12:18
Leah Ware's phone disconnected for nine hours
For an almost nine hour period until 8.57am on May 8, Leah’s phone was disconnected from the network with no cell site connections between this time. Brown says he does not know why this happened.
Cell site data suggests her phone reconnected shortly after Brown returned to the farm.
“Had you locked Leah in the container,” Mr Henderson KC asked
“No,” replies Brown. On May 8, Brown spent a lot of time on the farm but tells the jury he did not see Leah. He says he was at the farm with his friend Chris, who was taking pictures of a Ford Fiesta they were hoping to sell.
“Did anything out of the ordinary happen that day,” Mr Henderson asks.
“No, not that I can think of,” Brown replies.
At 14.38 on May 8, Leah's phone connects to the network for the final time, the court hears.
When asked why this would have happened, Brown tells the jury: "She would have taken the sim cards out of her phones and swapped them over, she already had another telephone number when we were at Mecca Bingo."
12:25
Concern over Leah Ware's 'disappearance'
The morning of May 9, Brown arrived at Little Bridge Farm and tells the jury he was picking up the Ford Fiesta to take to a test centre in St Leonards for its MOT on Monday (May 10). After dropping the car off, he says he walked back to his home and picked up another car.
When asked if he was worried about Leah’s disappearance, Brown tells the jury:
“Not for the first three or four weeks, it was only after then that I started to get a little bit concerned. I was leaving messages in the horsebox with the pills and the money. I had another telephone number for Leah but it wasn’t in service.”
12:39
Leah Ware 'previously kidnapped by ex-boyfriend'
Brown tells the court that he did not report Leah Ware missing to anyone and adds: “As far as I was concerned she was on her own. That’s just going to put her in more danger isn’t it. Look what happened the last time I reported her missing.”
Browns says this previous occasion when he reported her missing relates to when she was kidnapped by her former boyfriend, Jack Beaver. On that occasion she was found safe but Brown adds: “She got quite badly beaten up, dragged up and down the road several times.”
When asked what he meant by her being on the run, Brown says: “She didn’t want to be found by anybody, i.e. whoever the big bag of drugs belonged to.”
“Did you have any concerns about her health," Mr Henderson asks. “Only the drug use,” Brown replies.
13:04
Brown says he collected alleged victim's medication
“You were arrested in late November 2021, did you continue to collect the medication and her money throughout that period?” Mr Henderson asks.
“Yes,” Brown replies.
“Did you continue to put it in the horsebox?”
“Yes, every week without fail,” the defendant adds, telling the jury he would do this every Monday after work.
Brown then says the money was always collected from the horsebox every week but not necessarily the medication.
“What did you do if the medication was not collected?”
“I burnt it,” Brown says that one week is enough to kill you so he did not want to leave two weeks worth.
13:10
Medication 'found in Brown's van'
The jury is now being shown pictures of Leah’s medication which was found in Brown’s van.
Brown says he also had some Tramadol that she had given him for his back, and there was a box full of her medication in the workshop dating back from 2020 when Brown was working for SE Static Trader.
Brown then talked the jury through pictures of his workshop on Little Bridge Farm. He points out to the jury the cardboard box on a shelf - this is where some medication was kept.
On May 13, Brown sold the Fiesta - the car was jointly owned by the defendant and his friend Chris Adams. It sold for around £1,200 and they reinvested most of this in new cars to work on.
13:16
Brown 'a member of 'Adultwork' website'
Brown created an account on adultwork on May 20 with the username ‘Crazy’ but some letters were replaced with numbers. In March 19, 2019 he last used the 'fistymac' address
Brown says you do not need to be logged in to use the Adultwork site and that he may have used the site occasionally between March 2019 and May 2021.
He set up the new account “to look for Leah originally” as she had two accounts on the site, Brown says.
He shared messages with an escort called Nadia. Brown confirms he met and had sex with Nadia. Brown confirms the last time he had sex with Leah was between April 17 and 24 when they were together at the Mecca Bingo hall.
Brown confirms he contacted a user called Little Lilly Spring on Adultwork for sex. He tells the jury that they never met up for sex at any point. In a message, Brown asks if she is willing to meet “once or twice a week” at his workshop for meetings.
The defendant tells the jury he was looking for “a regular sexual meeting.”
Brown adds that, when he was with Leah, any other sexual encounters would be at random. Asked by Mr Henderson why he had made this contact, Brown replies with “stress.”
Regarding Leah and what would have happened if she came back, Brown replied: “If she had come back, I would have stopped.”
Brown adds that the meet ups allowed him to relax for an hour and “get a massage.”
The trial has focused on the disappearances of Alex Morgan and Leah Ware
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