Locked-down binman 'must have' killed Edinburgh woman as 'he could not storm out the house'

A refuse collector told police he ‘must have’ killed his Edinburgh-born partner following a row as the Covid lockdown meant he could not storm out of her house.

Killed: Ruth Brown

Wayne Morris sent harrowing text messages days after battering Ruth Brown, 52, with a plastic tray in her kitchen and sparking a huge police manhunt, a court heard.

In a message to Ms Brown’s daughter Lauren, 22, the furloughed bin man is alleged to have said: “hi princess, you know I love you, not in a very good situation at The moment but I think you need to get the police around to your mums, because she is not in a very good way,

“I didn’t mean to do anything, I’m leaving Bognor, I’m turning my phone off”

Ms Brown had been diagnosed with COPD and was classed as vulnerable during the pandemic. Both she and Morris were described as heavy drinkers who would get drunk together at weekends when he was not working.

Long term partner Morris, 47, moved in with Ms Brown and her 16-year-old son when the first coronavirus national lockdown was announced in March last year.

Neighbours heard loud banging coming from the house on Wednesday, April 8. Lewes Crown Court in Brighton heard.

Morris told police he found his partner lying face down on the kitchen floor the morning after a night of heavy drinking.

He told police: “She was giving me grief – we had an argument.

“I don’t remember what it was about.

“Normally I would walk home but because of the lockdown I couldn’t go home, so I said ‘f*** you I’m sleeping in the spare room’.

“In the morning on Thursday I came down the stairs and I saw that Ruth was laying face-down on the floor in the kitchen.

“I went to check her pulse but as I lifted her arm I saw rigour mortis has already set in.

“There was a broken plastic tray on the floor next to her.

“There was blood on the floor and on the kitchen door.

“I panicked. I loved her, and I was responsible.

“I must have done it because nobody else could have done it.”

Mr Morris said he moved Ms Brown to her bed and cleaned up the kitchen before returning to his own house nearby.

In his statement to detectives, he admitted: “I left her there for a couple of hours then I picked her up and carried her upstairs to her bed, lay her in the bed and pulled the covers over her, leaving just a bit of her hair showing.

“I think I didn’t want to see her so then I didn’t have to think about what had happened.”

On Saturday, he took a hovercraft to the Isle of Wight where police arrested him the next day.

In a statement read to the court, Ms Brown’s daughter Lauren said: “Mainly mum would start arguments and he would walk away.

“He had moved in to help her out with stuff as she has COPD.”

Morris denies murdering Ms Brown, originally from Restalrig, and the trial continues.

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