PAUL Taylor’s body was partially burned before being “dragged” into a shallow woodland hollow where it was found by police who were led to the grisly scene by his killer, a jury was told.

Mr Taylor, a 56-year-old married dad and catering manager at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary, was reported missing by his wife on October 18 last year. She last saw him alive the previous evening.

Jack Crawley, aged 19 at the time and now 20, admits manslaughter and the unlawful killing of Mr Taylor, who lived at Annan. Crawley, a security guard at the same hospital, denies murder and is on trial at Carlisle Crown Court.

A jury has heard he led police to Mr Taylor’s body, which was found on May 1 this year — 196 days after his disappearance sparked a murder probe and high profile public appeal for information about his whereabouts.

On day four of the trial, jurors were shown graphic photos of Mr Taylor’s remains, deposited in a shallow linear hollow at Finglandrigg Wood, near Kirkbampton, west of Carlisle.

Attempts had been made with branches and saplings to conceal the deposition area and impede access. Just metres away was a burn site. This contained one bundle of fabric — including possible denim — and a second which contained the charred remains of clothing bearing a distinctive orange logo.

Also in the burn site were multiple fragments of bone, including one piece of cranium.

The main body located nearby showed the lower left leg separated, and left arm also incomplete. Some bone fragments have never been located.

A forensic scientist told the court that 35 cranium fragments and 13 lower jaw parts from the scene were painstakingly pieced together as part of a post mortem reconstruction.

Some 230 additional fragments were too small to be included.

Mrs Ainscough gave evidence about conclusions she had reached with a pathologist based on damage and fracturing to areas of Mr Taylor’s skull.

“There was evidence of blunt force traumatic injuries, forceful impacts, to the head, causing extensive fragmentation of bones in the cranium and lower part of the jaw,” she said. But given the extent of fracturing and fragmentation of bone there were likely to be more.

There were two main forceful impacts — possibly more — to the elbow area.

Outlining another conclusion, Mrs Ainscough said: “In my opinion, the body of Paul Taylor was burned in the area of burning at Finglandrigg Wood. At some point it was subsequently moved to the deposition site while still significantly fleshed.”

There was evidence of burning to areas including the skull, shoulder blade area, right lower ribs, left elbow and both hands.

Extreme bone fragmentation, Mrs Ainscough concluded, “was not due to the effects of fire”.

It was not possible to determine whether injuries had been sustained before, during or after burning.

A forensic archaeologist had earlier suggested to jurors that Mr Taylor’s “body may have been dragged” into the deposition area.

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

Also on trial is a second Carlisle man, 20-year-old Marcus Goodfellow, of Greystone Road, who denies assisting Crawley by helping to dispose of Mr Taylor’s car.

The trial continues.