Mays ‘couldn’t stop’ repeatedly punching Louise

THE man accused of murdering Louise Smith earlier told jurors he ‘couldn’t stop’ punching her with both hands countless times before walking away ‘still angry’.

Shane Mays, 30, was accused of trying to ‘silence’ 16-year-old Louise after sexually assaulting her, fearing the aspiring veterinary nurse may be pregnant.

Yesterday at Winchester Crown Court he twice said ‘I may have done’ when asked if he caused or contributed to her death but said: ‘I did not kill Louise.’ He has admitted manslaughter.

Under questioning by prosecutor James NewtonPrice QC, 6ft tall Mays, of Somborne Drive, Leigh Park, denied trying to ‘ touch her sexually’ in a clearing at Havant Thicket.

‘Did you want to have sex with her?’ the prosecutor asked.

Mays said: ‘No.’

The QC said: ‘Did you kill her because she was screaming and fighting back.’

Mays said: ‘No.’ Mr Newton-Price said: ‘Did you silence her so she could not tell anyone about what you did?’

Mays said: ‘She was alive.’ He admits repeatedly punching her in the face. Mays told jurors at his murder trial: ‘I couldn’t stop at that time. I lost control of myself.’

But he repeatedly said ‘no’ when asked if he tried to touch her sexually, silence her, or attack her as he feared she was pregnant.

Mays, in whose home 5ft tall Louise was staying prior to her death on May 8, said he was ‘still angry’ after leaving the clearing but then instantly forgot what happened.

Yesterday he said he remembered what happened in June when in Bristol jail having been arrested for her murder on May 27, some six days after her body was found.

Mays denies murder.