Murder trial hears carpet evidence

THE man accused of murdering Suffolk woman Dawn Walker was seen “struggling” to put a heavy object resembling a rolled up carpet or a laundry bag into the back of a car by a neighbour after she went missing, a court has heard.

Penelope Dale, who lived on the opposite side of the road to Miss Walker in Oak Close, Fornham St Martin, said that although it was dark the road was well lit and the man she saw was Miss Walker's boyfriend Kevin Nunn.

“I saw him clearly. I saw him from top to toe. He stood in front of me,” said Mrs Dale.

Giving evidence at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday Mrs Dale said she had left her house at 4.50am on Friday, February 4 to go to work and had seen two men on Miss Walker's front lawn.

She said they were carrying a heavy object across the lawn towards a silver car parked in Miss Walker's drive. “The object was like rolled up carpet,” she said.

She said that as she prepared to drive off after demisting her windows one of the men had noticed her. “He dropped his end and put his arm up in my direction.”

She said that when she looked back at the men she could no longer see the man who she didn't recognise.

As she drove along Oak Close she saw the remaining man standing next to the silver car with the object beside him.

She said she then saw him squatting and said he appeared to be struggling to get the object in the back of the car through the rear passenger door.

Asked by prosecution counsel Graham Parkins QC if she recognised the man Mrs Dale replied “Dawn's boyfriend”.

Mrs Dale was giving evidence on the eighth day of the trial of Kevin Nunn, 45, formerly of Wrights Way, Woolpit, who has denied murdering 37-year-old Miss Walker in February 2005.

Also before the court is Nigel Hill, 37, of Tostock Road, Beyton who has denied helping Nunn to dispose of Miss Walker's body.

It has been alleged that Nunn had a two-year relationship with Miss Walker which had come to an end shortly before she was killed.

Mr Parkins has claimed that after murdering Miss Walker, Nunn had cut off her hair and had burned her body in Fornham Park, near Bury St Edmunds.

He alleged that Nunn had later recruited Hill to help him move her body which was found close to a footpath next to the River Lark in Fornham Park two days after she was last seen alive.

Giving evidence Mrs Dale said that on February 2 - the night Miss Walker was last seen alive - she had been in her bedroom at about 10pm when she heard a female shouting and screaming.

She heard the words “get off” and “help me” being repeated and also heard a man's voice. “It sounded like teenagers messing around,” said Mrs Dale.

Cross-examined by Martyn Levett defence counsel for Nunn, Mrs Dale denied that she had assumed the man standing by the car in Miss Walker's drive early on the morning of February 4 was Miss Walker's boyfriend and that she “may well have been mistaken”.

She told the court that prior to Miss Walker's death Leon May, who also lived in Oak Close, had told her that he knew how to commit the perfect murder and avoid detection.

Mr Levett said: “You couldn't have a more copycat confession from Leon May if you were to fit it in like a glove with what happened in the murder.”

To which Mrs Dale replied: “I don't know any details of the murder - but there are certainly similarities.”

Giving evidence during the trial last week, Mr May strongly denied a suggestion from defence counsel for Nunn that he had murdered Miss Walker.

Cross examined by Karim Khalil QC for Hill Mrs Dale said that she hadn't recognised the second man outside Miss Walker's home on February 4.

Another prosecution witness, David Coppens, who knew Hill through work, was asked what he thought of the allegation that he had helped dispose of Miss Walker's body.

He said: “It is absolutely preposterous. I just couldn't believe that allegation. If Dawn Walker was here today she would laugh at the suggestion.”

The trial is not sitting today and will continue on Thursday.