Pals kept corpse in cupboard
TWO men have been jailed after leaving a dead friend’s body in a cupboard for three days.
A judge told William Hall and Trevor Ascough they treated 40-year-old Stephen Worthington like a ‘piece of unwanted furniture.’
Mr Worthington had arrived at Hall’s house in Little Hulton, Salford, where Ascough was also staying. But the morning after he arrived, Mr Worthington was found dead on a sofa in the house.
Instead of reporting the death, Ascough, 48, and Hall, 50, tried to cover it up by hiding the body in a cupboard under the stairs.
The court was told that they ‘panicked’ when they realised Hall’s grandchildren were due to come round to the house later that day.
Mr Worthington’s death was only reported to police three days later.
Now Hall and Ascough have been sent to prison, for nine and 12 months respectively, after pleading guilty to conspiring to prevent a lawful and decent burial.
Prosecuting, Simone Flynn told how at about 6.30pm on October 18 last year, police were contacted by the ambulance service to reports of a ‘suspicious death’ at Hall’s house in Bank Lane. When they arrived, Ascough led the emergency services to Mr Worthington’s body, where his face had been covered by a coat.
A forensic report found that the cause of Mr Worthington’s death was pneumonia due to drug toxicity.
Defending Hall, who has a history of drug abuse, Richard English said his client was worried that his family would think he was back on drugs if they heard what had happened. For Ascough, Nick Ross said: “There was no malicious intent in terms of the failure to report the death.”
Ascough, of Wellstock Lane, Little Hulton, who was previously sentenced to five years in prison for burglary, was described by Judge Patrick Field QC as a ‘hardened,’ ‘prolific criminal.’ Sentencing the pair, he said: “You both deliberately and in a calculated way deprived Mr Worthington of dignity in death, in order to deflect blame from yourselves.”