A sick and evil killer attempted to cover up the murder of a mum-of-two by sending text messages from her phone to those she loved most.
Andrew Burfield, 51, changed his plea to admit the murder of Katie Kenyon, 33, on the third day of his trial at Preston Crown Court.
He was re-arraigned on the charge on Wednesday morning, and the jury in the case formally found him guilty.
His trial heard that he killed Katie, of Padiham, Burnley, on April 22 and buried her body in a grave he had dug the day before her death in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire.
He then sent sick messages to himself as well as her mother and children from Katie's phone to convince her loved ones she was alive, the jury was told.
He then reportedly used his own phone to send Katie voice notes, begging for her to phone him in a desperate attempt to hide his tracks.
The evil killer used the same phone Katie had messaged her mum with just weeks before her death, when she had said she feared for her life.
She wrote: "I’m paranoid to death hes ganna do summert... couldn’t sleepall night xxxx [sic]".
Weeks later she was at a McDonald's with Burfield, marking the last time she was seen alive.
At about 9am on April 22, Katie made her final phone call, and every message or call after that was from Burfield.
Just after midday on that same day, Katie's daughter got a message purporting to be from her mum.
It read: "I love you, I'm sorry. Your dad will be looking after you for a wile."
There was a giveaway here as 'wile' was understood to be the way Burfield spelled 'while'.
Another message, this time sent to Katie's son, read: "Hey dude, I love you, sorry."
Katie's mum's phone also received a message, reading: "This is the bravest thing I’ve ever had to do, I need to find some peace and sort my mind out.
"So with the 6k Andy gave me to pay the dept off Im being free for a wile until I figure all this s*** out."
A message was then also sent from Katie's phone to Burfield's, reading: "I want you to know I'm truly sorry for everything."
Katie's phone was then permanently disconnected and was never recovered.
However, Burfield kept up the act and left a voice note for Katie via WhatsApp, telling her he was worried about her.
"Just ring me whenever you can. It doesn't have to be like this babz," he said.
Burfield then messaged Katie's son, this time on Instagram, telling the boy he had a message from Katie and asked him to look after the dog while she was away.
But Katie's son asked if everything was alright and offered to visit, and by 5pm the rest of the family were concerned.
Dawn, who is Katie's mum, messaged her sister saying: "Katie's walked out on the kids."
Draft notes recovered from his iPhone suggested he had "created" messages impersonating Katie, 33, which prosecutors said showed "murder was on his mind".
It was 48 hours later that Burfield was arrested on suspicion of kidnap, but he had actually struck Katie 12 times with an axe and buried her body in a grave that he'd dug the day before she died.
Her body was found seven days later.
Opening the trial on Monday, David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, told the jury Burfield was arrested following Katie's disappearance and interviewed four times, initially denying any knowledge of her whereabouts.
In his penultimate interview, there was a “revelation” and his version of events changed, Mr McLachlan said.
Burfield, of Todmorden Road, Burnley, told police he had taken Katie, who he had been in a relationship with since 2019, to Gisburn Forest for a picnic and she had “bet” him he could not hit her can of Coke with his axe.
The court heard he told police: “I went for the tree at the side of her and it, it hit her in (her) head.”
He claimed she had been hit with the back of the axe and she had no other injuries, but the jury heard a post-mortem showed she was struck an estimated 12 times.
Katie's body was discovered by police on April 29.
Speaking outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Allen Davies said he and Katie's family welcomed the guilty plea.
He said: “Andrew Burfield is a man who has elected to run a trial despite the overwhelming evidence in this case – not only of the fact that Andrew Burfield has barbarically and violently killed Katie, he has also pre-planned what he was going to do, to an extent I have never seen in my entire police service.
“Through investigation, we were able to establish that Mr Burfield had travelled up to Bolton-by-Bowland a day prior to Katie’s murder.
“He did that for the purpose of digging a shallow grave, which he would subsequently place Katie within.
“The extent of his planning went far beyond the night before.
“Three weeks previous to her murder he’d written messages that he’d gone on to send to her family and her children, knowing that his intention was to kill her.
“What I would like to point out and I don’t want to forget is that Katie is a happy, loving, mum of two children. She had her whole life ahead of her.
“Andrew Burfield is a cruel, vindictive man who has taken her life away from her and taken her life away from her children.”
Burfield is due to be sentenced on Thursday at 10.30am.
