Mark Brown 'intimidating and controlling' Hove court told

Mark Brown, 41, denies murdering Leah Ware, 33, and keeping her as a prisoner at Little Bridge Farm in Hastings. He maintains that Ware is still alive.

However while cross-examining Brown, Duncan Atkinson KC for the Crown told Brown he was intimidating, controlling and kept Leah Ware in the shipping container so she was available to him for sex.

Brown, of Squirrel Close in St Leonards, said: “[Ware] had loads of places to go, she chose to be at the farm.

“If I’m keeping her locked up down the farm, how was she able to drive around in my cars?”

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After Brown said that he would “do anything to keep seeing my kids”,

Mr Atkinson said that “every time Lisa [Clarke, Brown’s ex-partner] got wind of Leah Ware, there was a risk of you losing of your children”.

Leah Ware, Brown's alleged victim (Image: PA)

Brown told a jury he lied to Lisa Clarke about carrying on seeing Ms Ware, who was living in a shipping container owned by Brown at the remote farm.

Brown and Ms Ware began an affair with each other shortly after meeting on an escort website.

At the time, Brown had been with his partner, with whom he had children, for around 15 years.

The trial at Hove Crown Court also heard Brown give evidence, saying sex worker Alex Morgan, 34, “fell over and died” in his workshop in Little Bridge Farm.

He said that she tripped on tools in his messy workshop and smashed her head as if she had slipped on a banana skin.

Brown has already admitted to burning Ms Morgan’s remains in an oil drum and cleaning up the scene, but also denies murdering her.

He also said he made a “stupid” decision to not phone the authorities after Ms Morgan died.

Ms Morgan, from Sissinghurst in Kent, was last seen filling up her car at a petrol station near her home on November 14, 2021.

Brown denies murdering Leah Ware, 33, and Alexandra Morgan, 34, six months apart in 2021.

The trial continues.