Teen ‘strangled and left to die in car by men who had drugged her’
A SCHOOLGIRL found dead in the back of a crashed car had been drugged and strangled by two men, a court heard yesterday.
The body of Megan Bannister, 16, was found underneath a coat on the back seat of a Vauxhall Astra that crashed in May.
Driver Jason Burder and passenger Adam King, both 28, claimed not to have known her. But they were arrested at the scene and tests revealed large amounts of ecstasy in the GCSE’s pupil’s system.
It is alleged the men spiked her drink with the Class A drug after Burder lied about his age and invited her When back she to his became house. unwell, Burder took a Snapchat video in which she could be seen ‘fitting’ and sent it to his friends, it is alleged.
Instead of seeking help, the men put her in the back of a car and drove round for almost four hours, stopping to buy cigarettes and beer and searching the internet for escorts, Birmingham Crown Court heard. Both claimed to have no recollection and deny of manslaughter. events before the crash
On May 13 Megan, who wanted to become a midwife and was working hard at school, told her parents she was going to stay the night with a girlfriend, Leicester. and went but In the instead to his early house met hours, Burder in Burder went into the city to pick up King, who had been drinking in the city.
On the way he sent a text message to King saying: ‘I am with a girl who is 18 I have told her I am 21 so don’t tell her my age pal.’ A Snapchat was also sent, from which the videos are deleted as soon as they are viewed. But friends who received it saw Megan ‘out of it’ and ‘fitting’, jurors were told. One girl who saw it sent a message to Burder saying: ‘You have spiked her like you spiked me.’ Just before 8am, the next day, Burder’s mother saw the two men carrying a semi-conscious girl out of the house. When she shouted down to ask if everything was okay, Burder is said to have replied, ‘ Yeah’ before getting in the car. At about 11.45am, Burder performed a U- turn and hit a motorbike on the B3582 near Enderby, Leicestershire Two nurses and an off duty policeman were among the first on the scene. One of the nurses, Sarah Simpson, said she saw a pair of legs in black leggings sticking out from under a coat on the back seat. Efforts were made to revive Megan, but witnesses said they believed she was already dead as her ‘lips were blue and she was showing no signs of life’. A pathologist later concluded that she had not died in the crash. The precise cause of death was ‘unascertained’, but tests found a ‘massive difference in toxicity levels’ between Megan and the two men, said Miranda Moore, prosecuting. Pathologist Dr Frances Hollingbury told the court the cause of death was either ecstasy toxicity, manual strangulation or a combination of the two. The trial continues.