A police officer has told jurors how an alleged murderer laughed and remarked "she's brown bread" following his arrest at the scene of his ex-girlfriend's death.
Acting Sergeant Caroline Boardman took the stand at Ipswich Crown Court on Tuesday to emotionally recall being the first officer to attend the flat in Brickfields Avenue, Newmarket, where Charles Jessop is alleged to have murdered Clare Nash on January 16 last year.
Murder trial jurors were shown body-worn video footage of events after police arrived at the scene following an emergency call by Miss Nash's flatmate.
Jessop, 29, is accused of murdering the 33-year-old mother-of-two by stabbing and strangling her to death in the toilet of her flat – in what prosecutors claim was a "revenge attack".
In a statement, Acting Sergeant Boardman described entering the property and hearing a female voice squeal in pain and a male voice shout from behind a closed toilet door, outside which she discovered a few drops of blood and strip of matted blonde hair.
As back-up arrived, she and a colleague unsuccessfully attempted to open the door by force, before it slowly opened and a bloodstained male emerged.
Acting Sergeant Boardman said she used incapacitant spray on the male, whose hands were not visible as he emerged from the room, where she then saw a female laying face down in a pool of blood.
Acting Sergeant Boardman said the male identified himself as Charlie Jessop before she arrested him on suspicion of attempted murder, to which, she told the court, he laughed and replied: "Attempted murder? More like murder. She's brown bread."
She said Jessop then began talking to himself and used a high-pitched voice, as though impersonating a female, to say: "I have done a test and I'm pregnant".
Upon leaving the house, she said Jessop again laughed and shouted to onlookers gathered outside: "She's been murdered. She's dead."
Acting Sergeant Boardman told jurors that, when further arrested on suspicion of murder following Miss Nash's death, Jessop became emotional and shouted "Oh, Clare".
She said Jessop later declared "it was the police's fault" and that he had been "let down by mental health services".
In opening the case, prosecutor Mark Cotter QC told jurors that Jessop was "seeking to raise issues as to the state of his mind" and would claim he was affected by the antidepressant drug Citalopram.
On Tuesday, jurors were also shown a serrated kitchen knife with which Jessop is alleged to have stabbed Miss Nash.
Consultant forensic pathologist, Dr Nathaniel Cary, who carried out a post-mortem examination on Miss Nash's body at 3.10pm on January 17, described finding a number of wounds consistent with incision and stabbing, along with bruising typical of gripping or fingertip pressure.
Dr Cary said a 1.8cm-long, 9cm deep wound had penetrated an artery and would have caused massive internal bleeding, which, if left untreated, would very likely lead to death.
He said Miss Nash's injuries included a damaged lung and liver, and a fractured larynx caused by compression of the neck, and that both of her hands also bore wounds typical of defensive injuries against a sharp weapon attack.
Dr Cary also found various areas of haemorrhage on the skull, indicative of multiple blunt impacts caused in a struggle.
He concluded that pathology demonstrated Miss Nash was alive during the infliction of each injury.
He said she was not pregnant at the time of her her death, which could have been caused by either compression of neck or blood loss from the celiac artery.
Jessop, of Bakers Row, Newmarket, denies murder.
The trial continues.
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