Music teacher Andrew Lindo stays silent over ‘body in bag’ killing

Andrew Lindo, 29, has told police officers he strangled, battered and then stabbed Marie Stewart following a row at their home in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire.

He claims he “lost it” following an argument in which he accused the 30-year-old of mistreating their young daughter.

At the completion of the prosecution case today, Lindo’s barrister, Robert Smith, QC, told the judge: “My Lord, we call no evidence.”

Mr Justice Andrew Smith asked the barrister if his client had been advised that the jury “may draw such inference as appear proper?”

His barrister replied: “We have advised him verbally and in writing.”

Yesterday, the jury heard recordings of Lindo telling police how he killed his partner.

He sobbed as he recalled the killing, telling officers: “It was like this nightmare. I just grabbed hold of her throat and started squeezing it.

“Everything happened so fast. It was just so weird. I just thought I’ve got to get this woman away from my daughter.”

He told the officers that he continued “squeezing and squeezing and squeezing”.

He described how she “kinda went purple and red” and the noises stopped.

“I just thought I’ve got to get this woman out of my daughter’s life.”

The court was told he also hit her over the head with a children’s chair, wrapped her head with bubble wrap and then stabbed her in the neck with a kitchen knife.

“I didn’t draw it across her neck. I just wanted it to end quickly.”

He went on to describe the killing as a “clumsy nightmare”.

Lindo told the officers how his relationship with Miss Stewart had deteriorated.

He told the officers that they had “not really been a couple for quite some time.”

“We were basically living in the same house but not really together,” he told the officers.

“She was just so rude, so demeaning towards me. The way she talked to me was so belittling,” the jury heard.

The jury has heard how Miss Stewart’s body was not found for several weeks during which time Lindo allegedly used her Facebook profile and mobile phone to convince her family and friends she had deserted her young son and daughter and was with a new man.

It was alleged Lindo was living a double life with another woman and was planning a future with her.

Lindo has admitted manslaughter but denies murdering his partner on December 18 last year, at their home in Holmfirth.

In her closing speech, prosecutor Michelle Colborne QC said Lindo had tried to depict Miss Stewart as a “harridan” who was making his life hell.

But she told the jury that Miss Stewart was a devoted mother who was “utterly in love, utterly lonely”.

“She was a beloved daughter and sister and friend. As a mother she was overjoyed by both her pregnancies. Her babies were her life,” she told the jury.

She said her job as a carer looking after children with special needs was physically demanding.

“There is not a hint of any aggression from her, any loss of temper or any frustration. Was she so restrained she saved it all for Andrew Lindo?”

She said she was a “kind, decent human being”.

Referring to the defendant, she said: “Andrew Lindo was and is capable of practising monumental deceit, he lies with consummate ease and is capable of great acts of emotional and physical cruelty.”

She added: “That facility to lie with conviction and with ease is his stock in trade.”

She said Lindo had failed to enter the witness box and give his account of what happened.

“There are no answers and none that withstand any scrutiny,” she told the jury.

The trial was adjourned to Monday when the jury will hear the defence speech.