A MAN whose headless and armless body was found in a shallow grave in Sneinton was partially dismembered on a bed.
Kevin Kennedy's body had been cut up with a carpentry saw and knife before he was left in a shallow grave between Rossington Road and Burrows Court, Sneinton, on August 8 last year. Peter Healy, 51, of Lord Nelson Street, Sneinton, and Healy's ex-girlfriend Tara Swift, 41, of West Street, Leicester, deny his murder. Jurors heard scientific findings suggested Mr Kennedy was assaulted with multiple blows whilst sat in an armchair at Swift's then home in Rossington Road. Dilute blood in a back room was consistent with an account that water was thrown over him. Heavy bloodstaining on a mattress upstairs indicated he had lain there for some time and was partially dismembered there. A pathologist, who examined Mr Kennedy's body, could not find an obvious cause of death. He appeared to have been decapitated with a knife and a saw, Nottingham Crown Court heard. An expert who examined some of the bones had the opinion a carpentry saw was used to cut off the head and right arm. Scientists discovered a trail of blood spots between the front door and the rear sitting room at the house. They found a heavily bloodstained cream coloured armchair, blood splattering on the walls, cast-off bloodstaining on the ceiling and a pool of blood on the floor. DNA from Mr Kennedy was on a chair leg and a legless chair had a small bloodstain from Healy on it, indicting Healy had hold of the chair while bleeding himself. Some of the other bloodstaining matched Kennedy's DNA. In a bedroom they found blood had soaked through a mattress to the divan underneath. The science supported the view that Mr Kennedy was laid on the bed, whilst bleeding from his injuries, and at least part of the dismemberment of one his arms took place on or near the mattress, the court heard. Mr Kennedy, 50, who had lived with his girlfriend Swift and at the London Road Project, Nottingham, was last seen alive on CCTV on July 17, walking toward Rossington Road with a blue carrier bag. The following day Swift allegedly told a woman that Healy had been beating up Mr Kennedy and Mr Kennedy had been begging her to call an ambulance. Swift claimed she was too scared to do so, fearing that if she had called an ambulance, she, too, would have been beaten up by Healy. "She said Kevin Kennedy had been left at her home and they had locked him in," said Timothy Spencer, QC, prosecuting. Mr Spencer said in due course Swift presented herself to police as a "helpless bystander" – helpless to prevent a horrific assault which she says she witnessed by Healy on Mr Kennedy. Healy allegedly told a friend in Hucknall he had been in a fight with a man at "Tara's place". The prosecution say that within four hours of the last sighting of Mr Kennedy he had been fatally attacked. Healy had allegedly been well aware that Mr Kennedy was the new man in Swift's life. Mr Spencer said: "The prosecution say Healy was a jealous man. He was aware Tara Swift had taken up with Kevin Kennedy." Mr Spencer said that there was no CCTV footage of either defendant on July 18 going anywhere near Rossington Road. "We say they were deliberately staying away from 63 Rossington Road, as they knew perfectly well the enormity of what had gone on the evening or night before." Days on from the attack, they were caught on CCTV in the Rossington Road area. Healy allegedly got "rid of something" in one of the shots, say prosecutors. The case continues.
