Builder accused of murdering two prostitutes on his remote farm claims one of the women died by tripping over his tools ‘like a cartoon character slipping on a banana skin’, court hears
- Mark Brown, 41, is accused of murdering and burning bodies of two prostitutes
- Brown, of East Sussex, allegedly killed Alexandra Morgan, 34 and Leah Ware, 33
- The father-of-three said one woman died after tripping over tools on the floor
- Miss Morgan’s bone fragments and teeth were found at Brown’s farm in Hastings
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A builder accused of murdering two sex workers said one woman died after tripping and falling like ‘a cartoon character slipping on a banana skin’, a court heard.
Mark Brown, 41, had arranged to meet escort Alex Morgan, 34, at the rented farm buildings near Hastings where he had a car workshop.
The father-of-three told Hove Crown Court that as he went to turn on the heating on November 14, 2021, she tripped over some tools lying on the floor.
He said Miss Morgan flew through the air like ‘a cartoon character slipping banana skin’ and hit her head on the work tools.
He told the court when he got to Miss Morgan she was bleeding heavily from her head and began quivering, so he tried gave her first aid.
When CPR failed, he told the court, he searched for a pulse before he realised she was dead.
A jury heard that Brown thought it ‘looked like a murder scene’ and in a panic decided to clean it all up and hide the body.
Brown, 41, of Squirrel Close, St Leonards-on-Sea denies murdering Alex Morgan and Leah Ware at Little Bridge Farm near Hastings, East Sussex where he rented land and a barn.
Mark Brown denies murdering Alexandra Morgan (pictured on CCTV on November 14 at a petrol station), 34, from Sissinghurst, Kent. He told a court that she died after falling ‘like a cartoon character slipping on a banana skin’
Police have been unable to find the remains of Leah Ware (pictured), 33, after she went missing on May 7 last year but Brown told different people she had been ‘sectioned’, sent to ‘a mental hospital’ or had ‘killed herself’. The pair met after he bought her services on a sex work website and had a relationship
Brown had arranged to meet Miss Morgan at the remote farm on Remembrance Sunday, November 14, last year, Hove Crown Court heard.
Miss Morgan left her two children with her parents and drove to Little Bridge Farm arriving shortly before 8.00am.
They had a cup of coffee and a cigarette outside before Brown went in to tourn the heating on, he said: ‘I heard a load of noise and I span around and came out to make sure she was alright.
‘I saw her in mid-air as I came flying out – like in a cartoon when someone slips on a banana skin.
‘I presumed she had tripped over or trodden in a box of tools. I ran round shouting: ‘Are you alright sweetheart, are you alright?’
Mark Brown (pictured), 41, from East Sussex is accused of murdering two prostitutes
‘She was laying on the floor. There was blood, quite a lot of blood. Obviously she has fallen over and smacked her head. Her head was lying on sockets, screwdrivers and part of my jump leads.
‘I said: “Are you alright sweetheart, f*****g hell are you alright.” She made a noise like “Num num” like someone who had bitten their tongue or had a stroke.’
Brown told the court he ran over to a bench and picked up a beach towel and went back to Miss Morgan and lifted her head onto it.
He said: ’When I lifted her head there was loads more blood.’
He said that under her head he noticed there were a couple of sockets sets, a piece of angle iron and a set of jump leads.
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He said: ‘She was moving a little bit, she was quivering and then that stopped. Within seconds of me lifting her head. She stopped moving so I tried CPR’.
He said he checked for a pulse on her wrist and neck before realising she was dead.
He continued: ‘I went back into the workshop and it looked like a murder scene. I’ve got a dead escort on my workshop floor and there’s blood everywhere. What did it look like? It looked like a murder scene’.
He said that within five minutes he decided to ‘cover it up’ and ‘clean it all up get rid of the body’.
Brown told the court he asked his partner, Lisa Clarke, to bring bleach to the farm and he began to clean up using the bleach and some ‘weird acid’ he had.
Brown then went home and returned home for the night and went back to the farm the following day.
He got an oil barrel and after pouring in some fuel he put Miss Morgan in, packed it with wood, stuffed in the sleeping bag and set it on fire.
Brown is accused of luring Miss Morgan to a set of remote farm buildings in Hastings with the promise of a lucrative £100,000 job
Alexandra Morgan´s car, a white Mini Cooper in which she was last seen putting petrol in at a garage in Cranbrook, Kent, on the morning of November 14
Miss Morgan disappeared in November last year, six months after another woman, Leah Ware, was last seen alive.
Both women had been working as escorts and had met Brown through the online escort agency adultwork.com.
Brown is accused of luring Miss Morgan to a set of remote farm buildings in Hastings with the promise of a lucrative £100,000 job.
Miss Ware, who had been living in a shipping container at the farm, has not been seen since May 2021.
Hove Crown Court heard after she disappeared Brown sent a text to a friend: ‘Now I’m going to be very careful how I word this but it happened again, not very long ago, while disposing off something.
‘I try to laugh these things off, but it’s a very unpleasant thing to do. Old oil drum, five litres of diesel, hey presto nothing much left, but it gets hot, very hot, Oil drum glows almost white, you go through a lot of stages in a situation like that’.
The court heard Miss Morgan (left) was a sex worker and had arranged to meet Brown, a client, at a site he rented, Little Bridge Farm near Hastings and that a close relationship had also developed between Brown and Miss Ware (right)
The trial began at Hove Crown Court today as 12 jurors and two spares were sworn in by Mr Justice Nicholas Hilliard.
Earlier the jury was told no remains for Miss Ware have ever been found despite an extensive police search.
After Miss Morgan disappeared in November police launched a massive hunt for her.
Her charred remains were found in the skip at a building site where Brown was working after she disappeared in November 2021.
The court was told 2,600 fragments on bones and teeth as well as jewellery belonging to Miss Morgan.
The fragments were recovered from the makeshift brazier which had been fashioned out of an oil drum.
The trial continues.
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