A MAN has appeared in court charged with the murder of an elderly woman.

Benjamin Brough, aged 20, of no fixed address, is accused of the murder of Ada Hopkinson in Leek between March 16 and March 19 2005.

North Staffordshire Magistrates yesterday sent the case to Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court where Brough will appear on December 15.

There was no application for bail and he was remanded in custody.

Mrs Hopkinson died in hospital in February this year, aged 97.