Accused 'sat watching TV near body'

THE man on trial for allegedly murdering Samantha Wright and stuffing her body into a wheelie bin sat watching television just feet from where her body was hidden, a court heard.

Robert Chalmers, 59, sat for months in his living room surrounded by air fresheners and with a can of fly spray ready to hand, advocate depute John Scullion told the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.

Just four metres away on his patio, the dismembered remains of Miss Wright, 24, had been stuffed into a wheelie bin and covered with leaves, he said.

Chalmers, a father of 11 children, denies murdering Samantha, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in June 2008 at his home in Magdalene Drive in Duddingston and trying to hack off her head and dismember her body before hiding her.

Mr Scullion challenged: "Why don't you tell the ladies and gentlemen what you did to Samantha Wright?"

Chalmers told him: "I never did anything to Samantha Wright."

After four weeks of evidence, the jury is expected to hear closing speeches today.