Day nine in court (From Free Press Series)

Day nine in court

NEXT door neighbour Merna Boucher told the court Jenna had a blazing row with Baldwin two weeks before she disappeared.

Mrs Boucher said Jenna was trying to get into the house at around 12.45pm on August 29, while Baldwin, a poultry worker, was in bed after a night shift.

She said that after trying the front and back door several times and even the defendant's Ford Fiesta, Jenna began "hammering the bay window".

Mrs Boucher said:"Mike must have got out of bed because she was shouting at Mike.

"She just shouted to Mike '******* let me in, you bastard, you ******* bastard, I want to go to the bathroom.'

"She just kept on saying that and Mike must have said something because she said 'you don't want to ******* stay up there, and laugh you ******* bastard, you'd better get down here and let me in,'."

David Aubrey QC, prosecuting, then asked if Jenna said anything else.

Mrs Boucher said: "Mike was still laughing at her because Jenna said 'Stop laughing and let me in the ******* house'. That went on and then she shouted up to him 'You won't be ******* laughing when I tell mam', and something like 'you'll be ******* out of here when she comes home.'

"Mike must have went down and opened the door and grabbed her in."

She then described how she heard a scream or squeal - but Mr Peter Murphy QC, defending, told the court Mrs Boucher had failed to tell the police about the "squeal" until January, three months after making her first statement to officers.

He suggested there was no scream, but asked again by Mr Aubrey, she said there was "no doubt" there had been one.

She told the court the last time she saw Jenna was outside her house, a week later, dressed in black trousers and a black top, talking to a young girl wearing a baseball. But when asked by Mr Aubrey if she heard anything on September 10, the date Jenna died, according to Baldwin, (she was in until 12.45pm) she said no.

Mr Murphy defending suggested she was mistaken with her dates.

Mrs Boucher also told the jury of another argument a few weeks before, between Desiree and Jenna, during which Jenna allegedly said: "You don't even know what's under your own nose."

Mr Murphy asked why the comment was not in the original statement, to which Mrs Boucher she thought it had been.

IN A statement read to the court, Darren Griffiths, Desiree Baldwin's brother - Jenna's uncle, said he took over the role of looking after his niece and his sister when Desiree divorced Nigel Brookfield in 1988.

Mr Griffiths told the police that in early July 2001 Jenna told him she hated Baldwin.

Violet Smith, whose daughter Tracey is the partner of John Baldwin - the defendant's brother, told the jury Baldwin borrowed £500 from a family loan scheme run by a finance company.

She said she sometimes collected payments and Baldwin would usually make his on Fridays but failed to do so in the week of September 6.

Peter Murphy QC, defending, said Baldwin did not always pay the full £30 a week because he could get chicken meat legitimately from his workplace and supplied her with that. Mrs Smith confirmed this.

Neighbour Portland Cole, who lived two doors down from the family told the court she saw Jenna "rolling around" on the patio outside the family home on either the Wednesday or Friday before she went missing at around 4.30pm.

She described her wearing a black tracksuit bottoms, black hooded sweat shirt and a white hooded top.

She also saw Jenna talking to a girl with blonde hair a little while later.

David Peplow, an uncle of Jenna's friend Jodie Parfitt.told the court Jenna stayed at his house for three or four days shortly before she disappeared.

Laura Whitcombe lodged at the flat of David Peplow and told the court she saw Jenna 'sunbathing' on the front patio of Jenna's house at around 4.30pm on Wednesday, September 4 and talked to her for about an hour.

Laura told the jury she was wearing a baseball cap when she saw Jenna. This was also the last time Desiree saw her 15-year-old daughter alive.