Earls Barton murder accused 'dreamt up mystery man explanation overnight', trial hears

A man suspected of murdering his ex-wife has been accused of dreaming up mystery men overnight after 'realising he had no explanation' for some of the movements to track her.

Michael Reader, 70, is on trial at Northampton Crown Court over the fatal shooting of Marion Price in a car park near her flat in Packwood Crescent, Earls Barton, on December 15 last year.

The prosecution's case is that Reader was a man 'obsessed with money' and tracked Marion's movements before shooting her. They allege that his good friend Stephen Welch, who is also accused of murder, helped him in the planning of it by changing the tracker battery and then picking him up and disposing of Reader's clothes in the River Nene after the shooting.

Reader, of Booth Rise in Northampton, has already admitted using a covert tracker to keep tabs on Marion's whereabouts in the months leading up to her death and has given evidence stating that Welch would regularly change the battery on the £35 tracker when it ran low.

Yesterday (Wednesday) the court heard ANPR cameras had shown Welch's car travelling to Earls Barton to change the battery on a day in August last year when the 61-year-old was out of the country. The prosecution allege it was Reader driving it, but Reader has told jurors that he has never been to Packwood Crescent and had never changed the battery.

Under cross-examination from John Cammegh QC, who is defending Welch, Reader said the man driving the car was a friend of Welch's and that he had said he would "sort it" while he was away.

Mr Cammegh asked him: "Who was driving his car, do you know?"

Reader replied: "No."

Mr Cammegh said: "Or is that a convenient answer?"

Reader said: "No, it's a true answer."

The court heard that yesterday was the first time Reader had claimed that this unknown man had changed the battery for him when Welch was abroad.

He told jurors that the mystery man had come to his house and said Welch had sent him for the tracker.

Mr Cammegh said: "You have not said anything about this until now.

"Can I suggest that overnight it's hit you square between the eyes that you have no explanation as to what was going on when Steve Welch was out of the country...is it something you have dreamt up overnight?"

Reader replied: "No, not at all."

Jurors were also told that phone data had revealed Reader's phone had been in the location of Packwood Crescent on another occasion in September when the battery was changed when Welch was abroad.

Reader said that Welch, who was in Alicante, had also got someone else who he did not know to come to his house and that the mystery man had taken his phone with him.

Mr Cammegh said: "Is that so? You are telling lies to this jury.

Reader said: "I am not."

Mr Cammegh said: "It's the first time you have mentioned that."

Reader replied: "It's the first time I have been asked it."

Mr Cammegh said Reader had been "caught out again and again and again".

Reader said that he gave the unknown individual his phone when the battery needed changing so that he could locate the tracker because he was not sure where it was.

When asked what the second mystery man looked like, Reader replied: "Chubby-ish. I think he had black curly hair, tattoos on his hands."

He said he trusted him with his phone because "in a roundabout way he was doing him a favour".

Mr Cammegh put to Reader that by regularly tracking Marion's movements he was stalking his ex-wife.

Reader said: "I would not call it stalking."

Mr Cammegh asked: "What would you call it?"

Reader replied: "Location."

The trial continues.