A POLICE dog sniffed out a murdered woman’s blood on the doorstep of a flat metres away from where her body was found, a jury was told yesterday.
Penelope Brownlie, 45, and 57-year-old Justine Wainwright, whose flat it was on Britannia Close, Barnsley, were arrested a day after 42-year-old Claire Louise Smith’s body was found on nearby Union Street at about 7am on May 19.
The pair, who deny murder, have been appearing at Sheffield Crown Court for the last two weeks and both looked on while prosecutor Ian Goldsack read out a statement from Steven Gill, a South Yorkshire Police dog handler who arrived at the scene following the discovery of Miss Smith’s body.
His statement said: “The dog, Candy, has considerable experience in tracking human remains and associated matter such as blood. I was briefed upon arrival at Britannia Close and set Wood Street and Heelis Street as my boundary.
“The tent where the deceased’s body was found was still in-situ and Candy picked up a positive trace of blood on a doorstep about ten metres away. The locality was searched extensively but only two positive IDs were found one where the tent was and the doorstep.”
The jury watched CCTV footage gathered from a motion sensor camera fitted on a second floor flat directly opposite Wainwright’s property, where the Crown Prosecution Service say a fatal attack took place.
Witnesses claim they saw the victim getting into Wainwright’s red Chevrolet Matiz on Pitt Street, near Barnsley town centre, at about 5.30pm while neighbours said earlier in the trial that they had seen Wainwright and Brownlie involved in a heated argument with her.
Detective Constable Nick Eastwood, who oversaw the collation of the footage, spoke about his team’s evidence gathering which saw them trawl through surveillance on Sheffield Road, Blucher Street, York Street and Wellington Street.
He said: “We collected hundreds of hours of CCTV, both from the camera installed at an address opposite the scene and from cameras across Barnsley town centre where Wainwright’s Chevrolet Matiz went on May 18.
“One of our objectives was to see Claire Louise Smith and this footage captures her last known movements. The camera opposite Wainwright’s flat is a motion sensor so does not record everything, but it picked up 90 per cent as there was a lot of movement on Britannia Close between 11pm and 1am.”
Police experts enhanced the quality of footage to make it clearer, which was shown to the jury yesterday, after the recording was slightly obscured by cobwebs on the lens.
Det Con Eastwood added: “The enhancement team at Calder Park, Wakefield, were able to isolate some of the footage and superimpose that to make it clearer.
“The area to the side of the flat, including its door, shows an item being dragged and suggests the figures moved to where the body was found before they go back through the door.”
The trial continues.
