Louise Smith trial: Shane Mays said teenager he killed wanted 'to get me on my own'

Shane Mays, 30, is continuing his evidence at Winchester Crown Court where he is accused of murdering 16-year-old Louise. He admits her manslaughter.

Both Louise and Mays left the flat they were both living in at Ringwood House, Somborne Drive, Leigh Park, together on May 8, he said today. Louise was found dead 13 days later at Havant Thicket.

He was expecting to walk to West Leigh skate park, he told jurors. CJ knew he was going with Louise and he thought she was meeting a friend to pick up some clothes, he added.

‘Why were you going with her?’ Mr Langdon asked. Mays said: ‘Because she doesn’t like to walk along and she wanted me to go with her just in case she’s got to carry more than one bag.’

But Mays, who confirmed their route to Havant Thicket would take up to an hour, said: ‘She told me it was a lie, that she’s no longer meeting her friend, she just wanted me to come out so she could get me on my own so she could have a chat.’

He said Louise wanted a new room in a new place she hoped to move into with CJ and Mays, and Louise wanted a ‘big double bed, a big TV’ and violet walls.

Mays said he would take her ‘girl shopping in Bournemouth’ for clothes, he said.

Louise ‘wasn’t too sure if she was in love with Bradley (Kercher),’ her boyfriend, Mays said. He said they had ‘petty arguments over what time he was coming round’.

It was a first for this type of conversation as ‘she would never open up to me,’ Mays told jurors today.

Mays has been asked about Louise telling friends on May 6 - two days before she died - that: ‘I can’t live here any more, long story. They’re just vile’.

Asked to explain this by defence barrister, Andrew Langdon QC, Mays said: ‘Because we took her off the cannabis and we wouldn’t allow Bradley to move in.’

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Mr Langdon asked: ‘Had you done anything bad to her?’ Mays replied: ‘No.’

‘Had you flirted with her?’ Mr Langdon asked. Mays said: ‘No.’

‘Had you touched her in a sexual way,’ the barrister asked. ‘No,’ said Mays.

The QC added: ‘Had you been angry with her?’

Mays replied: ‘Sometimes.’

Jurors previously heard Louise wanted to live elsewhere on May 7 but eventually returned to Ringwood House to live with the defendant and his wife, Chazlynn Mays.

Mays confirmed he asked Louise if it was him she didn’t like. He said: ‘She said “no”.’ He added: ‘I felt I did something wrong at the time.’

That evening CJ and Mays planned to have a drink, and Mays bought peach Schnapps for CJ, he said. Louise was going to watch films and ‘have a munch,’ he said.

Mays said he gave ‘an inch’ of rum to Louise in a pint glass topped with lemonade.

On the day of the killing he got up between 10am and 11am, he told jurors. Jurors have already seen a Snapchat photo of Louise saying she had the ‘worst hangover ever’.

Mays went to the shops, buying cigarettes at McColls and a ‘couple of cans’ at Premier Store after waking up.

(Proceeding)

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