A British pensioner "living her dream" in a village in France was discovered useless after she was brutally attacked by a neighbour after she requested to borrow some sticky tape.

A courtroom in France heard Susan Higginbotham, 67, was discovered useless in September 2021 at her home in Esclottes, which is positioned round 35 miles to the east of Bordeaux.

The Mirror reviews the "pleasant" and "very open" retiree, from Mansfield, Notts, had reportedly moved to the tiny village of simply 150 folks for a quiet life, following a profitable profession in finance.

Hicham Bahloul confessed to strangling Ms Higginbotham with a wire and beating her to dying after breaking into her dwelling on the day of the assault, a courtroom heard.

The 42-year-old is alleged to have develop into enraged after Ms Higginbotham requested about borrowing adhesive tape a number of occasions in someday.

The British pensioner was discovered lifeless inside her dwelling, and Bahloul was arrested a day later after preliminary clues from the scene steered foul play.

An investigating officer advised the courtroom that the suspect took officers to the scene of the crime and handed over garments he wore on the day of the homicide which had been "covered in blood".

There had been mentioned to be no reviews of conflicts between Bahloul and the pensioner previous to the killing, and the pair had been on well mannered talking phrases.

Bahloul, who was dwelling along with his dad and mom on the time he carried out the assault, reportedly suffers from a number of psychological problems together with schizophrenia. He had spent round half of his life in psychiatric care.

According to French media, he advised the courtroom of the brutal homicide: "The story of the tape? It was a pretext to go to her house. I returned to her house with my cord and I strangled her. We fell, the rope fell. It broke. I took my fists and punched her in the face and kicked her in the chest to make sure she was dead."

Bahloul's defence lawyer, Mr Verdier, requested that he be given the utmost sentence, citing a report from an professional psychologist to say it was "necessary" for him to stay in jail.

Ms Higginbotham was described by a pal who travelled to France for the courtroom case as a "very pleasant person" who "took care of people" and was "very open".

They added: "She had had a successful career, as a financial director, then as a company representative; she had worked very hard."

"She really wanted to be happy in France when she moved in 2016, and I think she was. She was living her dream. She was funny. I miss her a lot."

On Wednesday, the courtroom in Agen, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, sentenced Bahloul to life in jail.