A man accused of murdering two women described himself as a “psychopath with a conscience” and held one of his victims captive for months in a shipping container, a court has heard.
Mark Brown, 41, a groundworks labourer from St Leonards, East Sussex, was accused of murdering Alexandra Morgan, 34, and Leah Ware, 33, at the opening of his trial at Hove crown court. Brown has pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The jury heard that Brown met both of his alleged victims through an escort site called Adultwork.com. He had an interest in “extreme sexual activities” and held Ware as a “voluntary prisoner” during an increasingly controlling relationship, the court was told.
He allegedly killed Ware on 7 May 2021 and then created the false impression she was still alive by continuing to collect her prescription medication for anxiety and depression and her benefit payments, the prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the court.
Brown killed Morgan on 14 November 2021 and burned her body in an oil barrel, the jury was told. The court heard that the remains of Morgan’s bones and teeth were recovered from a skip on a yard where Brown was working.
The court heard that in a note to a school friend, Brown described himself as “psychopath with a conscience”.
He also wrote that he had done things that “weigh heavily on my heart, in my head and soul”. The note said he had burned “something” in an oil drum, which he said had been a “very unpleasant thing to do”, the jury was told.
After Brown was presented with “incontrovertible” evidence of Morgan’s death, Atkinson told the jury, “it is understood that he now says that her death was an accident which he sought to cover up in panic”.
He added: “He maintains that Leah Ware, who similarly has not been seen alive since she was with the defendant at his lockup, is alive.
“The prosecution invites you to reject these latest accounts as false … and rather to accept the clear pattern of evidence that shows the defendant to have been responsible for the deliberate killing of each woman, and the disposal of their bodies.”
In text messages to Ware, Brown admitted he would “take it out on you” during arguments, Atkinson said. She told a friend she was a “sort of voluntary prisoner at the lockup”, the jury heard.
Atkinson said: “She explained that she was not allowed to have friends to the yard, and he would bring things to her like medication, food and supplies rather than allowing her to leave the yard to get them.”
She told another friend that Brown wanted to photograph her bound and gagged. To another she described Brown as creepy or weird, after the friend expressed surprise that she was living in a dark container, the jury heard.
The jury was told that Ware was devoted to her two dogs, Duke and a pomeranian called Lady, which went everywhere with her.
After killing Ware, Atkinson said, Brown rehoused Duke with his sister. Lady has not been seen since Ware’s disappearance, but the bones of a pomeranian were found in a pond on the site, at the end of a collar and lead tied to a dumbbell, the jury heard.
Ware’s remains have never been found. Brown has given differing accounts of her fate, the jury heard. He told police she was still alive, and in a message to one friend he claimed she had been sectioned, while he told another she had killed herself, the court was told.
The jury was shown a photograph of an oil drum that Brown allegedly used as an incinerator. Jurors were also shown images of a converted shipping container on a farm that Brown rented and where he is alleged to have killed his victims.
Ware, from Hastings in East Sussex, “had led something of a chaotic life, with a history of mental illness and drug use”, Atkinson said. He told the jury she had lost custody of her three children and had a “history of abusive relationships in which she was often controlled and manipulated”.
She first met Brown in 2018 on the Adultwork website when he approached her under the username “fistymc”, the court heard. When the pair began living together, Ware referred to Brown as her “sugar daddy”, Atkinson said. He had begun collecting her benefit payments, the court heard.
Morgan looked after her two children on her own in Cranbrook, Kent, the court heard. Atkinson told the court she was a sex worker and that she arranged to meet Brown at Little Bridge Farm, a site he rented near Hastings.
CCTV footage of her white Mini Cooper was recovered, showing her following Brown’s gold Jaguar on to the farm, Atkinson said. The car was later recovered with its number plates changed, the court heard. A friend of Brown’s admitted helping him move the car from the farm, Atkinson told the jury.
The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, continues.
