor covered in blood with further blood found in the kitchen where the rolling pin was discovered.

Mr Mousley said: “Baljit Kaur Buttar, a 56-year-old Indian woman, was murdered, the prosecution say, in a flat in Southampton.

”She was subjected to a sustained attack in a bathroom in which she was beaten repeatedly with a wooden rolling pin to the head and neck and died at the scene as a result of these injuries.

”The person responsible was the defendant, Rajvinder Kaur.”

Mr Mousley said that when Mr Pike arrived, there was shouting between Kaur and her husband, Iqbal Singh.

He then found Kaur washing her mother-in-law’s body with a handheld shower in the bath.

The couple’s two sons, aged nine and 18 months, were also at the flat at the time, the court heard.

Mr Pike and Mr Singh lifted Ms Buttar out of the bath and into the kitchen while Kaur watched.

Resuscitation attempts were made but were unsuccessful.

Mr Mousley said: “At one point when asked what had happened, the defendant said she (Ms Buttar) had a bath and was putting some oil on, she (Kaur) had heard a bang and gone into the bathroom.

”She thought BB had fallen over in the bath.”

Mr Mousley explained that Ms Buttar had been staying with the family in the Broadlands Road flat since August 2010.

She had been due to return to India on February 27 - two days after she had died.

The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.