‘Man bought hot chocolate after murder’
Court told accused road sweeper, 49, visited McDonald’s after killing lover
JURORS have been told a man who brutally murdered his lover bought a McDonald’s hot chocolate in a bid to ‘act normally’ despite leaving her in a ‘blood-soaked bed’.
Road sweeper Mark Brandford, 49, is accused of murdering Kayleigh Dunning overnight on December 16-17 in 2019 after proposing to the 32-year-old cleaner.
Prosecutor Simon Jones said Ms Dunning suffered a crushed skull and severed artery in the ‘brutal and ferocious’ attack borne of jealousy – with police finding injuries on her arms as she sought to ‘ward off ’ the Colas worker.
Pathologist Dr Basil Purdue said the weapon used ‘ may have been a heavy tool with a sharpened point to it, such as a crowbar,’ jurors heard.
Portsmouth Crown Court heard she was staying at his home in Kingston Crescent, North End, but had booked a taxi for 5.30am for work.
Ms Dunning had shared an exchange of messages with Dean Drooney with whom she was in a sexual relationship.
In the days before her death Brandford was concerned he was losing weight and had ordered an HIV testing kit, the court heard.
Mr Jones said the motive may never be known, but the HIV test and Ms Dunning calling Brandford ‘noodle’ – her pet name for Mr Dooney – may give an insight.
He said at some point between her booking an Aqua Cars taxi at 10.11pm on December 16, when she was staying at Brandford's home, and the next morning, he murdered her. This was after Brandford posted images of his proposal to her on Instagram.
‘He murdered Kayleigh and he left her in their bloodsoaked bed,’ Mr Jones said.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, it’s important to emphasise he was the only person with Kayleigh that night.’
He added: ‘What the defendant did after murdering Kayleigh was he effectively embarked upon his day, carefully at times to act normally as if nothing had happened, and the prosecution say that all of the defendant’s actions, from leaving the house that morning, were deliberate and with the full knowledge of what he had done.
‘He would later return back to his address and phone 999. He did that under the pretense that he had just discovered the full horror of what happened. ‘That 999 call is a sham.’ Mr Jones said Brandford left his home at 5.17am, just around 10 minutes before Ms Dunning’s taxi arrived at 5.30am, and walked to McDonald’s – waiting outside until it opened at 6am to buy a hot chocolate. He was due at work at 7am.
‘The prosecution say that he was killing time as he had to be out of the address having killed Kayleigh and before that taxi was to arrive.’
He added Brandford sent a message to Ms Dunning at 5.38am that said: ‘Morning princess, are you going to work today or not? Phone me when you wake up, going to have a hot chocolate in McDonald’s soon. Love you.’
Mr Jones said Brandford was aiming to ‘create a facade of somebody going about their normal day’ in a bid to ‘support his claims that Kayleigh was alive when he left her’.
Brandford was picked up in London Road after leaving the Commercial Road restaurant and taken to Colas in Walton Road, Drayton, for a meeting at 7am.
He was ‘flirty’ with women he saw at work, and told anyone he saw the photos of his marriage proposal to Ms Dunning.
Brandford went to a bookmakers in Arundel Street, Landport, and seemed ‘friendly,’ the court heard.
CCTV played in court showed Brandford at 6.46pm dressed in high-vis Colas uniform as police called him following Ms Dunning’s father reporting her missing at 6.20pm.
In the call he said Ms Dunning had been ‘argumentative’ in the morning and when her alarm went off.
He said: ‘ She called me Dean instead of Mark sort of thing, she said “I’m sorry baby”.’
He tells police he was watching football but would be home in around ‘two hours’.
Brandford did not return home for seven hours and 10 minutes after work. ‘He didn’t go back because he knew what he had done,’ Mr Jones said.
Ms Dunning suffered ‘sharp and blunt force injuries to the head and neck’ with multiple skin and face lacerations, skull fractures to the left side of her head and incise wounds to her head and neck. One of those severed the carotid artery.
She had received ‘ at least 10 blows to the head and a similar number to the arms and hands,’ the pathologist found.
Brandford denies murder and disclosing a private sexual video of Ms Dunning.
(Proceeding)