Detectives found rings and a tongue stud in makeshift brazier user to burn ‘murdered’ sex worker

Detectives found rings and a tongue stud in a makeshift brazier used to burn a sex worker allegedly murdered, a court has heard. 

Part time builder and security guard Mark Brown denies murdering two sex workers but has admitted being present when Alex Morgan died and disposing of her body by setting her corpse alight.

Crime scene investigators who examined the site at Sevenoaks where Brown worked found three rings, a chain, a piercing stud and a buckle, buttons and rivets from clothing, a jury were told. All showed signs of significant exposure to heat.

Experts found ash from in the brazier and the skip it was found in contained human remains.

Forensic archaeologist and anthropologist Kristina Lee told the court: ‘The findings at the scene suggested that was the method of burning Miss Morgan’s body.’

Duncan Atkinson KC told the court: ‘The rings matched rings Alex Morgan had on her fingers. A stud recovered from the skip matched a facial stud on Alex Morgan. Another piercing stud matched a tongue stud Alex Morgan was in the habit of wearing.’

Mark Brown, 41, of Squirrel Close in St Leonards, East Sussex, is accused of murdering Alexandra Morgan, 34, and Leah Ware, 33, six months apart in 2021 

Miss Morgan disappeared in November last year, six months after another woman, Leah Ware, was last seen alive. 

Brown, 41, denies murdering the two sex workers at Little Bridge Farm near Hastings, East Sussex where he rented land and a barn.

Miss Ware, who had been living in a shipping container at the farm, has not been seen since May 2021.

The charred remains of Miss Morgan were found in the skip at a building site where Brown was working after she disappeared in November 2021.

Lewes Crown Court in Hove heard 2,600 fragments were recovered from the makeshift brazier.

The bones had either been burnt at a very high temperature or at a lower temperature for a longer time, or a combination of the two. 

Undated family handout photo issued by Kent Police of Alex Morgan 

Undated handout photo issued by Sussex Police of Leah Ware 

Forensic anthropologist Dr Julie Roberts told the court it was very clear the bones had been involved in a fire. The bones were broken up by force, the expert added.

Analysis of the bones was able to place 338 of the on a body map shown to the jury.

Dr Roberts said the investigation team had recovered human bone fragments weighing 674g. The average female skeleton weighs 2,130g at the lower end, the court heard.

Duncan Atkinson KC for the Crown asked the expert: ‘Does it follow it was not a whole body’s worth?’

‘No, not in terms of weight,’ the expert said.

The bones had been broken up by mechanical force either deliberate or incidental, Dr Roberts said.

‘It was not possible to say if it was during or after the fire,’ she said.

The jury were shown a picture of the fragments laid out in a rough skeleton.

The bones recovered were much less than the average female cremated body, the expert agreed, with fewer bones from the middle of the body.

‘The bones from those areas are more easy to crush and have high ratio of spongey to compact. There are fragments from every area of the skeleton represented,’ the expert said.

Brown, 41, denies murdering the two women.

The trial at Hove Trial Centre continues.