One of the alleged killers of an alcoholic woman tried to cash her income support in the days following her death, a court heard.

Charmaine Dempsey, 48, was found battered to death at her ground-floor flat in Ivory Walk, Bewbush, Crawley, in December last year.

A jury at Lewes Crown Court has heard the body lay undiscovered for about a month and that Ms Dempsey was believed to have been killed on November 27 last year after she fell out with a group of friends, who were also drinkers.

Two men, Alex Gallacher, 33, and Stephen Johnstone, 26, have both denied murder. Tracey Gazzard, 29, Gallacher's girlfriend at the time, admitted a charge of manslaughter at an earlier hearing on the grounds she assaulted Ms Dempsey but did not intend to kill her.

Yesterday, the jury heard evidence from two members of staff who worked at the Bewbush post office when Ms Dempsey was killed.

Angela Latter, a cashier, said a man came in with Ms Dempsey's income support book on either November 28 or December 5 last year.

She referred him to post office manager Laura Magri because she was unsure whether he was allowed to cash one of the weekly vouchers.

Ms Magri said she refused the man because the voucher had not been correctly signed by Ms Dempsey. She knew him to be Gallacher.

The court also heard from Christine McLean, a fraud investigator for the Department of Work and Pensions, who was one of the last people to see Ms Dempsey alive.

Ms McLean was asked to interview Ms Dempsey after a woman was reported trying to cash an income support voucher in the name of her boyfriend David Triggs, also known as Harry, two weeks after his death in August last year.

Ms Dempsey arrived in time for her noon appointment on November 27 last year but Ms McLean told the jury: "I went down to see her and she did not look well and was obviously under the influence of drink or drugs."

Ms McLean said she also noticed scratches on Ms Dempsey's face and asked her to return at a later date.

Fingerprint expert April Grant told the court the fingerprints of both defendants were found on several items removed from the flat by scenes of crime officers following the discovery of Ms Dempsey's body.

She said Johnstone's prints were found on a Coca-Cola bottle, mug and a piece of poster, while Gallacher's were found on a different mug, bits of a broken vase, the outside frame of a bedroom door and on Ms Dempsey's income support voucher book.

The prosecution allege Ms Dempsey was killed after she was blamed by Gallacher, Johnstone and Gazzard, who were all living at the time in Neptune Close, Crawley, after social services took Gazzard's three children into care. The trial continues.