'My last moments with Elizabeth'

The husband of the BBC costume designer run down and allegedly left for dead by two thieves spoke today of his last moments with her.

Peter Sherlock told the Old Bailey that his wife Elizabeth had left him behind to chase a woman who had snatched her handbag - triggering the chain of events which led to her death.

As Mr Sherlock guarded their luggage in a cafe at Euston station, his wife was thrown from a car bonnet. It is alleged that the car was the thieves' getaway vehicle, and that they then drove it over Mrs Sherlock, 42, as she lay in the road.

She was taken by helicopter to the Royal London Hospital but died during surgery later the same day, Easter Monday.

Mr Sherlock, 48, told the court: "Elizabeth said, 'My bag is gone', but I wasn't aware of her rushing off. She bustled out of the caf? the way we came in. I thought she was going to go outside, not see anyone and come back. Then someone said there had been an accident."

Mr Sherlock said he saw his wife of six years lying in the road surrounded by emergency teams. "They said she was conscious. They said if I was there it would be upsetting for her, and took me into the fire station to look after me there."

The court heard how he told police the woman his wife chased "had yellow-white skin. She was ill with rings under her eyes, like someone who was taking drugs."

Mr Sherlock, of Chiswick, said he and his wife had been on the way to celebrate the 80th birthday of Mrs Sherlock's father.

The court has heard that Jackie Moorehouse, 24, of West Hampstead, snatched the bag after sitting at a table next to the Sherlocks. Moorehouse is then alleged to have run to a car parked opposite the station where her accomplice, plasterer Mark Woolley, 36, was waiting.

Marion Espanzial, who was at Euston on her way to Birmingham, told the court she saw the chase and saw Mrs Sherlock hanging on to the car bonnet, clinging to the windscreen wiper. "The top half of her was over the bonnet and her legs were at the side of the car, curled up."

Euphemia Brown, a hotel worker, said the car began to move off as soon as Mrs Sherlock jumped on to the bonnet. "She was banging on the screen and bonnet and screaming for help."

The jury has heard that once Moorehouse and Woolley escaped from the scene, witnesses saw them smile at each other and later, after abandoning the car, they walked away arm-in-arm.

Moorehouse admits stealing Mrs Sherlock's bag and Woolley, of Pentonville, admits manslaughter but both deny murder.

The trial continues.