Love rat Terry Hall, accused of strangling his com

Love rat Terry Hall, accused of strangling his common-law-wife and dumping her body in a lay-by, confided in a friend that he expected to go to jail until he was in his 50s, the Old Bailey heard.

Hall allegedly made the comment to close pal Wayne Nelson after he had been released from police questioning on July 30 last year.

Mr Nelson said Hall, 29, accused him of ‘dropping him in it’ by telling officers about his movements in his car, in the dead of night, four days after Lisa Pearce, 26, was last seen alive on July 11.

Giving evidence for the prosecution Mr Nelson said in the early hours of Thursday 15 he saw Hall’s Ford Orion reversed up close to the house with its boot open.

And he later saw Hall drive away.

The prosecution claim he was driving his wife’s body to the lay-by in Church Lane, Chelsham, Surrey, where it was found by an electronics salesman just hours later.

But Hall told police when he was first quizzed that the last time he drove the Orion was two days earlier on the 13th when he went to visit social services.

Mr Nelson said he ‘knew that to be false.

‘

And referring to a meeting with Hall on July 30, Mr Nelson said: ‘Basically he said that I had dropped him in it because I had seen him (in his car) at 3.

30am.

‘

Sir John Nutting, QC, for the prosecution intervened: ‘He was making a suggestion that you made a statement or told police something.

‘

Mr Nelson replied: ‘Yes.

‘

And he told the jury that he corrected Hall by saying that he had actually seen him in his car at 2.

30am not 3.

30am.

He continued: ‘I said words to the effect: ‘If you haven’t done anything wrong you haven’t got anything to worry about.

Don’t be stupid.

‘

‘He said a couple of times that he was not going to come out (of jail) until he was 52.

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Asked by Sir John if Hall ever ‘acknowledged the truth’ about being out in his car on the morning of July 15 Mr Nelson added: ‘The conversation just ended there.

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The court has heard that Hall had promising to leave Miss Pearce for lover Debbie White days before her body was found dumped in a lay-by.

And Sir John has alleged that Hall was ‘the last person to see his wife alive because he murdered her, secreted her body for three days then stealthily, and under cover of darkness, dumped it three miles or so from her home.

‘

Hall, who last lived with Miss Pearce in Burford Way, New Addington, denies murder.

The trial continues.

ends