A neighbour of an elderly couple whose dismembered remains were found in suitcases on Clifton Suspension Bridge told jurors how she unknowingly offered to help their accused killer carry them down the stairs.
Yostin Mosquera is on trial at the Old Bailey for the murders of Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, on July 8 last year.
The jury has already been shown horrifying footage of Mosquera grappling with and then killing Mr Alfonso during an extreme sex session at his flat in Shepherd’s Bush, west London.
Mosquera, a Colombian national described as a ‘pornographic performer’, is seen singing and dancing in the aftermath of the ‘frenzied stabbing’.
He has admitted the manslaughter of Mr Alfonso by way of loss of self-control, but denies two charges of murder.
Prosecutors say he had already bludgeoned Mr Longworth with a hammer earlier the same evening.
Giving evidence on Friday, a neighbour told how she heard loud banging noises on the stairs of the apartment complex.
She went to investigate and found a man carrying an extremely heavy suitcase downstairs.
The woman said: ‘I started off by hearing a very loud noise in the stairwell, there was scraping, banging noises, the stairs are stone and the noise was extremely loud, like someone was dragging a heavy object step by step.’
Prosecutor Theresa Hay asked: ‘Having heard that what did you do?’
The neighbour replied: ‘Having heard the noise, I entered the stairwell, assuming one of my neighbours needed help with something heavy.
‘I saw a man with a large case, standing over the case.
‘The stairwell is dark but I think it was black but it had silver around it, my impression is lit was like a big magician’s trunk.
‘The man had very dark skin, very large, startled eyes, which is what sticks with me the most.
‘His forehead was furrowed and lined with concern, he looked busted, he looked stressed, he looked sprung, like he had been caught, like he was surprised and unwelcome to see somebody like me.
‘To me he looked startled.’
Ms Hay asked: ‘When you saw him, what did you do?’
She replied: ‘As he was coming out of my friends neighbour’s house, I assumed he was a friend of theirs. I offered to help him carry the suitcase downstairs, it was clearly very heavy and I did not see anybody else around to help.
‘He did not accept my offer, He looked worried and said sorry.
‘I said, “It’s okay, I don’t mind the noise, I just wanted to check if you wanted help with that”.’
She added: ‘I got the impression I wasn’t wanted and I went back inside.’
The neighbour, who appeared behind a screen to conceal her identity from Mosquera, told the court the noises were ‘the loudest I had ever heard’ and she ‘wondered what was in the suitcase’.
She said she had never seen the man in question before but recognised him a few days later when his face was in the press.
The woman described the couple as ‘very good neighbours’ and said their relationship was ‘loving’, ‘supportive’, ‘harmonious’ and ‘touching’.
She also told the court she had never heard them argue or raise their voices at each other, which made one particular incident stand out.
‘A few days before I now know they were murdered, I heard raised voices in Paul and Albert’s flat, the first time I had ever heard raised voices in Paul and Albert’s flat.’
Ms Hay asked: ‘What can you tell us about those raised voices?’
The woman went on: ‘There were two voices, one was definitely not Paul, the other two I presumed to be Albert and a guest but I can’t confirm, I can confirm it was not Paul’s voice and it sounded like there were accents.’
The prosecution say that on July 8, Mosquera allegedly killed Mr Longworth and later Mr Alfonso in their flat and then ‘set about trying to steal from them’.
Two days after Mr Alfonso’s killing, CCTV shows Mosquera walking backwards as he drags a heavy red suitcase along Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol at about 11.23pm.
Mosquera is seen peering over a bridge wall and trying to rub away a mark, that was left on the floor where the suitcase had been, with his foot.
He then urinates on it, the court heard.
The prosecution alleges Mosquera took the suitcases to the landmark to ‘dispose’ of them.
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But the jury heard he was questioned by a cyclist and bridge staff, who ‘noticed that something was leaking from the (red) suitcase’, before he abandoned both items and ran away.
The police were called, and officers found the cases contained body parts.
Police searched the Scotts Road address on the label of the silver trunk before finding Mr Alfonso and Mr Longworth’s decapitated heads, as well as other body parts, at their flat in a chest freezer, the court heard.
The trial continues.
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