‘I didn’t mean to kill my partner’ – murder accused
AMAN told police how he killed his partner at their home, then hid the body in the garden and went to sleep before waking to take their children to school.
Mold Crown Court has already heard that Anthony Bird, 49, dumped Tracy Kearns’ body in their two daughters’ playhouse in the garden,
Bird, a club barman, denies murdering the 43-year-old at their home in Cader Avenue in Kinmel Bay this year between May 7 – when she was last seen – and May 11, when he was arrested,
He accepts he was responsible for her death after discovering she was having an affair with Andrew Jones.
On Thursday the court heard that Miss Kearns’ body was in the playhouse for two days before he put it in a trailer and took it to the Sandy Cove Club, where they both worked. Her body was found on May 13 by police.
During a police interview Bird described how a row during the early hours of Monday, May 8, led to her death.
Bird described the scene as “horrible, horrible” and said she told him it was his fault for finding out about her affair.
He said he went into the kitchen and she came at him with a pair of scissors. While grabbing the scissors, he pushed her back and they fell down some steps.
He said he pinned her down on the floor because she was in a rage and he was afraid she might come at him again with the scissors.
As he straddled her to hold her down, he said his hand was on her throat and then she stopped moving.
He said: “I didn’t know what to do. I just sat there, just looking.”
Bird said he assumed he had killed her. “I just panicked. I did not know what to do,” he said. “I was afraid the children would come out of their room.”
Bird did not seek help or contact anyone. He said he then put his partner’s body in the playhouse.
Bird said he went back out to see if she had moved but she had not. He then went to sleep and in the morning took the children to school. Bird said he covered her body with an old tarpaulin and wrapped it in black plastic.
“I knew it was wrong,” he said. “I knew I had killed her.”
Later in the week a friend of Miss Kearns came to the Sandy Grove Club and said her disappearance would be reported missing to police. He went home, put the body in the trailer and brought it back to the club.
Bird also said he would have been happy for the couple to continue living separately in the same house but it was “a no from her”.
He claimed Miss Kearns said she might take the children to live abroad with Mr Jones and would get the CSA (Child Support Agency) on to him to “screw me for everything”.
When asked again about the attack, he said: “All I wanted to do was restrain her. I was not trying to hurt her. I was just trying to stop her. She was in a rage.
“If I let her go she would come at me with the scissors again. I should not have done what I have done. She just went still and limp.”
The trial continues.