Gary Allen trial: Murder accused 'confessed to undercover officer'

Samantha Class (left) and Alena Grlakova were both strangled, jurors were told

A man accused of murdering two women 21 years apart admitted one of the killings to an undercover officer, a jury has heard.

Gary Allen is accused of strangling Samantha Class, 29, whose body was found by three schoolchildren on the banks of the Humber Estuary in 1997.

Sheffield Crown Court heard Mr Allen, 47, told the officer he had killed a woman and "dumped her in the drink".

He denies killing Ms Class and the murder of Alena Grlakova, 38, in 2018.

Jurors heard Mr Allen had a "strong dislike of sex workers", and both women had worked in the sex industry at the time of their deaths.

The court was told he was previously acquitted of Ms Class's murder in February 2000, but "significantly more evidence" had since emerged.

Attacks on sex workers

Prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC told jurors Mr Allen was first arrested in July 1998 after he was stopped on suspicion of drink-driving.

During police interviews, he told officers he drove to the red light area of Hull on 25 October 1997, where he paid Ms Class £30 for sex.

He told police she "got angry", and he last saw her walking away from his car some time between 00:30 and 01:00.

Mr MacDonald said a pathologist found Ms Class had been stamped on, strangled with a ligature and run over with a car before her body went in the water.

He added that semen found inside Ms Class's body matched Mr Allen's DNA.

Samantha Class's body was found in 1997 by three schoolchildren

Months after his acquittal, the court heard, the defendant attacked two sex workers in Plymouth, for which he was convicted.

Two years later, he told probation officers of his fantasies about hurting sex workers, describing them as "scum" and "the lowest of the low", Mr MacDonald said.

In 2010, the court heard, Humberside Police launched an undercover operation in which an officer referred to as "Ian" befriended Mr Allen.

During their conversations, he told Ian he had strangled a sex worker who got angry with him and "dumped her in the Humber", the court heard.

"This was the clearest possible admission to the defendant's guilt in murdering Samantha Class and disposing of her body afterwards," Mr MacDonald said.

Turning to the second murder charge, the prosecutor told the jury that Ms Grlakova's naked body was found in a stream in Rotherham in April 2019, after she was last seen on Boxing Day 2018.

She had been strangled "either by direct pressure or the use of a ligature", the prosecutor said, and "her body was weighed down in order to impede detection".

Mr MacDonald said Ms Grlakova was born and brought up in Slovakia and moved to the UK in 2008, living with her then husband and three children.

After she split from he husband in 2013, Mr MacDonald said, "Alena was at something of a low point in her life" and had started to work in the sex industry.

He said it was a "tragic irony" that she was planning to return to Slovakia at the time of her death.

Alena Grlakova was reported missing on Boxing Day 2018 after she failed to contact her family

Mr MacDonald told jurors Mr Allen's previous acquittal should have "no bearing on your decision in this trial".

"There is significantly more evidence now than there was then and, as we say, that alone makes the evidence different in this trial," he said.

Mr Allen, of no fixed address, denies two counts of murder.

The trial, which is expected to last about eight weeks, continues.