A NEIGHBOUR of the man accused of murdering a woman whose remains were found in a freezer told a jury he had described her as his wife and repeatedly claimed she had left for Portugal and "was not coming back".
The trial of George Gordon, 65, accused of the murder of Delia McInerney, resumed at Liverpool Crown Court today, Tuesday, November 10.
Gordon, 65, allegedly killed his friend Delia McInerney in April 2023, days before she was due to move to Portugal for a “new life”, the jury of five men and seven women was told as the prosecution opened its case last week.
The court heard Ms McInerney, who was 62 at the time of her death, stayed with Gordon at his flat at Gerards Court, in Carr Mill, when she was not travelling abroad or at her house in Anfield, Liverpool, as she had concerns about 5G masts.
Martin Reid KC, prosecuting, told the jury last week Ms McInerney’s body was found by police in a chest freezer at Gordon’s flat on January 8 this year.
It was alleged Gordon had kept her dismembered body in a freezer with her pet guinea pigs for almost three years while he took out credit cards and loans in her name.
The prosecution said in its opening that Gordon admits killing Ms McInerney, but initially told police he had hit her with a hammer to “end her suffering” after she had taken an overdose.
He now claims he acted in self-defence, Mr Reid said.
As the trial continued today, the jury heard from Jean Jones, a neighbour of Gordon’s, who took to the witness stand this afternoon.
Ms Jones told the court she would engage in occasional casual conversation with Gordon, and they would chat about “the weather, that sort of thing”.
She said she believed Gordon had moved in at Gerards Court at least seven or eight years ago, and that Ms McInerney did so about three or four weeks later.
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“He said to me his wife was going to follow down,” Ms Jones said.
She added when she met MsMcInerney, she aske “are you Chris’ wife?” and she replied “I’m not his wife, just friends”.
Ms Jones added: “I used to see her quite a lot… she used to sit in the front garden with her guinea pigs” and that this happened over a period of years.
When prosecutor Martin Reid KC asked the witness if she saw Gordon’s flat, she said “yes”.
Ms Jones said: “I think I’ve been in only once when Delia was there, it was tidy, not too bad.
“When Delia wasn’t there, it was a bit of a mess, a dump really.”
Ms Jones recalled a time Ms McInerney did her a “favour” helping her take some clothing to her partner.
“Delia offered to run me down with him and did me a big favour.
“She was telling me all about Chris’ (Gordon’s) bad habits.
“She was telling me, calling him, saying he was dirty” and added when she “got up at night for a wee, my feet would be squelchy because he weed all over the bathroom floor.
“She said ‘you want to see the bedroom, he’d wee in bottles and leave them all over the bedroom.”
Mr Reid asked Ms Jones when she stopped seeing Ms McInerney, and she said “three years ago”.
She said: “He was telling us all Delia’s going to Portugal. She did go to Portugal now and then, and then came back.
“He said she’s going to Portugal, and she’s not coming back this time.
“He said it a few times to us, she’s going away and she is not coming back.”
When asked if she saw McInerney again, Ms Jones said “no”.
Ms Jones added that several months after Ms McInerney’s disappearance, people at the flats had started to “complain over the smell”.
“I had people visiting me, they were always on about the smell downstairs and on the landing.”
She said: “It was shocking, and the flies. We had flies in my flat. I had never had as many flies in my flat.
“I kept getting a terrible smell in my bathroom, it was shocking.”
Ms Jones told the court that Gordon had said to her that Ms McInerney had “bought a farmhouse in the Isle of Man or somewhere. I think the last time he told us she’s gone to Scotland, met a woman and got married, which I found a bit strange.”
When Mr Reid asked Ms Jones how she would describe the defendant, she replied: “Chris was a nice fellow, but I didn’t believe everything he said.”
Cross-examining, Gordon Cole KC, defending Gordon, asked Ms Jones about her statement to police in which she said the defendant “seemed a bit lost after Delia had left”.
Ms Jones said: “He used to tell us he was missing her.”
Mr Cole asked: “Are you sure Chris referred to her (Ms McInerney) as his wife?”
Ms Jones answered: “Yes, he did.”
“I would suggest he never did,” Mr Cole said.
“No, he did,” Ms Jones added.
Gordon, denies charges of murder and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
The trial, before Mr Justice Goose, will continue tomorrow, Wednesday, and is expected to last for around six weeks.
The case continues
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