Western Morning News (Saturday)
Murder trial told of search for missing Lorraine
A DESPERATE search was made for missing Lorraine Cox, a murder trial heard yesterday, after she disappeared following a night out in Exeter.
Friends and family of the 32-year-old diabetic produced more than a thousand posters and stickers and put them up all over the city.
Azam Mangori, 24, a failed Iraqi Kurd asylum seeker, is standing trial at Exeter Crown Court accused of murdering Lorraine and dismembering her body in the flat above a kebab shop, where he lived.
Mangori denies the charge.
FAMILY and friends of alleged murder victim Lorraine Cox organised searches across Exeter in the days after she vanished, a jury has been told.
One thousand posters and stickers were printed and pinned all over the city centre and as far away as Plymouth as friends grew increasingly concerned for her safety.
It was initially feared the 32-yearold, a diabetic, may have suffered a medical episode and collapsed while walking home from a night out in Exeter. But friends grew suspicious at messages sent in Lorraine’s name saying she was fine and had moved away.
Azam Mangori, 24, is standing trial at Exeter Crown Court charged with Lorraine’s murder. It is alleged he killed her in his room above a kebab shop in Exeter and then sent a series of messages using her SIM card in a ‘cruel’ deception pretending she was still alive.
He has pleaded not guilty.
It is alleged that in the early hours of September 1 last year Mangori left his room above the Bodrum Kebab House and walked up High Street where he encountered Lorraine. The pair did not know each other and it is said Mangori took advantage of her drunken state to have sex with her in an alley and lure her back to his flat.
It is alleged he murdered her sometime after they returned at 2.45am.
Yesterday the jury was given details of the defendant’s actions in the hours and days after Lorraine went missing. Police searched through thousands of hours of CCTV and phone data to piece together a timeline of his behaviour.
Sometime after 3.30am the battery was removed from Lorraine’s glucose monitor which she needed to control her medical condition. The prosecution say Mangori probably killed Lorraine before 4.30am. He later threw the monitor away.
By the next morning he had allegedly taken control of Lorraine’s SIM and was replying to messages from friends pretending to be her and saying she was fine.
The prosecution allege he studied previous messages to copy the style she would use, referring to one friend as ‘beautiful’ and calling her father ‘Papa’.
The prosecution have described the defendant’s alleged actions as ‘cruel’.
Eight friends of Lorraine printed 1,000 posters and stickers. A large search involving members of the public took
‘The prosecution allege Mangori copied Lorraine’s style of sending texts, pretending to be her’
place in Mincinglake Valley Park but no clues were found.
Earlier the jury heard evidence from people who lived and worked at Bodrum Kebab House. They said Mangori did not work there and had only been living in a room on the top floor since August.
On the night of the alleged murder, the owner invited a group of friends to play poker in his first floor room. The game broke up at about 5am but nobody heard anything unusual coming from the upper floor.
Police confirmed that they were sure after extensive investigations that nobody else in the property that night had acted suspiciously.
It was only a few days later that one tenant noticed a bad smell which he thought may have come from the defendant’s room.
Mangori admits preventing the lawful burial of Lorraine. It is said he kept her body in his room for several days before dismembering it and dumping body parts in bins at the back of the property and in woods near Newton St Cyres.
The trial continues.