IT worker posed as a doctor and set-up a fake illness support group to befriend millionaire couple before 'changing their wills and poisoning them with fentanyl', court hears

• Stephen Baxter, 61, and his wife Carol, 64, died at home in West Mersea, Essex

An IT worker posed as a doctor and set up a fake illness support group to befriend a couple, before he ‘changed their wills and and poisoned them with fentanyl’, a court has heard.

Luke D’Wit has been accused of targeting Stephen Baxter, 61, and his wife Carol, 64, with ‘a web of deception and manipulation’ by creating a fake online support group for sufferers of the thyroid condition Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, which Mrs Baxter suffered from.

The prosecution alleges that Mr D’Wit, 34, killed the Baxters with fentanyl, which had been prescribed as a painkiller for his late grandfather, ‘in order to profit from their deaths’.

He allegedly drew up a codicil to their will on his mobile phone the day after they were found dead, making him a director of their business.

Another alleged invention was a Florida-based doctor called Andrea Bowden who gave Mrs Baxter advice on how to treat her condition, including limiting access to her family.

Tributes were paid to Stephen and Carol Baxter by their neighbours, who said they were a ‘lovely couple’

Luke D’Wit, 34, filmed on body cam footage during a police interview

Stephen and Carol Baxter who were found dead in their home in West Mersea, Essex by their daughter on April 9

Police found D’Wit also had capsules of promethazine, an antihistamine which had been adapted so that they contained four times the amount of medication, the court heard.

Prosecutor Tracy Ayling KC said the drug was found in potentially lethal quantities, along with fentanyl, in Mrs Baxter’s blood, and was a contributory cause of her death.

Mr D’Wit used a chisel and pot at his home as a makeshift pestle and mortar to grind up tablets and put them in the capsules, she added.

Police also allegedly found images from an app on Luke D’Wit’s phone that showed the couple dying in their home.

CCTV footage from a neighbouring property is said to show the defendant checking another phone outside the couple’s million-pound house after they were poisoned.

Ms Ayling said it may have caught Mr D’Wit checking to make sure the couple were unconscious before removing evidence that he had slipped fentanyl, a powerful prescription synthetic opiate, into their drinks.

‘Was he watching them die? Both of them were already incapacitated and we know the fentanyl was taken orally,’ Ms Ayling said.

‘Was this when he made everything pristine, for instance clearing up the cups and making sure he didn’t leave a trace?

‘He was indeed the last person to see them alive. He watched them dying on his phone.’

Ms Ayling said police found the iHeartCam home security app had been downloaded on two of D’Wit’s phones, enabling one to be placed secretly in the Baxters’ home in West Mersea, Essex, while the other received pictures.

The app was activated on both phones on April 7 last year, the day Mr D’Wit is accused of secretly administering the fatal doses.

Users could delete clips but there was a cache of six images stored on the defendant’s devices, Ms Ayling told the jury, who were shown the photos with the couple’s faces blacked out.

The Baxters’ bodies were found on April 9 when their distraught daughter Ellie, 22, and her partner Marcus Young called round to visit them.

Checks on Mrs Baxter’s activity based on data from her pacemaker indicated she probably died between 11am and 2pm on April 8, meaning she would have been in a coma by the time Mr D’Wit visited their home.

The defendant, who did IT and website work for the couple’s business Cazsplash, which sold bathmats designed to fit around curved showers, was filmed on their Ring doorbell leaving their home at 7.45pm on April 7.

The IT worker leaving the shower tycoon’s house after he ‘killed them with fentanyl’ on the evening of April 7

The IT worker told the police officer that he last saw them alive two days before they were discovered dead by their daughter

The will D’Wit allegedly created on his phone which was released by police

The home of the millionaire tycoon husband and wife in  Essex

He had the Ring app on his phone and had accessed it around four hours before the victims’ bodies were discovered, despite not having a Ring device at his home nearby.

Mr D’Wit, who claimed to have been Mrs Baxter’s best friend and ‘like an adopted son’ to the couple, searched the internet for how to delete Ring videos, it is claimed.

The prosecution alleges that Mr D’Wit killed the Baxters with fentanyl, which had been prescribed as a painkiller for his late grandfather, ‘in order to profit from their deaths’.

He allegedly drew up a codicil to their will on his mobile phone the day after they were found dead, making him a director of their business.

When the defendant’s home was searched, some of Mrs Baxter’s jewellery was allegedly found.

Mr D’Wit denies two counts of murder, theft and possession of a Class A drug.

Mrs Baxter was managing director of Cazsplash Ltd, a bathroom accessories firm which sells bathmats designed to fit around curved or corner showers.

The former adult educator came up with the idea and held the intellectual property rights.

Her husband, whom she married in 2000, was a fellow director of the business, which launched 12 years ago.

He was also global lead, operational risk and assurance, for multi-billion pound transnational real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, which was founded in the UK but has its headquarters in Chicago.

The couple had two children together, while Mrs Baxter had two more children from two previous marriages.

The trial continues.

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