HAIRDRESSER Kelly Hyde was beaten to death in an unprovoked "explosion of violence" as she walked her dog near Pantyffynnon last September, a crown court jury was told yesterday (Tuesday).

At the trial of a teenager accused of murdering 24-year-old Miss Hyde, prosecutor Patrick Harrington told how she died of "blunt force and may have been attacked twice, causing multiple fractures to her face and skull and severe haemorrhaging to the surface and inside of her brain".

Mr Harrington said the 17-year-old charged with her death may well have subjected Miss Hyde to an initial surprise attack before returning to his home to change his bloodstained clothes and collect a 2.5kg barbell which he took back to the scene to carry out a further brutal, and ultimately fatal, assault.

According to Mr Harrington, the teenager, who denies the killing, then tried to hide Kelly's body by submerging her in a nearby stream.

He added that there was even a possibility that Kelly had somehow survived both assaults, only to drown after being dumped in the water.

Mr Harrington told the court that the attack appeared to be without motive and that there was no evidence whatsoever of any kind of sexual assault.

"The violence he used was gross in the extreme," Mr Harrington told the jury. "The majority of the attack was directed to her head - the most vulnerable part of her body.

"He attacked her in a dreadful and most brutal fashion."

Although there were no witnesses to the killing, Mr Harrington said: "What is clear is that he beat her to death using as the principal weapon a weight taken from a set he had at home."

Mr Harrington traced Miss Hyde's movements from the time she dropped off her car at Brynteg Garage, Tycroes, until the moment she met her death, naming numerous witnesses who saw her and her beloved pet whippet Scrappy en route to the bridlepath where she was killed.

He told the court how investigators had found a Lonsdale training shoe print at the scene, which may well have matched a pair regularly worn by the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Mr Harrington explained how the trainers owned by the accused, who was accompanied in the dock by his weeping mother, had been cleaned, but retained small traces of Kelly's blood and DNA trapped around the stitching.

He also told how directors from weight-lifting supply company Yorke had matched the murder weapon found near the scene to a weight discovered on the window sill of the accused youth's bedroom, explaining that weights always came in pairs The court was also told how Scrappy's lead was found hidden in the attic space of the home the defendant shared with his mother and her then partner.

The trial continues.

See today's Guardian for full report