Louise Smith trial: Shane Mays 'tickled and flirted' with wife's 16-year-old niece before killing her

The 30-year-old was seen on Louise’s Snapchat tickling her feet, in a video shown to the jury at Winchester Crown Court today.

Prosecutor James Newton-Price QC said police had been told both Mays and Louise claimed the other one had been flirting with the other, but both denied doing so.

Mays had ‘put his arm around her, tickle her and pin her down and things like that,’ Louise had told a friend, the court heard.

Jurors were told recovered messages show that when Louise moved in with her aunt Chazlynn Mays and the defendant – her aunt's husband – he ‘tickled’ her.

A Snapchat video showed him near her feet just visible through her legs.

Messages showed that Louise, who moved in on April 26 with her aunt – known as CJ – and the defendant, asked her aunt if she could call them ‘mum and dad’.

In the message exchange she said: ‘I hate the fact I’m so childish, but it’s only because I’ve never been able to be a child.’

The teenager said they were the ‘perfect family,’ but the relationship deteriorated to the point on May 7 where Louise wanted to move in with someone else.

CJ called Louise 51 times but the teenager did not respond until later. In a message she said: ‘My life is failing.’

Mr Newton-Price said the trio ‘made up’ and Louise returned to the married couple’s home in Ringwood House, Somborne Drive in Leigh Park.

Further messages show Louise asking to stay at friends’ homes or them to stay with her overnight between May 7-8.

In the early hours of May 8 she had messaged a mental health support group saying she was self-harming.

She was drinking, according to her social media posts, and wrote she had the ‘worst hangover going’ on May 8 in a message posted with a selfie photo.

Just after 12.23pm Mays was seen on CCTV to approach the driver of a grey Renault outside his home in Ringwood House, in Somborne Drive, Leigh Park, before returning home, Mr Newton-Price said.

READ NEXT: Live coverage of the trial of Shane Mays as it happens

Louise went ‘off the radar’ at 12.49pm and did not post on social media after then in a ‘very unusual’ move. Prosecutors say she moved north to Havant Thicket as her phone pinged to a mast at around 1pm.

Mays and Louise walked together at Havant Thicket, Mr Newton-Price said. ‘Shane Mays knew Havant Thicket well,’ he said.

‘There must have been some reason or some inducement for her to walk up there with him, but we cannot say what that was.’

Mr Newton-Price said Louise’s body was found on May 21, her body burnt and bones broken.

The prosecutor said Mays would play at Havant Thicket in areas known as the 'Yellow Brick Road’ and the ‘bomb holes area’ as a teenage boy with two friends.

‘They would camp out and make fires in the area,’ the prosecutor said.

A CCTV camera looking onto Swanmore Road caught a ‘fleeting’ image of Mays walking away from Havant Thicket before he visited his mother, ‘really hot and sweaty’ and claiming in a ‘lie’ he walked Louise to Emsworth.

He returned home and told his wife and Louise’s boyfriend that the teenager had made him walk to Emsworth, the court heard.

Phone records show CJ was ‘frantically’ trying to call Louise while Mays was at home.

He left home at about 4.47pm to buy four pizzas before being seen walking home at 5.02pm.

‘He knows Louise is dead by this time,’ Mr Newton-Price said.

CJ reported Louise missing. When police arrived at their home in the days after May 8, Mays said he would ‘lock Louise in the bedroom if she returned,’ the court heard.

Both CJ and Mays were arrested for kidnap on May 14. When CJ was arrested first at their home Mays said: ‘Is it only her?’

He was then also arrested.

The judge, Mrs Justice Juliet May, has told jurors that Mays has an intermediary with him in the dock to help him understand proceedings as he 'suffers from learning disabilities’.

He denies murder but has admitted the manslaughter of Louise, who moved to live with the aunt and the defendant following ‘quarrelling’ with her mother.

(Proceeding)

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