Michael Stone 'boasted of hammer murders to prisoner'

A British court has heard Michael Stone admitted to another prisoner bludgeoning Lin and Megan Russell to death with a hammer.

Nigel Sweeney QC told Nottingham Crown Court Stone carried out the horrendous attack on the defenceless family in Kent, Britain in 1996.

He said fellow convict Damian Daley, on remand at Canterbury Prison in 1997, said Stone boasted that cracking the family's skulls was like "smashing eggs".

Stone is also charged with battering Megan's sister, Josie Russell, to within an inch of her life.

The 41-year-old, from Gillingham, Kent, denies two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

The killings took place in a remote country lane near Chillenden on July 9, 1996.

On the first day of evidence at the second trial for the Russell hammer murders, the jury heard Lin and her two daughters were walking back from their school when they were attacked.

The court heard a man approached the family in Cherry Garden Lane brandishing a hammer and demanding money.

Mr Sweeney said Stone told Daley the victims were 'whores and slags' who 'did not have what he wanted'.

"He said one had tried to get away but did not go far. Josie had tried to get away but did not get far. The defendant referred to 'smashing an egg and insides being mush', obviously a reference to the hammer going into the skulls and the brain underneath."

The case continues.