Girl's horror at finding body under bed

Annie Davidson

A JURY has heard of the horrific moment when a young girl found the body of a woman after living with the corpse for a week at their Colchester home.

The girl, now aged 12 years old, had allegedly been told that Ella Chimweta had gone “out of town” for work when she was actually lying dead in her bedroom covered by clothes and luggage.

The prosecution at Chelmsford Crown Court claims that Miss Chimweta's boyfriend, Daniel Tambengwa, had killed her and concealed her body at the flat they shared in Weetman's Drive in Highwoods, Colchester.

Yesterday the jury watched recordings of interviews the then 11-year-old gave to police after the body was discovered.

The youngster, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had been staying with Tambengwa and Miss Chimweta, the court was told.

She had arrived in the UK on June 7 last year from Miss Chimweta's homeland of Zimbabwe and discovered the body on July 16 having spent almost a week alone in the flat after Tambengwa allegedly fled to Cameroon.

The jury of eight men and four women heard the girl describe how she had last seen Miss Chimweta on July 8 in the evening.

She said the following day when she got up, Tambengwa, 30, was awake and in the sitting room of the ground floor flat.

“I was coming from the bathroom and I had a towel wrapped around me,” she said.

“I got into my bedroom and Daniel followed me and he says he was told to teach me adult things…he came and tried to remove my towel.”

The witness said she had resisted his efforts and Tambengwa then told her he needed to see her genitals, claiming Miss Chimweta had asked him to because she thought there was something wrong with them.

The girl said she again refused and Tambengwa then asked if she wanted to watch a Nigerian movie or a pornographic one.

After she chose the Nigerian one and watched it, the pair went shopping and on their return Tambengwa allegedly put on the pornographic film.

The girl said he then asked her if she wanted “to try what is being done on the telly” and when she refused he asked if she was “disrespecting” him and that Miss Chimweta had sent him to teach her.

The court heard that later that day Tambengwa told the girl he was going to collect his girlfriend and they were going to work together out of town and left a phone number for her in case of an emergency.

The youngster said: “I was at home all these days and then this day I wanted to go and have a bath and my lotion had run out so I went into Ella's bedroom to get the lotion and that is when I smelt this smell.

“When I went round the bed I just saw these piles of things. I moved the blanket that was on the top and that's when I noticed Ella's trousers and there was something in the trousers when I touched it.

“I went outside to ask for help.”

Tambengwa, who was arrested in Cameroon, has denied murdering Ms Chimweta on or about July 9 and pleaded not guilty to further charges of inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and of trying to make a child look at images of sexual activity between July 8 and 11.

The trial continues.