A man accused of murdering a Bradford prostitute was caught on a security camera carrying her body from his flat, Leeds Crown Court heard today.

The jury was told that Kenneth Valentine strangled Caroline Creevy and then wrapped her body in a patterned rug, covering her head and feet in black plastic bin-liners on October 29, 1996.

Her body was found 19 days later by a police frogman in a network of drains at Goit Side, behind the 42nd Street nightclub and near to the flat she shared with Valentine in Soho Mills, off Thornton Road, Bradford.

Anton Lodge QC, prosecuting, said four security cameras were placed in and around Soho Mills.

He told the jury one of the cameras covered the rear staircase.

Mr Lodge said: "At 9.10am on Sunday morning the defendant is seen carrying an object over his arm.

"Two-and-a-half hours later he was recorded coming down the rear stairs with a large object on his shoulder and going out through the rear exit door.

"He came back in through the same door 23 minutes later, but this time without the large object.

"The Crown's case is that the man seen carrying the large object over his shoulder and coming back empty-handed 23 minutes later is the defendant. We submit the large object was the dead body of Caroline Creevy."

When the flat was later visited by Caroline's friend - a prostitute called Blondie - she spotted the rug was missing, said Mr Lodge.

Caroline, 25, was reported missing when she failed to get in touch with friends to celebrate her 26th birthday on Bonfire Night.

She had usually worked as a prostitute in the red light district in Thornton Road, Bradford.

Valentine, 43, denies her murder.

Mr Lodge, said: "Once the body had been recovered it was examined by a pathologist.

"He found that the cause of death was strangulation. Also eight bruises were found on her face and she had a broken nose. There were also bruises to both arms."

Mr Lodge said the prosecution's case was that Valentine had murdered Caroline in the flat they shared.

"He wrapped the body in a rug from his flat and took it down the rear stairs and outside and into the storm drain, where it was subsequently discovered," he said.

"While searching that culvert a body was found, a body wrapped in a patterned rug with the head and feet in black plastic bin-liners."

Caroline, who was originally from Huddersfield, left home at the age of 16, the jury was told.

Mr Lodge said she had had a number of relationships and spent most of her time working as a prostitute, mostly in Bradford, but occasionally in Huddersfield as well.

The trial continues.

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