Man 'beat girlfriend, 32, to death with metal pole before chopping up body and flushing it down toilet'
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A man allegedly beat his girlfriend to death with a rock and a metal pole before chopping up her body and disposing of it down a toilet, a court heard.
Dean Lowe, 33, is accused of murdering Kirby Noden, 32, in the bedroom of their basement flat in Marazion, Cornwall, in January last year.
Paul Dunkels QC, prosecuting, told Truro Crown Court: "It was January last year and the defendant and a woman called Kirby Nolan were living together in a flat in Marazion.
"It was in that month that the defendant attacked her in their bedroom of the flat, beating her to death with a rock and a metal pole. He then disposed of her body.
"Her blood was splattered around the bedroom from the attack upon her and it soaked into the mattress where her body had been laying and it was on the weapons he had used to murder her."
(Image: SWNS)
He continued: "No one other than the defendant knew what had happened to Kirby Noden for five months until May of last year when the defendant began to send text messages to members of his family in Cheshire that there has been a body on the floor of the flat which he had cut up and put into bins and down the toilet.
"They contacted the police and when the police went to the flat the defendant showed that officer the blood and admitted to the police officer he had killed Kirby Noden and disposed of her body."
The couple, originally from Winsford, in Cheshire, had a "chaotic lifestyle" marked by homelessness and drug use, with Lowe taking "some form of pills".
Mr Dunkels said the last confirmed sighting of Miss Noden was on January 11 when a couple went to her flat to buy cannabis from Lowe.
He said a benefit payment of £220.40 was paid into Miss Noden's bank account on January 10 and later that day all but 40p was withdrawn in cash.
"It is clear that the defendant had Kirsty Noden's bank card after he killed her but he did not have her pin and was unable to withdraw cash from an ATM," Mr Dunkels said.
"The prosecution say that the defendant killed Kirby Noden some time between January 11 and 14 last year."
Lowe denies murder.