The boyfriend of a missing woman used her phone to message her children after he ‘accidentally’ hit her with an axe he was ‘throwing at a tree’, before burying her body at a remote beauty spot, a court has heard.
Preston Crown Court heard that Andrew Burfield, 51, was at the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire for a picnic with Katie Keynon, 33, when she ‘bet’ Burfield that he could could not hit her can of Coke with his axe on April 22 this year.
He told police he ‘went for the tree at the side of her and it, it hit her head’, claiming it was an accident.
He claimed she had been hit with the back of the axe and that she had no other injuries, but the post mortem, carried out on May 1, showed she was struck an estimated 12 times.
Katie Keynon, 33, went missing on April 22 and was found deceased the following week in Forest of Bowland, Lancashire
Preston Crown Court heard that Andrew Burfield, 51, sent messages to Miss Keynon’s two children and himself after she died on April 22 this year
Burfield, of Todmorden Road, Burnley, denies the charge of murder.
The jury heard that Burfield and Miss Keynon started a relationship in July 2019 and had endured a ‘difficult relationship’, with Burfield suing her for £4419.
On April 12, just ten days before she died, they went to the Brewers Fayre pub in Burnley together.
David R Mclachlan KC, prosecuting, told the court that Miss Keynon had told her therapist, who she spoke to regarding her anxiety, that she and Burfield were doing ‘really good’ when she saw them in January.
Miss Keynon went missing on April 22, launching a Lancashire Constabulary missing persons investigation which involved 60 specialist officers, fire services, mounted police, dog teams, mountain rescue volunteers and drones.
Her body was found a week later on April 29 in a makeshift grave in the Forest of Bowland. A post-mortem concluded she had died from head injuries.
Burfield, who was arrested following her disappearance, initially denied having knowledge of her whereabouts, suggesting she might be at a rehab centre. But he later told police had had taken her to Gisburn Forest for a picnic on the morning of April 22.
CCTV footage showed Burfield getting into his white Ford Transit Van with Miss Keynon around 9am and heading to the murder site.
Earlier that morning, Mis Kenyon had messaged Burfield, writing: ‘Ready and excited for a new chapter.’
A Lancashire Constabulary missing persons investigation which involved 60 specialist officers, fire services, mounted police, dog teams, mountain rescue volunteers and drones was launched on April 22
CCTV footage showed Burfield getting into his white Ford Transit Van with Miss Keynon around 9am and heading to the murder site
When at the site, Burfield claims that Miss Keynon ‘bet’ him he could not hit her can of Coke with his axe. He said when he tried, the axe rebounded and ‘hit her in the head’ and he ‘couldn’t pick her up because she was too heavy.’
He claimed she had been hit with the back of the axe and that she had no other injuries, but the post mortem, carried out on May 1, showed she was struck an estimated 12 times.
Burfield told police he then dug a hole and buried her to stop ‘animals getting to her.’
Mr McLachlan told the court: ‘We now understand Mr Burfield will admit to causing all 12 injuries Katie Kenyon sustained.’
He added that Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Jamie Robinson that Burfield’s account of accidentally hitting Miss Kenyon with the axe was ‘completely implausible’.
CCTV footage from April 21 showed Miss Keynon at Burfield’s house in Todmorden Road, where she was seen hugging and kissing him. Later that day. Burfield travelled to his parent’s house to borrow a set of ladders and a spade, before driving to Gisburn Forest.
‘It’s the prosecution case that Andrew Burfield had been out on that night on an important mission and that was in order to dig a grave and it was to dig Katie Kenyon’s grave,’ Mr Mclachlan said.
‘He was in the area where her body would later be recovered for just under one hour.’
It is alleged that Burfield, a builder, continued the ‘charade’ by disposing of her clothes in a bin at a residential home where he was working.
Search teams found Miss Kenyon’s body on April 29, and a post mortem examination carried out on May 1 concluded she died from head injuries
Police later found the flip-flops Miss Keynon had been wearing alongside a ‘tescos bin bag with blood on it’.
Mr Mclachlan told the court: ‘It’s the prosecution’s case from the nature of that message and from what you will hear about later that Andrew Burfield clearly had murder on his mind, and that message shows a degree of premeditation.
‘The prosecution case is here you see a man trying to cover his tracks… The message was not sent by her but by Andrew Burfield.’
Cell site analysis showed Miss Kenyon’s phone travelling back from the forest from 11.15am.
Just months before Miss Keynon died, between March 17 and April 5, Burfield had began to draft ‘messages’ on his iPhone impersonating Katie. Mr Mclachlan claimed these messages would later be sent to her family after she died.
‘A message was created and saved in the notes section,’ he said. ‘The prosecution witness will inform you that messages was created between 17 March and April 4, in other words, several weeks before Katie’s death.’
After her death, he sent a message from her phone to himself which read: ‘Hey Andy. I want you to know I’m truly sorry for everything.’ A message to one her children read: ‘I love you, I’m sorry. Ring you dad and he will be looking after you for a while today.’
Another to her children read: ‘Hey dude, I love you and sorry’ with a broken heart emoji, which suggest Miss Keynon had to ‘go away somewhere’.
Prosecutors argue that the messages show ‘murder was on his mind’ and that it had been ‘premeditated’.
A horse drawn hearse for the funeral of Katie Kenyon at St Leonard’s Church in Padiham, Lancashire
Family and friends remembered Katie Kenyon on May 20 after her body was found in the Forest of Gisburn
Mr McLachlan said: ‘The prosecution case being on this occasion the phone may have been in Andrew Burfield’s van but Katie Kenyon certainly was not. Katie Kenyon, the prosecution say, at this stage, was in a carefully constructed grave that had been dug the night before by Andrew Burfield.’
The court heard Miss Kenyon’s daughter sent her a message at 12.18pm that day and received a response of two laughing face emojis.
Mr McLachlan said: ‘The prosecution say Katie Kenyon by this stage was dead. That message was not sent by her but it was part of a charade and was sent by Andrew Burfield.’
The court heard voicenotes Burfield left for Miss Kenyon in which he said he was ‘a bit worried’ about her.
More than 200 people gathered in her home town of Padiham in Lancashire on May 20 to pay their respects, wearing her favourite colour purple.
A carriage, drawn by two white horses adorned with purple plumes, led the cortege to the church.
The trial, which is expected to last two to three weeks, continues.