Portsmouth woman Kayleigh Dunning murdered by jealous lover in brutal attack on night he proposed, jury told

Portsmouth Crown Court heard Kayleigh Dunning, 32, was naked and in bed when Mark Brandford, 49, launched his assault in December 2019.

Prosecutor Simon Jones told jurors that cleaner Ms Dunning’s ‘sometime boyfriend and lover’ had been making plans at the registry office to marry her – despite their previous engagement having been broken off in August that year.

They spent the night at his flat in Kingston Crescent, North End, on December 16 and had planned to watch films, the court heard.

Brandford posted on Instagram showing ‘novelty balloons' revealing the proposal. He later told police she had said yes.

But prosecutor Mr Jones said on the same night as the proposal, Colas worker Brandford attacked Ms Dunning in a ‘jealous’ assault crushing her skull as she tried to stop him.

Opening the case, Mr Jones said: ‘Kayleigh Dunning was murdered on the night of the 16th to the 17th of December, 2019.

‘She was the victim of a brutal and ferocious attack. Numerous blows to her head and neck had crushed her skull and severed the major artery in her neck.

‘Kayleigh was of slight build and naked at the time of the assault.

‘She had clearly tried to defend herself and she received heavy injuries to her hands and forearms in her struggle, her struggle to ward off the attack – but she didn’t have a chance.’

He added: ‘She had spent that night alone with him and it’s the prosecution case that it was he who killed her in his prolonged and violent attack.’

Ms Dunning had arranged at 10.11pm on the night of December 16 for an Aquacars taxi to take her to her cleaning job early in the next morning at 5.30am.

There was no more outgoing activity from her phone after this call, Mr Jones said. ‘That's really important,' he added.

Mr Jones said, in relation to the proposal of Ms Dunning, that ‘on the face of it Kayleigh said yes’.

He added: ‘The defendant’s account was that (Ms Dunning) had happily accepted the proposal.’

But he added it was 'not something that she had appeared to tell anyone by phone or text,’ and had swapped messages with a message from another man with whom she was in a sexual relationship.

Mr Jones added: ‘We say that Mark Brandford extensively lied when questioned by the police.

‘We say that he murdered Kayleigh because he was jealous.’

Brandford, of Kingston Crescent, denies murder and a charge of revenge porn, which Mr Jones said happened in ‘strange’ circumstances.

Mr Jones told jurors how her friends and family thought of Ms Dunning.

He said: ‘Kayleigh was a lovely character, her family and friends remember her as an outgoing, chatty and passionate young woman. Kayleigh was also hard working.’

(Proceeding)

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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