A DAD allegedly murdered his daughter after she accused him of sex abuse then hacked her social media with his wife to cover it up, a court has heard.
Bernadette Walker, 17, complained that her father, Scott Walker, was assaulting her in the games room and had spied on her via hidden cameras, a prosecutor claimed today.
The photography student disappeared in July last year, and despite extensive police searches across two counties her body remains missing.
She would now be aged 18.
When she finally broke the news to her mum, Sarah Walker, that her dad had allegedly been abusing her “over a number of years” she refused to believe her.
Bernadette was sent to spend the night with her paternal grandparents “whilst things calmed down a little,” prosecutor Lisa Wilding QC told Cambridge Crown Court.
When her dad went to collect his daughter – nicknamed Bea – to bring her home, he claims she ran off from his car.
Opening the trial against her “wicked” parents, the barrister told how they had exchanged text messages from her mobile phone to make people think she was still alive and “lay a false trail”.
Ms Wilding said: “In the hours and days Scott and Sarah Walker hacked into Bea’s social media accounts, sent false messages from her telephone which was still in their possession, pretending to be from her to friends and family and which were designed to lay a false trail in order to explain their subsequent failure to report her missing to the police.”
She told the jury: “They lied to everyone around them, including Bea’s siblings, about her disappearance and were unflinching in their pursuit of their devious, wicked plan.
“In those hours and days in which they hid her disappearance from everyone and deliberately set a false trail of where and when Bea had gone, they achieved their goal.
“They diverted the investigation into her disappearance and death for sufficiently long and sufficiently well, that any hope of finding Bea’s body disappeared with her.
“All parental love and responsibility was gone, if ever it existed.
“They had no interest in seeing Bea safely returned to her family, nor did they offer any help to anyone to find her.
“Instead, selfishly and ruthlessly, they maintained their lying accounts which were designed only to protect themselves.”
Scott Walker, 51, is charged with his daughter’s murder. Both he and Sarah, 38, face two counts each of perverting the course of justice.
The couple are common law husband and wife but have never been legally married.
Bea, described as a Goth who dyed her hair a rainbow of colours, lived at the family home in Peterborough Cambs.
She was reported missing by her parents on July 21 last year – three days after being dropped off at her grandparents’ home in the town.
A student at Peterborough Regional College, she was set to return home on July 18.
Ms Wilding said: “Scott Walker collected Bernadette from his parents’ home and set off to drive her back to the family home.
“When her grandparents said goodbye to her that morning, it was the last time that they, or anyone other than Scott Walker, saw her alive.”
The prosecution allege that he then killed his daughter.
Phone records showed his phone had been switched off for an hour and a half.
Ms Wilding said: “How he did so will never be known for her body has never been found. She has, literally, never been seen again.”
He later phoned his wife.
The prosecutor continued: “The only sensible conclusion that can be drawn from that telephone call is that Scott Walker told his wife that he had killed Bernadette and that he needed her help, immediately, to cover up Bea’s disappearance and death and to buy them both time to work out what should happen next.”
The parents had concocted a story that on the drive home to discuss the abuse allegations Bea had jumped out of her dad’s car when he pulled over and “ran off”, the court was told.
Ms Wilding said: “Bea’s own mother and father were joined in an unholy alliance, designed and intended to mislead, divert and pervert the inevitable investigation into the disappearance and death of Bea Walker.
“She has never been found. Since the day she disappeared she has not used nor sought to access her telephone or social media accounts, she had access to no money or banking and has not been seen at any hospital or surgery.
“No one who knew her or loved her – her friends and family – has heard from her since that day.”
Ms Wilding added: “She is presumed dead and its likely that her body was disposed of, probably in the countryside in the hours that followed her killing.
“The prosecution allege that Scott Walker killed Bea to prevent her pursuing her allegations of sexual abuse any further.
“He then enlisted the help of her mother, his wife, to cover his tracks and provide them both with time to formulate the next part of their plan.
“To this day, neither of them accepts that Bea is dead.
“The prosecution must therefore prove to you not only that she is, but also that she died at the hands of her father who then recruited her mother to assist him in concealing her death and his involvement in it.”
Scott Walker denies Bernadette’s murder on or after July 18 last year and four counts of perverting the course of justice.
Sarah Walker denies two counts of perverting the course of justice.
The trial, expected to last five weeks, continues.
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