A woman who agreed to pole dance for her former boyfriend was murdered and had her body set alight, a jury was told today.
The body of Louise Rump, 29, was found at the foot of her bed by fire-fighters who had been called out by neighbours when they saw smoke coming from her flat in the village of Kensworth, Bedfordshire
“She had been killed and set on fire,” said David Matthew, prosecuting at St Albans crown court.
Mr Matthew said her ex-partner Habib Jackson, 32, had made a “deal” with Louise.
He said: “She was going to dance for him in underwear he selected. That deal went badly wrong. The fire brigade found her dead. She had been killed by asphyxia."
Jackson of Dunstable Road, Toddington, Beds and his business partner and fellow security guard Christopher Hayward, also 32, of Fensome Drive, Houghton Regis, Beds both deny murder.
The jury was told by Judge Michael Kay QC that Jackson refused to leave prison and would be tried in his absence. Hayward is aided in court by an intermediary.
Opening the case, Mr Matthew said: “Louise Rump was killed on Friday 16th October 2020. She was 29 at the time. She was killed in her flat in Plewes Close, Kensworth.”
He said she had been alive and well earlier in the day when neighbours had seen her and she had exchanged WhatApp messages with a cousin until 11.15 in the morning.
“Sometime between a quarter past eleven and half past midday she was killed," he said.
“Both of these defendants, in that one hour 15 minutes, were at her address. She was found dead after they left.
“The pathologist found she had been killed by asphyxia before her body was set on fire. There was signs of an attack with bruising on her face, her left hand, wrist and pelvis.
"The fire was a quite deliberate attempt to destroy the traces her attacker might have left,” he said.
Telephone, Automatic Number Plate Recognition and CCTV evidence from Kensworth Village Stores were alleged to have tracked the two men’s cars as they drove from Toddington to Kensworth on the morning of the killing.
At 12.31 in the afternoon, CCTV from the shop recorded the two cars leaving the village, the court heard.
Jackson was seen to stop by the side of the road and dumped a jumper that had Louise’s blood on it and a cardboard box, the jury was told.
When the fire fighters entered the flat they found a pole dancer’s pole in the lounge and Louise’s body in the bedroom.
Mr Matthew said: “That was where the fire was lit. The curtains had caught fire and there was smoke damage. At the end of the bed was a plastic water bottle. There is reason to think there had been petrol or some accelerant in it to get the fire going."
The jury was told Jackson referred to himself as Louise’s ‘Sugar Daddy’ at times. They had been involved in a relationship that had ended about a year earlier.
In a message on 15 October Jackson wrote to Louise: “It has been a year baby, since I was deep where I belong.”
He went on: “Can’t you give me what I crave?” She replied: “No.”
Mr Matthew said, referring to the planned pole dance, Jackson wrote: “G-string and undies ready?”
When Jackson was questioned by the police the day after the killing he said they had an on-off relationship, the court heard.
He denied he had been to the flat on the day of the killing but said he had been there on Thursday 15th February when they had a play fight and she had scratched his face.
The prosecutor said there was a scratch on Jackson’s face under his right eye.
Hayward made no comment to answer police questions.
The case continues.
