A FRAIL and vulnerable Suffolk jeweller was stabbed and beaten to death in a botched burglary at his home above a shop, a court was told.

Jewellery shop owner Peter Avis, 66, was found dead with stab wounds in his flat above Collis & Son, in Bury St Edmunds, on January 13.

The property had been ransacked and a number of valuable items were missing.

A man has already admitted the murder but today the trial of two of his alleged accomplices in the burglary, Aleksandra Karpiuk and Pawel Borowiecki, began at Ipswich Crown Court.

Prosecutor Peter Gair said: “The shop was a prime target for a burglary: a vulnerable, single person working alone.

“That was indeed what happened. They stole silverware and jewellery.

“The real tragedy was that Mr Avis was present in his flat and was murdered during the course of the burglary.

“Police officers arrived to find disturbing scenes. The flat had been ransacked.

“Mr Avis was found in his bed and he had been dead for some hours.

“He had been struck about the face with a glass ash tray and stabbed 13 times.”

He told jurors that Mr Avis suffered a brain aneurysm some 20 years ago and relied on a walking stick and zimmer frame for mobility.

He had lived alone above the shop in Abbeygate Street since the death of his mother in 1989.

Borowiecki, 31, of Roslyn Road, London, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.

Karpiuk, 27, of Lake Avenue in Bury St Edmunds, denies the same charge.

She also denies assisting an offender by driving Pyotr Melaniuk to Stansted Airport as he fled to his native Poland after the killing.

Melaniuk, 28, also known by the first name Ireneusz, previously admitted murder and burglary. He has been remanded in custody.

The trial continues