Coventry mum Nicola Payne's hair 'found in tent'

Nigel Barwell, left and Thomas O'Reilly deny murdering Nicola Payne

Hair belonging to a teenage mother believed to have been murdered in 1991 was found inside a tent owned by one of her alleged killers, a court has heard.

One of the strands was 900 million times more likely to have come from Nicola Payne than someone she was not related to, a jury was told.

Prosecutors allege the 18-year-old was abducted as she crossed wasteland to her parents' house in Coventry.

Nigel Barwell and his brother-in-law, Thomas O'Reilly, deny murder.

Three hairs from Miss Payne - as well as a single hair asserted to be from Mr O'Reilly - were identified during forensic tests conducted last year on a tent found near a river five days after her disappearance, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

Opening the case against the Coventry defendants, Andrew Smith QC said instructions for the tent were found inside Barwell's Ford Capri in December 1991.

He said the teenager's journey across the patch of land, known as the Black Pad, should have taken a few minutes.

'Tried it on'

"The prosecution case is that Nicola Payne was abducted as she walked across the waste ground," he said.

"At some point thereafter she was was murdered and her body disposed of."

The court heard Mr Barwell, of Copperas Street, and Mr O'Reilly, of Ribble Road, are now aged 51 but were both 27 at the time of her disappearance, on 14 December.

Nicola Payne was last seen on 14 December, 1991

They were first arrested three days after Ms Payne, who had a seven-month-old son, Owen, with her boyfriend Jason Cook, disappeared.

Mr Smith told the jury that Mr Barwell had "tried it on" with Ms Payne in a pub two months before she vanished.

Blue Ford Capri

The court heard that on 14 December 1991 a dog walker on Black Pad heard a woman scream and later on another witness described seeing the defendants parked near a river with what appeared to be a black bin bag.

Mr Barwell owned a distinctive blue 1980 Ford Capri at the time of Ms Payne's disappearance.

On the day she vanished, dog-walker Patrick Carter saw a figure hiding in bushes on the wasteland and heard a car engine nearby, the jury were told.

As he walked on he saw a metallic blue Ford Capri and, after passing the vehicle, heard a scream.

"The scream came from the direction of the bushes where he had seen the figure hiding," Mr Smith said. "The prosecution invite you to conclude, that came from Nicola Payne."

The court learned that witness Louise Sambrook, who knew both defendants, saw them next to a blue Capri near the River Sowe.

"Between them, partly on the lip of the boot, was what appeared to Miss Sambrook to be a full black bin bag.

"The prosecution suggest that Miss Sambrook was in fact observing the ground sheet of a tent that contained the body of Nicola Payne."

The trial continues.