Coutts trial - jury still out (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Coutts trial - jury still out

THE jury in the Jane Longhurst murder trial was continuing its deliberation today (Tues).

The seven men and five women spent 100 minutes yesterday trying to reach a verdict before Judge Richard Brown sent them home for the night.

They were due to resume their debate in the jury room at Lewes Crown Court.

Graham Coutts grew up in the Cotswolds and went to the old Westwoods Grammar School in Northleach.

All day yesterday he sat, almost motionless, staring down into the well of the court and occasionally glancing at the jury, as Judge Brown summed up the evidence.

Coutts, a 35-year-old guitarist and part-time salesman, denies murdering Miss Longhurst at his flat in Waterloo Street, Hove, on March 14 last year.

The defence has admitted Coutts killed Miss Longhurst but said it was an accident during consensual strangulation sex.

Miss Longhurst, a 31-year-old musician and teacher at Uplands School for children with learning difficulties in Brighton, had a pair of tights round her neck when she suddenly collapsed dead.

Coutts said he picked her up from her home in Shaftesbury Road, Brighton, to go swimming but she seemed upset and they went back to his flat for tea.

He was comforting her and they started kissing before they moved to the bedroom.

Coutts hid her body for the next five weeks, regularly visiting it, before dumping and burning it at Wiggonholt Common near Pulborough.

Coutts told no one what had happened until late last year and said his silence was designed to protect his pregnant partner from a possible miscarriage.

The prosecution said he was lying and by murdering Miss Longhurst and storing her body he was satisfying a long-standing sexual fantasy.

He did not dial 999 or call for help when Miss Longhurst died because part of that fantasy involved keeping the body.

Coutts had spent years downloading thousands of images of strangulation sex, rape and dead women and was viewing the web sites on the eve of Miss Longhurst's death, the court was told.

Judge Brown yesterday told the jury to look hard at the evidence and not to let emotions interfere.

He said violent sex web sites were not illegal but the jury might think it an affront to common sense if they were to ignore the fact Coutts was viewing the sites just 24 hours before Miss Longhurst's death.

And the judge reminded them that Coutts also visited the web sites at a time he was hiding Miss Longhurst's body.

Judge Brown said if Miss Longhurst's death had or may have been an accident then he was not guilty: "But if, having considered all the evidence in the case, you are sure it was not, that he did intend to kill her or cause her bodily harm, then he is guilty.

"You have to decide what happened on the day of Jane's death and the state of mind of the defendant."

It was not the job of the defence to prove anything but it was for the Crown to prove their case, he said. "And you have to be satisfied so you are sure."

Judge Brown said it was for the jury to decide whether Coutts intended to kill or cause serious harm.

"You may be asking how do you decide what someone intended to do. You can't open up someone's mind and look inside."

He asked the jury to consider what Coutts did or didn't do, what he may have said, and his actions before, at the time and after the killing: "All of this will shed light for you."

The judge reminded them of evidence from teacher Ruth Davis who told of a whispered conversation with Miss Longhurst in a crowded staff room in 1996.

Ms Davis said she had been left with the impression Miss Longhurst had indulged in asphyxia sex with her then boyfriend. Miss Longhurst had been 'amused and bemused' by the experience.

Judge Brown asked the jury whether Coutts had invented and tailored his defence only after learning of the prosecution's case, or was it to protect his unborn twins.

He said Coutts' had no previous convictions and was of good character, facts that were not a defence but did support his credibility: "It may mean it was less likely he committed the crime."

He urged the jury to take a 'cold, hard, calculated' look at the evidence and not be deflected by emotions.

"You make your decision on the evidence," he added.