A man accused of murdering Lorraine Cox in Exeter and dismembering her body had a step-by-step guide to grave digging and images and videos on his phone showing he could have an interest in amputation, a jury has heard.
Failed asylum seeker Azam Mangori, aged 24, denies murdering Miss Cox in September 2020, but admits preventing the lawful burial of her body.
Exeter Crown Court heard on Friday (March 12) how technical experts examining Mangori’s black Galaxy mobile phone found an animation of a human leg, an image of an above-knee amputation of a child with thigh cancer, and an anatomical image of a sketch of a lower left leg.
The court was told the cached information had been stored on Mangori’s phone before he met Miss Cox on August 30, 2020.
After Miss Cox was reported missing, Mangori’s phone saved a step-by-step guide showing how to dig a grave by hand, and images of digging tools and excavated ground.
Police found an image of a lower left human leg saved to Mangori’s phone five days after Miss Cox was last seen alive, the jury heard.
And videos of a girl ‘showing her new legs to friends’ and one with the title ‘ He’s ripping off his legs’ were kept on his device.
His phone saved 119 images that appeared to show Tin Pitt Hill, near Newton St Cyres, four days before police found Miss Cox’s remains buried there.
Mr Adam Vaitilingham QC, defending, said out of 75,000 images attributed to Mangori’s phone, nine were found by police to have ‘possible’ relevance to the case, that ‘may’ show the defendant had an interest in amputation.
Detective Constable Joanne Rotchell, who took the jury through the phone data evidence, said Mangori had signed up to use secret search engines allowing the user to scour the internet without leaving any trace or history of what was viewed.
DC Rotchell said: “Mr Mangori was using a virtual private network for incognito browsing.
“It allows the user to put in searches or web history that’s being looked at with the Chrome application.”
The court heard virtual private networks made it difficult to track internet activity.
DC Rotchell added: “There will be no record of the websites visited.”
She told the court police found no matches on Mangori’s phone when they searched for the words ‘murder’, ‘knife’ and ‘bury’.
Mr Vaitilingham took the jury through website and app, 9Gag, which had been viewed by the defendant – advertising itself as ‘cool pics for your phone and PC’.
He said the relevant images stored on the defendant’s phone had been automatically saved to Mangori’s handset, and not necessarily viewed, after the defendant scrolled down the website.
He said police had found Mangori used an ‘entirely innocent’ website to query ‘what is a thig?’.
The page was cached on the accused’s phone, the jury was told.
DC Rotchell said around ten seconds after searching for the meaning – thought to be the misspelling of ‘thigh’ – Mangori sent an outgoing Snapchat message to an unknown number, saying ‘that’s just your thigh’.
The court heard extracted phone records show Mangori tried to contact a male and female escort from the Exeter area in the hours before he ‘homed in’ on Miss Cox as she walked alone along the High Street in the early hours of September 1, 2020, after night out drinking with friends.
Police said the defendant had 22 numbers stored on his phone for male, female and transgender escorts.
Mangori stands accused of murder after he was seen on CCTV leading Lorraine Cox into an alleyway next to the Bodrum kebab shop building, where he had a room above the takeaway.
DNA and blood matches for Miss Cox were found on the wall and an area of carpet in his room.
The jury has been told there was no scientific evidence to say Mangori had assaulted Miss Cox when she was alive.
Phone records relating to Mangori’s handset showed he transferred Miss Cox’s SIM card into his own device on September 1, 2020.
In the days after she was last seen alive, Mangori accessed Miss Cox’s email and Facebook accounts, using her SIM to pose as the missing woman, sending messages to dupe her family and friends into believing she was safe.
The trial continues.
