Drug dealer guilty of hiding body in airbed in Penzance

The full cause of death of Cecilia Seddon could not be determined

A man has been found guilty of injecting his girlfriend with a lethal cocktail of drugs and hiding her body an "improvised body bag" under a bed.

Clayton Hawkes hid the body of Cecilia Seddon, 32, inside an airbed after she overdosed on heroin and cocaine at his flat in Penzance, Cornwall.

He was convicted at Truro Crown Court of perverting the course of justice and administering a poison.

Hawkes, 52, will be sentenced at Exeter Crown Court on Thursday.

Judge Peter Johnson told Hawkes, from Hayle, to expect a "substantial period of imprisonment".

Ms Seddon's body was found in a flat in Penare Road, Penzance, after one of Mr Hawkes' acquaintances raised the alarm

Ms Seddon's body was found by police officers who were searching the flat on Penare Road for drugs in April 2018.

The jury heard how the blue airbed had been cut open to form an "improvised body bag", and was hidden in the cavity of a double bed.

During the trial jurors were told Blaze Fisher, 25, of Redruth, previously admitted perverting the course of justice by hiding Ms Seddon's body.

Both men will be sentenced together.