Double murder accused Andrew Innes told police investigating the sudden disappearance of Bennylyn Burke: “She’s under the kitchen floor.”
Officers went to Innes’ Troon Avenue home as part of their enquiries into a “high risk missing person”.
PC Gavin Burns, 33, told jurors at Edinburgh High Court 52-year-old Innes initially told him he had driven Ms Burke to a service station outside Glasgow.
But later, he made a statement that the missing woman was beneath the floor adding: “It wasn’t premeditated.”
The trial also heard from Mrs Burke’s estranged husband Lexington, who told of the “mystery” around her and Jellica’s vanishing.
Missing person inquiry
PC Gavin Burns told the afternoon sitting of the trial’s first day he and fellow constable Rhianne Brogan went to Innes’ home as part of a missing persons inquiry on March 5 2021.
They had established only one vehicle – a Renault Scenic – had driven from Bristol to Dundee at the time of Mrs Burke’s disappearance.
The officers found it parked on Innes’ driveway.
When Innes answered the door, he was “reluctant” and said he was shielding because of Covid-19, PC Burns said.
“As soon as I mentioned Bennylyn Burke’s name, he said I know her but she’s in Glasgow,” the police officer told the trial.
Innes said he had met Mrs Burke on an online site and brought her and Jellica from Bristol to Dundee, the court heard.
However, he claimed he had broken off the relationship after finding “flirty” messages from men on her phone.
He said he then drove her to a service station in Cumbernauld, where she was met by an “unknown white male”.
‘I killed her, she’s under the floor’
PC Burns said there was a young child in the house, who Innes claimed was his daughter.
The officer went to speak to the young girl alone in the living room.
PC Brogan told the trial Innes “became quite panicked and started sweating”.
When PC Burns returned and told Innes he had established the girl was not his daughter, Innes said: “I miss my daughter. I’m lonely,” the trial heard.
PC Brogan left to interview neighbours, leaving Innes and PC Burns alone.
PC Burns said Innes asked him: “What are we looking at here?”
“I told him we just need to get Bennylyn on the phone to confirm his version of events and make sure she’s safe and well,” the officer said.
“He said to me: ‘I can’t do that.'”
PC Burns said he told Innes there could be a murder inquiry if they could not prove Mrs Burke was alive.
“I took my notebook out and as I was typing away, he turned and said to me: ‘She’s under the kitchen floor.’
“I immediately put him under caution.”
PC Burns said when his colleague returned, Innes told them both: “I killed her, she’s under the floor. We got into an argument, got into a fight, and I killed her.”
Innes asked: “What kind of jail sentence do you get for murder.”
He added: “It wasn’t premeditated.”
Husband tells of ‘serious’ concerns
Ms Burke’s estranged husband told the trial her disappearance in February 2021 was a “mystery”.
Lexington Burke, the father of Jellica, said he met Filipino national Mrs Burke on an online dating site in 2015 and the pair were married three years later.
The relationship later broke down.
The 65-year-old said: “There were teething problems.”
On February 12, 2021, he picked Jellica up to take her to a birthday party and made arrangements to meet her the following weekend.
Asked by prosecutor Alex Prentice if he managed to meet her that day, as arranged, Mr Burke said: “No. That was a mystery.”
He said he tried to contact Mrs Burke by phone and at her home.
When he was contacted by social workers asking her whereabouts, he said: “That was when my concerns were heightened from casual to something more serious.
“I contacted the police.”
Asked by Mr Prentice if he ever saw Jellica again, Mr Burke replied: “No.”
Admits killings
A joint minute of agreed evidence was read to the jury, confirming he stabbed Bennylyn with a knife and bludgeoned her with a hammer and asphyxiated Jellica.
The killings happened at 21 Troon Avenue, where he then wrapped their bodies and buried them in concrete under the kitchen floor.
Their bodies were found by police in March 2021, about a month after they were reported missing from their home in Bristol, from where Innes had collected them.
Innes is further accused of covering his tracks by telling police he had dropped the pair, alive, at a cafe in Cumbernauld and never seen them again.
He denies attempting to defeat the ends of justice and also denies raping, sexually assaulting and abducting a second child in Dundee between February 20 and March 5.
The trial, before Lord Beckett, continues.
To read the morning’s evidence on day one of the trial, click here.
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