‘My dad is an animal’ - Daughter accused of putting body in West Bromwich canal
A father and daughter are on trial accused of putting the body of Chereiss Bailey in a canal
A defendant accused of helping her father to dispose of the body of a murdered woman has told the jury he was an “animal”.
John Anslow is on trial accused of murdering 36–year-old Chereiss Bailey, of Tipton, whose body was found in a canal off Ryders Green Road in West Bromwich on October 7 last year.
He is accused of killing her at his home in Stour Street and then wheeling and dumping her body in the water with the help of his daughter Hayley-Marie Ferguson.
On Thursday Ferguson, of Heronville Road, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court via video due to feeling unwell.
She repeatedly said she did not see the body at her father's home when she went to visit on September 28.
She said she was forced to help 65-year-old Anslow, whom she said told her that it was his mate who was in the wheelchair and that the person was drunk.
Cross-examining her prosecution junior Miss Sharon Bhai put to her: “You were at his house for two to three hours. You were dressing her and after that you were in constant contact with your father.”
Ferguson replied: “I told Dad to go to the police and he told me to shut my ***** mouth.”
The 42-year-old defendant was also asked why a number of texts between her and Anslow in the days after the discovery of the body were deleted from her phone.
Ferguson replied that some of the messages could have been sexually inappropriate and she deleted them.
She said: “He was threatening me and my children. Some of the texts were vulgar and vile.”
Miss Bahia said: “Yet you kept the ones saying ‘ I love you’.”
Ferguson also told the court: “I didn't know anything. I didn’t do anything.
“I didn’t see any face. I didn’t see any jogging bottoms. I can’t answer your questions.”
She went on to explain that her father had a tendency to shout at the family and she was trying to keep him calm by doing as he asked.
Re-examining Ferguson defence barrister Miss Samantha Giffin put to her: “It has been suggested that your dad did not force you to do anything.”
Weeping aloud as she answered, Ferguson replied: “Yes he did. He forced me to help. He is an animal.”
The jury previously heard that Anslow engaged the services of Miss Bailey, an occasional sex worker who lived in Tipton, and had violently attacked her.
She had been strangled, had facial fractures, bruising to many parts of her body and was likely to have been bitten.
And that the pair placed the corpse in a wheelchair with paving slabs added before pushing it into the Walsall Canal and walking away.
Anslow has pleaded guilty to a charge of preventing a lawful and decent burial, but denies murdering Miss Bailey who was last seen on September 27. He will not be giving evidence in the trial.
Ferguson, who is not accused of murder, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of preventing a lawful and decent burial, and not guilty to a charge of assisting an offender.
The trial continues.