Rhondda Cynon Taff,South Wales - Victims Head hidden in storm drain

 

• From the sectionSouth East Wales

Image copyrightWales News Service

Image captionChristopher May outside court before a previous hearing

A former butcher accused of murdering a woman in a sexually motivated attack carried her head through Pontypridd and hid it in a storm drain, a court heard.

Tracey Woodford, 47, was found dead in the Rhondda Cynon Taff town in April after being reported missing.

Christopher Nathan May, 50, from the Graig area of the town, denies murder.

Cardiff Crown Court heard on Wednesday he may have used his butchery skills to dismember Ms Woodford's body.

Her severed head was found on a ledge in an "underground chamber" 138m (453ft) inside a storm drain near Pontypridd Rugby Club.

Part of her lower torso was also discovered in the drain.

"The defendant carried a body part and the head from his flat, through part of Pontypridd, entering a dark tunnel for 130m," Roger Thomas QC, prosecuting, told the jury.

"You may want to ask: What is going on in this man's mind?"

"Was it, perhaps, to display the head in that manner?"

Cause of death

An expert said the way the body had been dismembered showed whoever had done it, had some "skill and knowledge".

The prosecution claimed a witness said Mr May instructed him on how to cut and bone animal carcasses when he had worked in a butcher's shop 30 years ago.

"It seems that his experience in butcher shops has been put to use on a human body," Mr Thomas said.

He said the cause of Ms Woodford's death was pressure to her neck.

However, she suffered many of her injuries while putting up a "desperate but ultimately unsuccessful struggle to save her life", he added.

The jury has been told some of the evidence during the two-week case would be "distressing", after hearing how police found remains of Ms Woodford in a bathroom at the flat where the accused lived.

She had been reported missing for three days by here family, after last being seen drinking at the Skinny Dog pub in Pontypridd.

Image copyrightSouth Wales Police

Image captionTracey Woodford's body was found on 21 April

Roger Thomas QC, prosecuting, told the jury earlier in the trial the defendant claimed he either acted in self-defence, it was an accident or he lost self-control.

"The prosecution submits, quite simply, this was a deliberate, brutal, vicious and sexually-motivated murder," he said.

See - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-34788319