An allotment owner has described his disbelief after watching a family friend pull a decapitated head from a bag and kiss it on the head.
John Murray said Odessa Carey, 36, had visited him at his garden, where he lived in the shed, last April and shown him the severed head of her mother, who prosecutors say she beat to death.
Carey, 36, is accused of beating her mother, also named Odessa Carey, to death at her home in Ashington, Northumberland, before using a knife and scissors to remove cut off her head, cut a cross shape into her abdomen and removed her brain, it has been claimed.
Odessa Tammy Carey has been charged with murder but will not face trial. Instead jurors will decide whether or not she did the act of killing
Newcastle Crown Court heard evidence from allotment owner John Murray today.
He told jurors how he found Carey sitting down in his allotment shed.
Mr Murray said: ‘I found Odessa there. I shocked her. She mustn’t have realised I would be back.
‘She was wiping her arms and hands. She appeared to be wiping blood.
‘She was in good fettle but tired. She kept nodding off to sleep. After a while she reached for the blue bag.
“I was sat right next to her.”
An undated file photo shows Odessa Carey, 73, whose headless body was discovered at her home in Ashington, Northumberland, with her head found at a separate address under a sink. Her daughter, also named Odessa Carey, 36, has been charged with murder but is too unwell to face trial for a criminal offence
When asked if Carey pulled anything out of the bag, Mr Murray said: ‘A towel and pillow case, then she produced a head
‘She kissed it on the forehead then put it back int he bag very carefully, inside the towel and pillow case’
Mr Murray said he ‘didn’t really know what to do’ and told people at his local pub he had had a ‘queer day’.
Mrs Carey, who used a mobility scooter to get around, was found dead on April 8 last year.
The 73-year-old’s headless corpse was found on her bed and her brain was in the bathroom at her home in Ashington, Northumberland.
Mrs Carey’s head was found at a separate address, in a cupboard under the sink, at a house where Carey Jr was found hiding in the loft.
Carey, of no fixed address, has been charged with murder but is too unwell to face trial for a criminal offence.
Jurors will decide whether Carey did the act of killing but not whether she is guilty or not guilty.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley QC told the court: ‘On her bed, in her own home, lay Odessa Carey Sr’s body. Her head was missing and her abdomen, her tummy, had been cut open to expose the inside of her stomach.
‘In the bath in the house, in a plastic container, there was blood and there were parts of brain tissue.
‘There was also implements; a large pair of scissors, knives and a mallet.’
Mr Lumley said police went to an address in Guide Post, Northumberland, and found Carey hiding in a loft.
Odessa Tammy Carey (pictured) is accused of beating her mother to death at her Northumberland home. Newcastle Crown Court has heard claims that the daughter carried her mother’s severed head around in a carrier bag and kissed it in front of a family friend
He added: ‘In a cupboard under the sink at the address in Guidepost police found a human head, wrapped in a pillow case, in a towel, inside a carrier bag.’
Jurors were shown cctv of Carey carrying the bag around the streets in the days before the grim discovery.
The court heard the day before her mother’s body was found, Carey had taken the head to a friend’s allotment.
Mr Lumley added: ‘She was sitting in his shed. This time she was wiping up blood from her hands and her arms using one or more baby wipes.
‘She had a bag with her and from the bag she carefully took a parcel, of sorts, the contents wrapped in a pillow case in a towel, from which she produced a human head.
Police can be seen at the scene of the crime in Ashington, Northumberland in April last year, when Odessa Carey Jr is accused of decapitating her mother
Forensic teams can be seen outside the Ashington home in a file photo from April last year. Mrs Carey’s head was found at a separate address, in a cupboard under the sink, at a house where Carey Jr was found hiding in the loft
‘Odessa Carey spoke and kissed her mother’s forehead before carefully re-wrapping the head in its shroud, putting it back into the bag.’
Mr Lumley said expert findings suggest Mrs Carey had been face down on her bed when she was attacked and there was ‘multiple impacts’ to her head which caused fractures to her face and skull.
The court heard it was the head injuries, which may have been caused with a mallet, that caused the death.
Mr Lumley said Mrs Carey’s head was removed using ‘knives and scissors’ after she was dead.
He added: ‘Her body was then turned over and her abdomen cut open, in the shape of a cross.
‘Her head was then taken into the bathroom, where the brain was removed from the skull and the mallet was washed.’
Mr Lumley said Carey’s DNA was found on the handle of the mallet.
He added: ‘The head was wrapped up in the bathroom before being taken from the house.’
The trial continues.