Murder suspect Coutts breaks down in court (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Murder suspect Coutts breaks down in court

THE man accused of murdering Jane Longhurst became a father of twins just months after his arrest, a court heard.

Graham Coutts, who grew up in the Cotswolds and went to Westwoods Grammar School in Northleach, has seen his baby boys just once since being on remand in prison.

Coutts broke down on the witness stand on Monday as he told how the babies were born on October 11 last year.

He said he had seen them only once - during a prison visit from his partner Lisa Stephens.

Asked if he communicated with Ms Stephens, the babies' mother, he said she had visited a number of times and the couple had spoken on the telephone.

Coutts, 35-year-old guitarist, of Waterloo Street, Hove, denies murdering Miss Longhurst, 31-year-old special needs teacher, of Shaftesbury Road, Brighton.

Coutts said her death was an accident during consensual sex at his flat. Miss Longhurst, he said, agreed to have a pair of tights tied round her throat and she suddenly collapsed dead.

Coutts said he hid the body for the next five weeks and didn't tell police because he was scared his pregnant partner might miscarry.

Ms Stephens, who had undergone fertility treatment, had been eight-weeks pregnant when Miss Longhurst died on March 14.

Coutts remembered intimate details leading up to Miss Longhurst's death but little afterwards.

He showed the jury how he had tied a pair of tights lightly round her neck.

He said he had indulged in strangulation sex with partners, including Ms Stephens, more than 172 times and nothing had ever gone wrong before. Mr Kelsey Fry QC, prosecuting, asked why he hadn't removed the ligature when Miss Longhurst collapsed. Coutts replied: "I don't know."

How did he know she was dead? Coutts: "I can't answer that."

Mr Kelsey Fry: "You remember minute details...to the point where she was not moving but can't tell us what happened next."

Coutts: "That's right."

Mr Kelsey Fry: "Can you think of a single reason why you would not have removed that ligature?"

Coutts: "It just was not that tight. I don't know how she died. I don't know what happened at that point. I don't know what I was thinking."

Mr Kelsey Fry asked why Coutts hadn't dialled 999 for an ambulance. "Is there any reason why you did not try and save this girl's life?"

Coutts: "I don't know if I did or did not. I did not dial 999."

Asked why, he said: "Shock, I don't know. I remember blood, a curtain of blood...it is not on anything...it is just blood."

There were occasional exchanges between the two and at one point Coutts turned to Judge Richard Brown and said the prosecutor was being persistent.

Mr Kelsey Fry pressed Coutts on how she died and Coutts repeated that he didn't know.

Mr Kelsey Fry said it was clear Miss Longhurst had not been shot and Coutts responded: "There's no reason to be flippant."

Coutts stored the body first in a brick shed at the rear of his flat and then at the Big Yellow self-storage unit in Coomb Road, Brighton.

He visited the body several times but denied it was to satisfy sexual fantasies.

But 35 minutes after one visit Coutts was viewing violent sex scenes on internet websites.

Coutts could not remember doing so but records showed he spent the best part of an hour watching internet scenarios including a secretary being throttled to death.

Coutts told the court: "It is not something I can explain. I have no memory of going on the internet that day."

John Kelsey Fry, prosecuting, asked: "How could you possibly, Mr Coutts, resort to this material when Jane Longhurst was in your lock-up?"

Coutts said he had been into internet pornography for eight years and it had developed into a habit.

Coutts said he visited the body to check on the smell and in the vain hope nothing would be there.

Coutts complained to a work colleague police were not doing enough to find Jane and he was asked: "You wanted to be caught?" Coutts answered: "I think I did."

He thought the police would have solved Miss Longhurst's disappearance after three days and 'this situation would have been over'.

Yet, Mr Kelsey Fry pointed out, Coutts had been an 'efficient and effective liar' when he had denied to police in an interview that he had any involvement in Miss Longhurst's disappearance.

Coutts said the second Miss Longhurst had died 'my life was over' and his actions afterwards were designed to protect his pregnant partner and the babies.

Asked whether it would have been better to tell the story of the accidental death rather than being thought a murderer Coutts said: "I don't think anyone who knows me would think I'm a murderer."

He said: "It's okay looking back on how things should have been but when you are in something so horrible that it is not like reality then you don't think rationally."

Coutts said he only started telling his solicitor what had happened several weeks after his arrest.

He had not even told Ms Stephens at that time. Coutts couldn't remember whether she had asked him if he had killed Miss Longhurst.

Mr Kelsey Fry suggested the reason for the delay was so Coutts had time to make up his story of accidental death.

Coutts replied: "It was an accident."

Coutts described Miss Longhurst as a "lovely, gentle and kind" person and there was no secret affair going on between them.

On the day of her death she had appeared preoccupied and he had taken back to his flat to console her. They began kissing and ended up in his bed.

Coutts said he understood when Mr Kelsey Fry said: "I suggest Jane Longhurst was not a willing partner to any sexual activities that day at all.

"I suggest you attacked her and strangled her to death for your own bizarre urges."

Coutts maintained it was an accident: He wasn't holding the ligature tight and she was not gasping for air.

Coutts, who has a heart condition, began suffering chest pains at one point during his evidence and there was a short adjournement while he recovered.

Coutts later admitted using a false name and forged document to hire the Big Yellow unit but he denied any planned cover up. He said: "It was a spur of the moment decision.

What was the purpose? Coutts: "I don't know. There is no logic to it."

Coutts said he thought the police would discover him any moment and by the time he had taken the body to the Big Yellow he was at the point of 'cracking up'. He said: "I wanted the police to make the decisions for me."

Mr Kelsey Fry said: "Mr Coutts, you are simply not making any sense." Coutts replied: "I don't expect it to make sense now. There was nothing rational about it.

"If I had wanted to get away with it I had five weeks to come up with a story and alibis but I did not."

The trial continues.