Caravan park was 'hotbed of gossip'
The riverside mobile home park in Stourport where a murder plan was allegedly hatched by two lovers was a "hotbed of gossip," a court was told.
The riverside mobile home park in Stourport where a murder plan was allegedly hatched by two lovers was a "hotbed of gossip," a court was told.
Michael Whitcombe and Muriel Southall were the focus of prying eyes at Stourport Caravan Park in Redstone Lane where residents said there was little privacy and gossip abounded.
The prosecution alleges that the pair started a secret sexual liaison and plotted to kill Mrs Southall's 62-year-old lorry driver husband Reginald, pictured. They denied an affair but were seen holding hands and visiting each other's mobile home, the court heard.
Whitcombe, aged 59, a former warden at the park, later moved to Four Acres Caravan Park in Worcester Road, Stourport. He and Southall, 60, of Stourport Caravan Park, deny the murder of Mr Southall on December 4, 2007. His badly injured body was found in the River Severn 12 days after he disappeared.
The Stourport Caravan Park former manager Brian Waterhouse said Whitcombe became friendly with the Southalls when they arrived at the site in the summer of 2007. He often took them on the pillion of his motorbike.
The friendship seemed quite open but Mr Waterhouse said he would advise staff not to become too friendly with residents. His wife Katherine, who was joint manager, said she met Whitcombe at the Crossley retail park in Kidderminster a month after Mr Southall's body had been found.
Another resident, Derek Waldron, said he had seen Whitcombe and Mrs Southall holding hands. She was missing from a party on the site and he later saw her coming out of Whitcombe's home. And he also saw them having breakfast in a cafe after the husband had died.
Michael Child, whose home was near the Southalls, said he saw Mrs Southall on Whitcombe's motorcycle. She was wearing leathers and helmet which he thought had belonged to Whitcombe's late wife.
Whitcombe asked if he had heard the rumours. He denied them and said he knew who was spreading them, the court heard.
Mrs Patricia Child said she had seen Whitcombe and Mrs Southall meeting when her husband was at work. She said: "I thought it was unusual, a married woman going out with another man when her husband was at work."
Mrs Margaret Holmes said she had gone to see Mrs Southall after police had visited on December 5. Southall said that she and her husband had gone out walking but she had returned home after feeling ill and her husband had continued. Asked why she had not asked for help, she said she had taken a "happy pill" and gone to sleep in a chair.
The trial continues.
