NEIGHBOURS of a Lyneham woman who was killed by her fiancé in a row over Christmas presents have been remembering a ‘friendly’ and ‘lovely’ person.

Hilda Oakland, also known as Joy, was hit with a scaffolding pole and then strangled with rope by her partner, Bob Broom, before her body was dumped in the back of a van on December 2, 2015.

The 71-year-old spent more than 15 years living on the Lillybrook Estate in Lyneham, before she moved in with Broom in Honiton, Devon, when they got engaged in January 2015.

Her neighbour Sheila Seward, who had known her for three years, said: “I don’t think she was shy, she just kept herself to herself but she was really sweet and so inoffensive.

“The first we knew of her death was a note on the noticeboard in the office, we couldn’t believe it.

“She just was a lovely person and where she used to live has still been receiving Christmas cards. It’s sad they don’t know that she died. I don’t think she had a bad bone in her body.”

An inquest in Exeter last week heard that after killing her, Broom, 66, later drove to a police station to give himself up – but he never went on trial because he hung himself in jail three weeks after he admitted killing her.

Detective Constable Paul Burrow from Devon and Cornwall Police told the coroner: “It was a fraught relationship.”

Broom said he had tried to end the romance for six weeks but Miss Oakland, a retired shop assistant, wanted to “give it a go”.

DC Burrow said on a December day in 2015 the pair went to a field at Fenny Bridges, East Devon, to feed cattle.

He said: “They argued about Christmas presents for family and argued about their relationship. They were both worked up, shouting and swearing.”

Broom, of Millhead Road, Honiton, told police that Miss Oakland started to “lash out at him and he lost it”.

Her friends called her on December 2 and left a message saying they would ring the following day – but Miss Oakland was dead by then.

Dr Russell Delaney, a forensic Home Office pathologist, concluded that the pensioner had died from a combination of blunt force head wounds and compression of her neck by the ligature.

Deputy Devon coroner John Tomalin recorded a conclusion that she was unlawfully killed.