Body parts murder: Borehamwood man 'had severe mood swings' (From Enfield Independent)

Body parts murder: Borehamwood man 'had severe mood swings'

10:05am Friday 22nd January 2010

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THE Borehamwood man accused of killing and cutting up a Southgate salesman became deeply depressed around the time of the murder, a court heard yesterday.

Stephen Marshall, 38, of Ayot Path, Borehamwood, and his partner Sarah Bush, 21, of Fernwood Court, Southgate, are both on trial for murdering Jeffrey Howe.

In evidence given to police, Miss Bush claimed her boyfriend had bi-polar disorder and suffered severe mood swings.

At the beginning of March 2009, when the murder took place, she said he took two weeks off work.

She said: "He got really down. I had to snap him out of it. It started to have an effect on me too and I started to get depressed."

At other times, she said, he would be "happy, like a little kid, singing and dancing".

Miss Bush sat with her head in her hands while listening to the police interviews, which were read out in court this afternoon, while Mr Marshall looked straight ahead impassively.

The mother-of-two has denied having any knowledge of the murder, while Mr Marshall denies murder but is pleading guilty to dismembering the body and disposing of the parts.

The last Miss Bush saw of 49-year-old Mr Howe, she said, was on March 6, 2009, when he came around to collect unpaid rent. He had moved out of his flat two weeks earlier, she said, but she did not know why.

When asked by police if she thought it was odd that he had left so suddenly without leaving a forwarding address, she replied: "Yes, I thought it was very weird."

Speaking about Mr Howe, she said: "He is not aggressive at all. He used to moan but never shout. I don't think he would hurt a fly."

She added: "I can't see anyone killing him unless he's done something wrong."

Describing Mr Marshall, who she met as a client when she was working as a prostitute in 2007, she said: "He has his ups and downs. Sometimes he is a nice person, but sometimes he is really evil."

She had been planning to leave Mr Marshall when they were arrested in April last year, she said, because of his aggressive behaviour.

Previously, Miss Bush's friend Danielle Matthews testified that Miss Bush had told her while drunk that Mr Marshall had committed the murder.

Ms Matthews, who worked with Miss Bush as a prostitute, told St Albans Crown Court last week: "She said it started in the bathroom.

"She was saying 'lots of blood', 'a foot', 'dismembered', 'constriction of breath'."

Mr Marshall refused to answer all police questions about the murder. It is alleged he sold Mr Howe's car following his disappearance, wrote fraudulent cheques, and set up Ebay and Littlewoods accounts in his name.

He and Miss Bush are accused of stabbing the salesman to death on March 9 last year and scattering parts of his body around over two counties.

The trial continues.

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