Jamie Lee Warn – who denies the murder of Zsuzsanna Besenyei and two counts of perverting the course of justice by lying to police – first told officers that he and Miss Besenyei were platonic friends. He contacted the police after her body was found at Le Pulec bay on 16 May and said she had just texted him the day before and that she and her ex-boyfriend had been arguing, the court was told.
As the murder trial entered its second week, DC Caroline Foord gave evidence about the discovery of Miss Besenyei’s body and the phone call.
She said Guernsey police received a 999 call that a body had been found. ‘The caller was at Le Pulec and believed he was calling Jersey,’ DC Foord told the court.
Later the same day, the defendant contacted police saying he was one of her best friends.
The Crown contends that by 16 May Miss Besenyei had been dead for six days. Mr Warn is alleged to have hidden her body for three days in the boot of her car, then driven to Le Pulec, where he left her on the beach in the early hours of the morning of 14 May. The prosecution say he drove her car onto a different beach in the hope of making her death look like suicide.
Yesterday the court heard that only later in the investigation did Mr Warn tell the police the true nature of their relationship, saying they had been involved for some time. He said they never had sexual intercourse, only oral sex and that their meetings took place either in his First Tower flat or in her car, which they would sometimes park at La Pulente, the court heard.
‘She was gorgeous and naturally, I was attracted to her,’ Mr Warn said in a police statement read to the court.
The jury were also taken through a detailed timeline yesterday compiled by the police using CCTV footage of the movements of a man they maintain is Mr Warn and Miss Besenyei’s car and mobile telephone records.
Police analyst Tracey Wilkinson presented slides showing the contact between Mr Warn and Miss Besenyei from 5 May until her phone went off the network for the last time at 7pm on 13 May.
The timeline also showed the location of both their mobile phones. From the day of the alleged murder, Miss Besenyei’s phone only registered at the mobile phone mast closest to Mr Warn’s home or the masts closest to where his phone was, the court was told, for example when the defendant went into St Helier to buy cleaning supplies on Saturday 12 May.
At this time, the Crown alleges, the defendant began messaging Miss Besenyei’s phone to make it appear she was still alive.
The crime analyst also presented slides allegedly showing the relationship between where the phones had been according to mobile mast data and CCTV footage allegedly showing the defendant in the vicinity of those masts at the times the phones registered on them. The court was shown footage of a car believed to be Miss Besenyei’s being driven from the First Tower car park in the early hours of 14 May to the west of the Island.
The car passed various CCTV cameras on its journey as, the court was told, Mr Warn’s phone was registering at cell sites including those at Les Landes and Guernsey – towers the jury heard cover the Island’s north-west bays, including Le Pulec – at 1am.
The defendant’s phone then registered at a site near to St Aubin at 1.58am, the court was told, before the phone went off the network until just after 3am, when CCTV picked up a man matching Mr Warn’s description who was walking near the defendant’s First Tower flat. Mobile phone records showed his phone registered on the nearest mast at that time, the court heard.
Miss Besenyei’s car was recovered from the beach at La Haule later that day.
Mr Warn’s advocate, James Bell, was expected to open the defence case today.
