TWO teenage friends on a holiday island were strangled to death with shoelaces by a small-time drug dealer, a court was told yesterday.
Sixteen-year-olds Samantha Barton and George Green were found 350 yards apart. They had also been stabbed and had underwear cut from their bodies.
The killings were "very determined and deliberate murderous acts", a jury at the Isle of Man Courts of Justice, in Douglas, was told.
Peter Newbery, 22, of Douglas, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Samantha and George on the Isle of Man in February last year.
Samantha's body was found at her semi-detached care home, Leece Lodge 2. George's body was discovered the next day in a nearby field.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Tim Holroyde said: "Each of the two deceased had been strangled.
"In each case the ligature was a shoelace of the kind used in trainers.
"In each case the tightly knotted shoelace was found still in place."
The trial was adjourned.
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