Dean Lowe faces a life sentence after killing his girlfriend, disposing of her body and trying to claim she had left him
A man has been found guilty of beating his girlfriend to death before chopping up her body and flushing parts of her down the toilet.
Dean Lowe, 33, killed Kirby Noden, 32, with a rock and a metal pole at their flat Marazion, Cornwall, before cutting up her remains, putting bits in a wheelie bin and flushing others away.
The court heard he also made a necklace out of her teeth – but it took four months after the brutal attack for anyone to realise something had happened to his victim.
Lowe denied one count of murder and maintained that Miss Noden was still alive and living in South Africa.
But a jury at Truro Crown Court – some of whom were left in tears by the distrubing cases – today found Lowe guilty of murder.
Prosecutor Paul Dunkels QC had told how Lowe got rid of his partner’s body ‘so nothing has been found apart from her blood’.
The victim’s blood was found on the weapons used to murder her, as well as being spattered around the flat and soaked into a mattress.
Lowe (left) beat Kirby Noden (right) to death with a metal pole before chopping up her body
Mr Dunkels said: ‘Nobody other than the defendant knew what happened for four months until May of last year when the defendant sent messages to members of his family living in Cheshire saying there had been a body on the floor of the flat and that he had cut it up and put it down the toilet.’
After his apparent confession, the family contacted police who went to the flat and found Ms Noden’s blood.
Lowe later claimed that Ms Noden left him after an argument about her cheating on him with an old friend.
He claimed that he had been drugged and raped by two men whilst Miss Noden spread her blood around the flat.
Lowe also said that he received a call from Miss Noden whilst incarcerated in HMP Exeter when she said ‘you’re f***** now, you’ve got life in jail and I’ve got a new life out here’.
But the jury rejected his version of events and found him guilty after several hours of deliberations.
The court has heard that the couple had lived together for a number of years.
Originally from Winsford, Cheshire, they moved to south-west England and lived in Torquay, Devon, and Launceston, Cornwall, before moving to Marazion.
The court heard that they lived ‘a chaotic lifestyle marked by the use of various illegal drugs’.
Lowe will be sentenced at Exeter Crown Court next week.