Jurors at Warwick Crown Courtroom cleared the 42-year-old of homicide however convicted him of manslaughter by a majority 11-1 verdict on Tuesday.
Reanne Coulson’s physique was present in a shallow grave close to a woodland final summer season (Picture: PA/POLICE)
A person who killed a mum-of-two, set hearth to the physique and buried her in a shallow grave has been jailed for 18 years. Mohammed Durnion was informed his actions had robbed the family members of Reanne Coulson of somebody who was deeply liked by her total household and at all times helped others with out hesitation. Ms Coulson, 33, died round 5 minutes after arriving at Durnion’s flat in Might final yr in a violent assault overheard by a neighbour, who dialled 999 to alert West Midlands Police.
Officers arrived following the 999 name and spoke to Durnion, who feigned a psychological well being disaster and falsely claimed his father had most cancers. A police search of the property in Paynes Lane, Coventry, round an hour later failed to find the physique of Ms Coulson, believed to have been hidden beneath a mattress. Sentencing Durnion, who buried Ms Coulson’s physique in woodland on the outskirts of Coventry, Choose Kristina Montgomery KC stated proof confirmed that Durnion had set hearth to the physique in an effort to destroy proof of his deadly assault.
The choose informed the 42-year-old he “confirmed complete contempt for her in life and in dying”.
She informed Durnion: “You place her physique right into a suitcase. You drove round with it on board, masking some appreciable distance, to scope out places the place you would possibly get rid of her physique on land or in water.
“There have been fractures to the buildings of the neck. I’m glad {that a} hand positioned round her neck was the means by which they have been sustained.”
Jurors at Warwick Crown Courtroom cleared Durnion of homicide however convicted him of manslaughter by a majority 11-1 verdict on Tuesday.
He claimed Ms Coulson died from a medicine overdose on the night time of Might 21, when he had taken “silly quantities” of cocaine and panicked.
Prosecutors alleged that Ms Coulson had been attacked and strangled, inflicting her dying.
Durnion initially refused to reply police questions after his arrest on June 24 however took officers to the makeshift grave after being proven footage of a media attraction made by his sufferer’s family members.
Jurors additionally convicted Durnion’s good friend and fellow floor employee Adam Moore of helping an offender on Might 22 by serving to within the disposal of Ms Coulson’s physique in Binley Woods.
Mohammed Durnion has been jailed (Picture: PA)
Moore, of Marlcroft, Willenhall, Coventry, had denied the cost, claiming he went to the woods merely to search for Durnion. The 39-year-old was jailed for six years.
Choose Montgomery informed Moore: “You lied to police about your involvement in Reanne Coulson’s burial, as you lied to the jury throughout your trial.”
Moore had proven a complete lack of conscience, the choose stated, when he informed officers that he wished he had left the sufferer’s physique to rot.
The choose added that Durnion’s case was one among excessive culpability, aggravated by the concealment and “tried destruction” of the physique.
In a sufferer impression assertion to the courtroom, Ms Coulson’s mom, Lynne Sparkes, stated relations had been left with a “lifetime of overwhelming grief”.
Ms Sparkes’ assertion, learn to the courtroom by a prosecution barrister, stated: “Reanne was a good looking, caring, loving particular person whose infectious snicker might gentle up any room. She had a coronary heart of gold and was at all times prepared to assist anybody in want.”
Ms Coulson’s kindness and heat had touched everybody she knew, her mom stated, including: “This grief has reached each technology of our household. This crime has torn by our total household and our lives have modified past recognition. The injury is one thing we are going to carry for the remainder of our lives. The ache of dropping my daughter in such a violent means is one thing I carry in each second.”
Different statements from family members have been additionally learn to the courtroom. One stated “the ache, trauma and devastation” would stick with them for the remainder of their lives.
Adam Moore (Picture: PA)
Ms Coulson’s twin, Kirsten Coulson, stated she had been left with an amazing sense of vacancy.
Her assertion learn: “I’m nonetheless making an attempt to grasp a world the place my twin not exists.”
Describing having to participate in media appeals to hint her lacking sister as some of the tough issues she had ever needed to do, she stated: “Being a twin is greater than a household relationship, it’s a shared existence.”
The sentencing listening to was informed Durnion has 14 earlier convictions, together with for battery and assault offences recorded in 2002 and 2023.
David Mason KC, providing mitigation for Durnion, stated the case served as a warning of the hazards of Class A drug use.
Mr Mason stated: “This isn’t a person at 42 years of age who’s a hardened prison. He has utterly gone off the rails and has obtained himself in a horrible, horrible state of affairs.”
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He stated that Durnion, having stopped taking medication, took officers to the sufferer’s physique out of concern for her household, quite than to scale back his eventual sentence.
“He confirmed the senior officers investigating this case the place Reanne was,” Mr Mason stated. “He clearly indicated a priority that they need to not stand on her grave.”
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