Day three in court (From Free Press Series)

Day three in court

In his statement, read to the jurors by prosecutor John Aubrey QC, defendant Michael Baldwin said he was awoken after a night shift at about middday on September 10, by the sound of Jenna trying to get in to the house.

He claimed he faced a torrent of abuse from the teenager, and that the swearing and shouting continued inside, as she followed him up the stairs, pushing and poking him.

It read:"I thought she was on drugs. At the top step she said something like 'Well, come on you ****** ****, what's it got to do with you what I ****** do?

"I said over my shoulder 'What about school?' "She said 'Well, *** you.' I said 'I will tell Mam'.

"...She said '**** her and **** you, you ******...'

"Then I just spun around swinging my right arm out. "I didn't know where she was. I just reacted when she said '**** her and **** you.'

"I just wanted her to stop screaming and swearing. As I swung I felt contact.

"Jenna made a noise like 'arghh!' and as I turned she was falling backwards. I tried to grab her with my right hand.

"I was on my wrong foot to move. I shouted 'Jesus Christ Jenna.'

"She fell down the stairs head over heels landing on her head. Jenna's tongue was poking out. I screamed and ran, half jumped down the stairs.

His statement describes how, in tears, and panicking, he desperately searched for signs of life, and decided to take Jenna to either Panteg or Nevill Hall hospital - wrapping her in a quilt to "keep her warm."

But on the road heading towards Blaenavon, he realised she had died, and overwhelmed by thoughts of losing everything, decided to bury her, using an old shovel he kept in the back of the car.

Mr Aubrey, reading the statement, continued:"I saw the lay-by. I pulled over. I went in by the wood and saw some soft ground.

"I went back to the car, got the old shovel. I went in the car several times. I checked Jenna for breathing. I kept talking to her. Still nothing.

"I went into the wood and scraped out a hollow.

"I tried to raise Jenna again. Nothing. The ground was soft, easy to dig - most of the digging I did with my hands. I put Jenna down. I covered Jenna with earth, leaves and stones - big ones."

Baldwin then claimed he sat sobbing in his car, before going home, cleaning up, and collecting his kids from school, and taking his eldest, Josh to football training.

He admitted making calls and texts to Desiree, pretending to be Jenna. His statement concluded:"I didn't mean no harm. She just pushed and pushed. Des and me was not able to cope with her.

"I have never touched Jenna before. I tried as best I could with Jenna. I took everything she threw at me during the last three years.

"I'm bitterly, bitterly sorry. I wouldn't do nothing to her, it was just that one second."

BALDWIN USED a mobile phone, registered under a false name and address, and tried to convince heart-broken Desiree and the police Jenna was still alive, the court heard.

The prosecution alleges: Between September 16 and October 27 he made a series of silent calls and text messages to Desiree and Nigel Brookfield, Jenna's natural father.

Under police observation on October 16, Baldwin Withdrew money from a bank and was seen leaving Woolworths at 10.48am, with a mobile phone, heading to a phone kiosk. He registered it with Virgin Mobile under the false name of Darren Jones.

Police found packaging from a Virgin Sendo S200 mobile phone, a Woolworths till receipt and Baldwin's fingerprints on the bag.

On October 18 texts - supposedly from Jenna where sent to Desiree in her home, while in the company of a South Wales Argus Reporter. Baldwin was upstairs at the time.

On September 19 two calls were made to Jenna's school, Abersychan Comprehensive - one saying Jenna was OK and staying with a friend in Cwmbran.

On September 21, at Scene 123 Cinema, Cwmbran:Cleaner discovered Baldwin's Siemens mobile phone hidden behind a seat.

The telephone number is the same as that in the diary.

On October 27 Desiree received text reading saying not to worry. Desiree replied asking for a ring to be sent to satisfy concerns.

The ring arrived on October 29. Baldwin's DNA was later on the envelope.

He was arrested that day. Officers recovered the remains of a SIMM card in the toilet in Baldwin's cell. It had been chewed, and had passed through his body.

MICHAEL Baldwin allegedly confessed to a cellmate, while on remand in Parc Prison, near Bridgend jurors were told.

Prosecutor David Aub-rey QC told Cardiff crown court that On November 16 the defendant admitted to Mark Dando that he killed Jenna. He told him "I done it" and went on to demonstrate how he struck Jenna to the throat with his arm and where he had buried her and camouflaged the area."

The court also heard he made similar admissions to his mother, a psychiatric nurse, and two prison officers.

A NEIGHBOUR thought she saw what looked like a body in the defendant's car in the first week of September, the court heard.

Mr Aubrey said Catherine Hawse was walking her dogs past Jasmine Cottage when she saw the defendant's blue Ford Fiesta.

Ms Hawse thought she saw what looked like someone asleep, and wrapped in a duvet cover.

The court also heard Baldwin told a reporter Jenna used to wind him up and caused the family "disruption" by disappearing, referring to her as a "bloody teenager."

And the court heard a claim by witness Howard Morgan, that at about 11am on September 25 or 26 he was driving past the lay-by near where Jenna's body was later found, and saw a man by a light blue car. The boot was open and the man was putting "something like a shovel or pick in the back".