A YOUNG Belgian man accused of brutally raping and murdering a Cornish pensioner while her bed-ridden husband lay helpless in the next room goes on trial in Spain today.

Timothy Geert Knocaert will face prosecution demands that he should be jailed for a total of 36 years when he goes on trial in Alicante, South East Spain.

Knocaert was only 19 when he allegedly committed the crime that shocked the Costa Blanca in November, 2007.

The court will hear the prosecution claim that Knocaert, now 21, went to the home of his victim, Janette May Grocutt, 72, and her husband, Douglas, 74, at Pinosa, inland from the popular holiday coast, in the early hours of November 9, 2007, after telephoning the couple. The accused had earlier befriended Mrs Grocutt, who had been living in Spain with her husband for six years after moving from St Austell, and had visited the couple often.

The prosecution will allege that when he arrived he asked if he could stay the night.

From his bed Mr Grocutt saw the teenager and his wife go into the room she used as an office.

There, a prosecution statement to be read at the beginning of the trial will allege, Knocaert produced a kitchen knife and forced Mrs Grocutt into a bedroom.

In the bedroom he repeatedly stabbed the British pensioner in various parts of her body, pushed her onto a bed and raped her before stabbing her again several times. Mrs Grocutt bled to death.

As she lay dying the accused then went to where her husband, who had heard her screams, lay helpless in bed.

There he stole 500 euros – then worth nearly £400 – in cash, two credit cards and two mobile telephones and left the house.

Mrs Grocutt's body was found by a neighbour in a pool of blood some 17 and a half hours later.

Her husband was in a state of shock still unable to move from his bed.

Knocaert will face prosecution demands that he should be jailed for 19 years for murder, 14 years for rape and three years for theft.

The state lawyer will also ask the panel of three judges sitting at the Palace of Justice in the capital of the Costa Blanca to order the accused to pay £30,450 compensation to Stephen Grocutt, the murdered pensioner's son.

The trial is expected to last two days. The judges' written findings and sentence will be released at a later date.