A POLICE officer has described how she discovered the partially-clothed body of Bethany Hill in the bathroom of the Stratford flat where she was living with her alleged killers.
Pc Anna Jackson was giving evidence on the fourth day of the trial of Jack Williams and Kayleigh Woods, who have denied Beth’s murder.
Pc Jackson said she and a colleague were on duty on February 3 last year when they were directed to the flat in Hertford Road, where they found paramedic Mark Lawson waiting outside at 7.15pm.
Having been let into the building by a neighbour, they found the door to the flat was ‘closed but unlocked,’ and when they went inside ‘it was in complete darkness.’
Her colleague and Mr Lawson had torches and began to look into other rooms, while she went to the bathroom.
Pc Jackson continued: “The door was closed. I believe it was fully shut.
“I opened the bathroom door. I felt it come to a stop after not much of an opening. It felt there was something in the way, and it bounced back towards me.
“I pulled the pull-cord switch to put the light on. I could immediately see blood on the wall, to the right of the doorway, and blood on the light switch.
“As I looked further in I could see the deceased’s legs,” said Pc Jackson, who then contacted the police control room to say there was a woman on the floor and a lot of blood.
Prosecutor Stephen Linehan QC asked her: “Did Mr Lawson manage to get into the bathroom so he could examine the body; and did he tell you that, unhappily, she was dead and that rigor mortis had sent in?” Pc Jackson replied: “That is correct.”
Asked what Beth had on, Pc Jackson said: “She was wearing a bra and knickers, that was all she had on.”
“Mr Linehan asked: “Did you see that the room was covered in blood, and that there was blood in the sink and the toilet and the bath?”
“That is correct,” replied the officer, who went on to confirm she saw that Beth had a deep laceration to her neck.
She said that she then checked other rooms, ‘without walking too far in,’ to see whether there was anyone else there or an obvious weapon, but there was not.
But in relation to the bedroom, she pointed out: “I saw a bin bag with what looked like bed linen or a duvet in it which had a lot of blood on it.”
