AN “obsessive” ex murdered a love rival before trying to make the death look like a suicide, a court has heard.
Mark Chilman, 52, is accused of killing Neil Parkinson, 66, whose body was discovered in a burning car in a layby near the village of Cotheridge, Worcestershire
Mr Parkinson, of Clifton upon Teme, Worcestershire, was pronounced dead amid the torched wreckage of his BMW X5 4×4.
At Worcester Crown Court today, Mark Heywood QC, said: “At around 10.30pm, people who live nearby to that layby noticed the glow of a fire coming from it.
“When the fire officers were able to see into the car, they found the body of a man, subsequently identified as Neil Parkinson, was in the driver’s seat of that burning car.
‘UNHAPPY RELATIONSHIP’
“The evidence gathered in the investigation into how Mr Parkinson met his death that night demonstrates he was murdered, we say by this defendant, Mark Chilman, who had arranged the body in the car and set light to it to make it appear as though Mr Parkinson had killed himself.”
He added that, Chilman’s long-term girlfriend, Juliet Adcock, “had ended a long and – for her part – often unhappy relationship with Mr Chilman”.
Mr Heywood went on: “Rather than accept the reality, Mr Chilman continued to find pretexts to continue to have contact with her but he was also obsessively concerned with what she was doing.”
The jury was told that Chilman first got to know mother-of-three Ms Adcock after helping out at the farm in Bromyard, Herefordshire, where she previously lived, following her divorce.
Mr Chilman continued to find pretexts to continue to have contact with her but he was also obsessively concerned with what she was doing Mark Heywood QC, Prosecuting
The Crown’s barrister said there “came a point where their relationship began to founder” and that, as time went, by “Ms Adcock found Mark Chilman difficult to live with”.
the relationship was over, and “Mr Chilman didn’t take it well.”
In a series of events, he let himself into the farm and “helped himself” to books and cash which did not belong to him, and on another occasion left a noose, discovered by Ms Adcock.
Mr Heywood said: “He once left a message in lipstick on a mirror, telling her ‘I am sorry. Love forever, my darling. Sorry. Love Mark. XX’.”
TRACKING DEVICE
Chilman also bought a tracking device and hid it on Ms Adcock’s car without her knowing.
On the day of the incident, Chilman’s silver Mitsubishi truck had allegedly been spotted in the lane near the farm, jurors were told.
Later that evening, Mr Parkinson had dinner with Ms Adcock at her farm before heading home, where he looked after his mother, who was suffering from dementia, the court heard.
At 10.17pm, Ms Adcock got a text, purporting to be from Mr Parkinson – but not from his usual phone number – which began: “Juliet, it’s Neil, on one of my other phones… I lead a double life, I use and abuse women.”
Mr Heywood said: “Her immediate thought was the words were very much the way Mr Chilman spoke, and how he expressed himself.”
Later analysis showed the message came from a phone which Mr Heywood said the prosecution know was purchased by Chilman in October, 2020.
The text also referred to two petrol cans, which had disappeared from the farm some days earlier, which were found in the torched BMW.
Forensics experts found marks which turned out to be blood matching the DNA profile of Mr Parkinson.
Post-mortem examinations found evidence of a depressed fracture to the base of the victim’s skull which “suggests he was still unconscious when placed in the driving seat and the car set alight”, said Mr Heywood.
After being arrested, Chilman told police he had “wanted to chop off Neil’s c**k… with a penknife”, and had also “known Mr Parkinson was going to kill himself”, but had nothing to do with the killing.
Chilman, of Pencombe, Bromyard, Herefordshire, denies any wrongdoing and the trial continues.
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