A groundworker who confessed to burying a mother in a shallow grave is filmed by police bodycam pointing out the deposition site – five weeks after officers failed to find her hidden under a mattress in his home.
A court heard cocaine addict Mohammed Durnion’s neighbour had dialled 999 after hearing a woman ‘screaming in fear’ inside his flat last May.
But although police arrived 12 minutes after the call, officers who searched the property in Coventry, West Midlands, failed to find mother-of-two Reanne Coulson, 33.
The ‘powerfully-built’ Muslim convert had stashed 5ft 1in Ms Coulson’s ‘dead or dying’ body in a duvet hidden beneath a mattress in the squalid property after killing her while high on cocaine.
Giovanni D’Alessandro from the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘This was an act that cruelly cut short the life of an innocent woman
‘Mohammed Durnion killed Reanne and then tried to dispose of her body to escape justice and Adam Moore helped him do it. At no point did either of them show remorse or take accountability for what they had done. Instead, they forced Reanne’s family to sit through a trial and relive every detail of what happened to her.
‘The Crown Prosecution Service worked closely with police to build a compelling case, including CCTV, phone records, witness testimony, and forensic evidence, that left the jury in no doubt of both defendants’ guilt. Our thoughts are with Reanne’s family who have shown immense courage and dignity throughout this process. We hope today’s verdicts bring some sense of justice to them.’
In the footage released by police following Durnion’s conviction for manslaughter today, the handcuffed killer is seen gesturing to officers who had asked where he had buried Ms Coulson as he replies: ‘she is under there’ and saying the body is ‘deep enough’.
An officer then asks him: ‘Is she wrapped in anything?’ and Durnion replies ‘No, no, no no’.
He is then asked what he used to bury her, before agreeing that it was a shovel.
Bodycam footage of the moment a panting Durnion answers his front door to police, telling officers, ‘I’ve had a really rough day… please leave me alone,’ on May 21 was also released by West Midlands Police today.
Mohammed Durnion stashed Reanne Coulson’s ‘dead or dying’ body in a duvet hidden beneath a mattress
Mohammed Durnion stashed Reanne Coulson’s ‘dead or dying’ body in a duvet hidden beneath a mattress in the squalid property after killing her while high on cocaine
Mohammed Durnion was filmed on bodycam showing officers where he buried Reanne Coulson in Binley Woods
A third clip of police searching the address by mobile phone torchlight – because Durnion’s landlord had the electricity switched off over his failure to pay rent – was also published by the force, which said a review of the search process had identified ‘opportunities for learning’.
Durnion, 42, was cleared of murder by a jury at Warwick Crown Court but convicted of manslaughter by a majority of 11-1.
His co-defendant Adam Moore was convicted of assisting an offender by the same majority of 11-1.
They will be sentenced on Thursday.
Judge Kristina Montgomery KC thanked the jury for dealing with the evidence ‘as calmy and as carefully as you plainly have’.
Jurors were told former company director Durnion became distressed on June 27 and told officers he would take them to the burial site at Binley Woods, on the outskirts of Coventry.
By then, officers were already searching the woodland after Durnion and fellow groundworker Moore, 39, had transported her to the woods in a suitcase by car – only realising when they arrived that her phone was amongst her belongings and still transmitting a signal.
Ms Coulson’s body was set alight with petrol before being buried in an attempt to destroy forensic evidence, and possibly even her identity, the court heard.
Durnion then drove away with her phone, throwing it out of his car window, at which point the signal deactivated.
But police were able to link the handset to the journey taken by the vehicle from Durnion’s flat to the woods in the early hours of May 22.
The trial heard once-married Durnion had attacked Ms Coulson, a sex worker who was known to take drugs, within a minute of shepherding her into his flat.
He had chanced upon Ms Coulson after she had visited a church foodbank that night.
Mohammed Durnion stashed Reanne Coulson’s ‘dead or dying’ body in a duvet hidden beneath a mattress
Adam Moore denied assisting an offender on May 22 by helping dispose of Ms Coulson’s body, claiming he attended the woods simply to look for Durnion
At 11.26pm, almost two hours after Ms Coulson was filmed on CCTV leaving the foodbank, a neighbour dialled 999 and reported hearing a woman ‘screaming in fear’.
When police arrived 12 minutes later, the flat was quiet and littered with rubbish and pet faeces – Durnion had at one point been looking after a dog. Police believe he had also been using a bucket as a toilet at one stage.
A ‘sweating and agitated’ Durnion initially refused entry without a warrant, then faked a mental health crisis – telling officers he was having a schizophrenic episode before eventually running away into the night – leaving police to search the cluttered property.
He was later seen smirking by a witness while carrying the suitcase he had used to move the body, and went on a drugs binge before his arrest.
Detective Inspector Nigel Box told the Daily Mail: ‘He covered her up in the duvet and he pulled a mattress on top of her, which, given the state of the place, didn’t look out of place. So sadly, Reanne wasn’t found during that initial search.’
Once officers had left the address, Durnion returned and within hours had moved the body.
Ms Coulson’s remains were found after Durnion, in his police interview, was played an emotional media appeal by her family for information over her disappearance.
Durnion told the court that since his relationship with his wife broke down he started to use cocaine heavily, which affected his behaviour.
Associates told police that he became volatile and unpredictable when using the drug.
A post mortem examination found the cause of death was unascertained.
The post mortem examination found head and neck injuries, including bruising, were inflicted on Ms Coulson while she was alive, while burn injuries to her face and side were caused after death, ‘as if someone had tried to destroy that part of her body, or maybe her identity’, prosecutor Timothy Cray KC said.
Police arrived at Durnion’s flat 12 minutes after receiving a 999 call. The panting killer told officers: I’ve had a really rough day… please leave me alone’
A police sniffer dog searches Binley Woods before Durnion led police to the burial site
Jurors were told that Durnion agreed he was the last person to see Ms Coulson alive and also accepted he buried her body in the woods.
During his trial opening, Mr Cray said: ‘His case… is that he picked up Reanne that Wednesday evening and gave her money to buy drugs.
‘He picked her up believing she was a sex worker but says that there was no sexual contact between them that night.’
Mr Cray added: ‘We say that the timing and circumstances suggest that this was a deliberate attack by a powerfully-built man, on a vulnerable and defenceless woman who he had taken back to his address.
‘One of the circumstances to look at is how long they had been together in the flat. The evidence is that the attack began within a minute of the defendant arriving at the flat around 11.22pm.
‘Is that really long enough to take drugs, get high, start arguing and overdose, or is that timing consistent with some sort of sudden, fatal attack?
‘When the police arrived… Reanne was nowhere to be seen or heard. This was because by then it must be that Reanne was incapable of calling for help.
‘She was dead or dying because of Mohammed Durnion’s attack.’
Durnion denied killing Ms Coulson, falsely claiming she died from a drug overdose during an argument at his flat.
The jury took just over ten hours to convict Durnion and Moore, of Willenhall, Coventry. He had denied assisting an offender on May 22 by helping dispose of Ms Coulson’s body, claiming he attended the woods simply to look for Durnion.
DI Box said: ‘It was ultimately the family’s appeals that were played to him at the end of the interview process that I think convinced (Durnion) to do, in his mind, the right thing and take us to the body of Reanne’.
He described the case as ‘shocking and appalling’ and said Ms Coulson’s family were ‘absolutely heartbroken and devastated by what’s happened to her’.
The senior investigating officer added: ‘We have been supporting her family throughout this investigation and throughout the trial at court.
‘They’ve heard some really harrowing evidence about what’s happened to her body when taken to Binley Woods and we hope that the results at court will go some way to giving them a sense of justice, at least.’
West Midlands Police said: ‘A review of the circumstances around the search of the premises was carried out by our Professional Standards Department. No misconduct was identified although some opportunities for learning were identified and implemented.
‘We informed Reanne’s family of the review and expressed our regret we were not able to find her on the 21 May. We have liaised with Reanne’s family throughout the investigation into her death.’
Giovanni D’Alessandro from the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘This was an act that cruelly cut short the life of an innocent woman
‘Mohammed Durnion killed Reanne and then tried to dispose of her body to escape justice and Adam Moore helped him do it.
‘At no point did either of them show remorse or take accountability for what they had done. Instead, they forced Reanne’s family to sit through a trial and relive every detail of what happened to her.’
Durnion was born Alan Durnion in Coventry, but moved to Dorset with his family as a child. He is thought to have converted around 20 years ago.
His mother and sister declined to comment when approached by the Mail.
