Trial of double murder accused Mark Brown continues

Part time builder and security guard Mark Brown denies murdering two women at Little Bridge Farm near Hastings six months apart in 2021.

Single mother of two Alex Morgan, 34, from Sissinghurst, Kent, was reported missing in November last year, after failing to return from a weekend away.

She was last seen filling her car at a petrol station near her home in Cranbrook, Kent on the morning of November 14.

Leah Ware, 33, a mother-of-three from Hastings, who had been living in a shipping container at the farm, was last seen by a friend in the early hours of May 6, 2021.

The charred remains of Alex Morgan were found in the skip at a building site where Brown was working in Sevenoaks, Kent after she disappeared.

Brown admitted being present when Alex Morgan died and disposing of her body by fire, but denied her murder.

The 41-year-old, of St Leonards, also denied murdering Leah Ware.

The CSI team who examined the site at Sevenoaks where Brown worked found three rings, a chain, a piercing stud and a buckle, buttons and rivets from clothing, a jury were told.

All showed signs of significant exposure to heat.

Experts found ash in the brazier, while the skip it was found in contained human remains.

Forensic archaeologist and anthropologist Kristina Lee told the court: “The findings at the scene suggested that was the method of burning Miss Morgan’s body.”

• Read more: Man accused of double murder told a friend he felt like 'wolf in field of sheep'

The jury were shown close up pictures of the jewellery and Alex Morgan.

Duncan Atkinson KC told the court: “The rings matched rings Alex Morgan had on her fingers.

“A stud recovered from the skip matched a facial stud on Alex Morgan.

“Another piercing stud matched a tongue stud she was in the habit of wearing.”

Lewes Crown Court in Hove heard 2600 fragments were recovered from the makeshift brazier.

The bones had either been burnt at a very high temperature or at a lower temperature for a longer time, or a combination of the two.

Forensic anthropologist Dr Julie Roberts told the court it was very clear the bones had been involved in a fire.

The bones were broken up by force, the expert said.

Analysis of the bones was able to place 338 of the on a body map shown to the jury.

Dr Roberts said the investigation team had recovered human bone fragments weighing 674g.

The average female skeleton weighs 2130g at the lower end, the court heard.

Duncan Atkinson KC for the Crown asked the expert: “Does it follow it was not a whole body’s worth?”

“No, not in terms of weight,” the expert said.

The bones had been broken up by mechanical force either deliberate or incidental, Dr Roberts said.

“It was not possible to say if it was during or after the fire,” she said.

The jury were shown a picture of the fragments laid out in a rough skeleton.

The bones recovered were much less than the average female cremated body, the expert agreed, with fewer bones from the middle of the body.

“The bones from those areas are more easy to crush and have high ratio of spongey to compact.

“There are fragments from every area of the skeleton represented.”

The trial at Hove Trial Centre continues.