27-year-old Carl Whant, is accused of raping and murdering 19-year-old Nikitta Grender, two weeks before she was due to give birth to her baby girl.
At about half five in the morning of 5 February last year when Nikitta Grender’s neighbor heard her smoke alarm and dialled 999. The teenager’s body was found in the burning flat on the Broadmead estate in Newport. At first it was thought she and her unborn daughter had died in the fire. But a post mortem revealed she had been stabbed.
The night Miss Grender died her boyfriend and father of her unborn child, Ryan Mayes, had been out drinking with friends. Among them was his second cousin Carl Whant. Speaking for the prosecution Gregg Taylor QC, told the jury at Newport Crown Court that Carl Whant raped and murdered Nikitta Grender before setting her bedroom alight to cover it up. It was alleged that Miss Grender did not like Carl Whant, a cocaine user who she considered to be a bad influence on her boyfriend.
At her funeral Miss Grender was described as a lively young woman expecting a much loved and much-wanted baby with her boyfriend Ryan Mayes. They’d already named the baby Kelsey May.
Mr Whant denies all the charges against him and the case continues.