A MAN has appeared at court charged with the rape and murder of Wisbech woman Virginja Jurkiene.

Dainotas Doblys, 48, of Trinity Street, Boston, only spoke to confirm his name, date of birth and address at King’s Lynn Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Doblys is accused of raping and murdering 49-year-old Jurkiene, whose body was discovered in the Hare and Hounds, in Wisbech, on Saturday.

He did not enter a plea to the three charges put to him.

Magistrates sent the case to the crown court and the 48-year-old was remanded in custody.

He will appear at Cambridge Crown Court today.

Virginja battled with alcoholism during her troubled life.

When she appeared in court four years ago after being caught shoplifting her solicitor described Virginja’s troubled life.

He said she had been terrorised by her late husband and her sister hung herself five years ago.

Andrew Cogan also told the court that her father was a brutal man and that “what is behind these offences, is an alcohol problem. She cannot remember what she had been doing, because she had been drinking.”

The murder at the Hare & Hounds was referred to in a weekend posting by landlady Jacqui Wadsley to a community Facebook page for Wisbech.

She wrote that “an unfortunate death occurred this morning in a guest room in the hotel.

“My prayers are with the lady’s family right now”.