Paul Taylor: 'Burn site' was found in wood near Carlisle, trial hears

Gruesome images of the shocking dump scene were shown to jurors as the trial of the married father-of-two’s teen killer continued today (Monday).

Jack Crawley, now aged 20, admits the manslaughter of Cumberland Infirmary catering manager Mr Taylor, who was last seen at his family home on the evening of October 17 last year. Crawley denies murder.

Carlisle Crown Court has heard how Crawley, a security guard at the same city hospital, admitted unlawful killing to police and led detectives to Mr Taylor’s body.

His skeletal remains were found by officers within the wildlife watcher’s haven of Finglandrigg Wood, west of Carlisle, on May 1 this year.

Several months earlier, on November 22, Natural England reserve manager Susan Woodland reported finding a “burn site” while involved in an educational visit with primary school children.

She took photographs of that horseshoe-shaped area, in which a charred hi-viz item and black garment were. The black garment bore a distinctive logo matching that displayed on winter garments bought by Crawley in early October.

Jurors heard this site was merely metres away from where Mr Taylor’s remains were found in a densely screened shallow hollow.

'Two large branches had been placed over Mr Taylor’s body'

Both crime scenes were examined by forensic archaeologist Alistair Vannan, who presented his findings from the court witness box.

As graphic images of Mr Taylor’s remains, including his damaged skull, were shown on court screens, Crawley did not look. Instead, in the dock, he stared ahead and slightly downwards, hands clasped, his left leg fidgeting and, at one stage, drinking from a cup of water.

Mr Vannan concluded that the main body of Mr Taylor was positioned chest down with the cranium slightly to one side. This was very close to Mr Taylor’s lower left leg which, he confirmed, appeared to have been separated from the rest of his body.

A gate near to the entrance to Finglandrigg Wood near Carlisle (Image: Google StreetView)

Two large branches had been placed over Mr Taylor’s body, with two saplings bent over by way of apparently further concealment and to impede access. Some more sticks covered where the skull might originally have been positioned, and others were placed over the left leg close by.

Fabric, possibly clothing, appeared to have been set alight within the burn site, in which there were “numerous fragments of bone”, including a toe nail.

Mr Vannan suggested Mr Taylor’s “body may have been dragged into position”.

Some bone fragments, Mr Vannan said, were missing despite police officers conducting a fingertip search of the immediate area.

It was possible, concluded the forensic archaeologist, that outstanding fragments remained in the woodland; and also possible that they were missing either before the body was brought into Finglandrigg Wood, or had been removed (taken away).

''The beard looked like that of the character Hagrid in Harry Potter''

Earlier, jurors saw CCTV footage of Crawley wearing an “obviously fake wig and beard” hours before skipping police bail around the turn of new year.

Late on December 31 and early on January 1, he was caught on CCTV at a Premier Inn in Penrith sporting the items along with a dark woollen hat and thick dark padded jacket.

“I wasn’t comfortable with him, with his appearance,” said a hotel worker who spoke briefly with him. “I told him that the hotel was full.”

At around 8am, Crawley also visited Penrith train station and spoke with employee Jenny Chapman.

“The first thing that struck me was that he was wearing an obviously fake wig and beard,” she later told police. “The beard looked like that of the character Hagrid in Harry Potter.

“It was obvious he was putting on a fake accent; like an Eastern European accent.”

Crawley had said: “I need a — how you say — ticket.”

“I remember thinking why was he putting on a fake accent as he clearly had a local accent,” said the station worker.

Crawley, of Sheehan Crescent, Carlisle, took a rail replacement bus to the city. But he then failed to report to a police station at 10am that day, thus breaching his bail.

He was reported missing by his grandparents — at whose Carlisle address he was bailed to live and sleep — on January 1.

Crawley also denies a charge of attempted murder arising out of an alleged hammer attack on a man in North Yorkshire in early January.

Crawley is on trial with a second Carlisle man, 20-year-old Marcus Goodfellow, of Greystone Road. He denies assisting Crawley by helping to dispose of Mr Taylor’s car, which was found crashed and abandoned in the north Cumbria village of Langwathby on October 19 last year.

The trial continues.