Shopper 'had body in his car'

Security camera footage shows Vincent Tabak in a supermarket shortly after he is alleged to have strangled Joanna Yeates at her home. Photo / Supplied

Joanna Yeates was strangled by a neighbour who drove to a supermarket minutes later with her body in the boot of his car, then texted his girlfriend to say that he was bored, a court heard yesterday.

CCTV footage played to jurors showed Vincent Tabak, 33, at a store in Bedminster, Bristol. He bought crisps, rock salt and beer before dumping the 25-year-old landscape architect's corpse in a country lane, jurors were told on the first day of his murder trial.

Yeates disappeared just before Christmas last year. As her family waited for news, Tabak was using the internet to research the rate at which a body decomposes, Nigel Lickley, QC, for the prosecution alleged.

Tabak, 33, a Dutch engineer, went on with his normal life "misleading and manipulating" everyone around him, Lickley said.

After a week-long search, Yeates' body was found covered by snow at Failand, near Bristol, by a couple walking their dog. Tabak, who admits manslaughter but denies murder, listened with his head in his hands.

Jurors were told that on December 17, Yeates had drinks with workmates before heading home to her flat in Clifton. Just after 8.30pm, she passed a priest and the pair commented on how slippery the roads were. Less than 20 minutes later, a couple walking past heard screams inside the flat.

"Vincent Tabak strangled [Yeates] with his hand or hands. He held her throat hard enough and long enough to kill her," Lickley alleged. "He was in complete control and knew what he was doing."

With his girlfriend Tanja Morson at a work party, Tabak went shopping. At 10.30pm, after buying crisps and beer, he texted her to say: "How are you? I am at the Asda buying crises [sic]. Was bored. Can't wait to pick you up."

Lickley said: "The body may well have been in his car parked nearby."

The defendant allegedly drove around, then dumped the corpse 5km away near a quarry.

The trial continues.

- Independent