‘I put dead body in the children’s playhouse’
An alleged murderer told police he placed his partner’s body in the children’s playhouse after he killed her.
Anthony Bird is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Tracy Kearns, a mother of two from Kinmel Bay, and is currently on trial at Mold Crown Court.
The 48-year-old admits killing the mother of his two children, but denies he murdered her.
Yesterday the jury heard about a briefing police had given to Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Jonathan Medcalf.
Dr Medcalfe said he was told the defendant had said he strangled Miss Kearns with his right hand and squeezed her neck while he kept hold of her right hand with his left.
He said that she had made “gagging and choking” noises.
“After he had killed her and undressed her and cut off her clothing he indicated that he had put the body in the children’s playhouse,” the doctor said.
He then moved the body to the trailer in which she was later discovered.
The pathologist said the death was caused by manual strangulation.
His findings were entirely consistent with a significant period of neck compression.
The trauma to the neck indicated severe force, said Dr Medcalf.
The court has been told that on the morning of May 13 police examined the trailer found at the rear of The Sandy Cove Club at Kinmel Bay, where both Miss Kearns and Bird worked. There they discovered her body. Dr Medcalf said he examined the trailer at the North Wales Police headquarters at St Asaph.
That morning items from the trailer had been forensically removed, revealing at the bottom the body of Miss Kearns, with the head furthest away from the tow bar.
Her naked body was wrapped in red fabric, a trampoline cover, and then wrapped in a heavy black plastic sheet. Debris was piled on top.
Dr Medcalf carried out a postmortem examination after he received a police briefing.
He was initially told the defendant had said in interview, after the body was discovered, that after Miss Kearns returned home from work on May 7 they had a “heated discussion” and that at some point she had gone at him with a pair of scissors held in her right hand.
“I was informed that he had held her right wrist with his left hand, put his right hand around her throat and squeezed until she had stopped moving,” the pathologist explained.
Bird also apparently had indicated that he had straddled her after taking her down to the floor. Once she had stopped moving he had carried her out of the house, wrapped her up, and he had not attempted CPR.
Bird, of Cader Avenue in Kinmel Bay, denies murder.
The trial continues.