A man has changed his plea and admitted murdering his girlfriend on the third day of his trial.
Andrew Burfield, 51, admitted the murder of mother-of-two Katie Kenyon, 33, at Preston Crown Court.
He was re-arraigned on the charge this morning and the jury in the case formally found him guilty.
Burfield killed Miss Kenyon from, Padiham in Burnley, on 22 April and buried her body in a grave he had dug the day before her death in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, his trial heard.
He then sent messages from Miss Kenyon’s phone to her children and himself, the jury heard.
Opening the trial on Monday, David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, told the jury Burfield was arrested following Miss Kenyon’s disappearance and interviewed four times.
He initially denied any knowledge of her whereabouts.
A ‘revelation’ during penultimate interview
In his penultimate interview there was a “revelation” and his version of events changed, Mr McLachlan said.
Burfield, of Todmorden Road, Burnley, told police he had taken Miss Kenyon, who he had been in a relationship with since 2019, to Gisburn Forest for a picnic and she had “bet” him he could not hit her can of Coke with his axe.
The court heard he told police: “I went for the tree at the side of her and it, it hit her in (her) head.”
He claimed she had been hit with the back of the axe and had no other injuries.
However, the jury heard a post mortem showed she was struck an estimated 12 times.
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Forensic pathologist Dr Jamie Robinson said Burfield’s account of inadvertently hitting Miss Kenyon was “completely implausible”, Mr McLachlan said.
The court also heard the day before Miss Kenyon’s death Burfield borrowed a spade and a set of ladders before driving to Gisburn Forest.
Burfield sent messages from Kenyon’s phone
On the morning she died, the court heard Miss Kenyon messaged Burfield: “Ready and excited for a new chapter.”
Miss Kenyon’s daughter sent her a message at 12.18pm that day and received a response of two laughing face emojis.
Mr McLachlan said: “The prosecution say… that message was not sent by her but it was part of a charade and was sent by Andrew Burfield.”
Texts sent later from Miss Kenyon’s phone to Burfield stated she was “truly sorry for everything”. To her daughter, she wrote that her father would now look after them.
Miss Kenyon’s body was discovered by police in the makeshift grave a week after her death on 29 April.
Burfield is due to be sentenced tomorrow at 10.30am.
