A lorry driver has gone
on trial accused of the murder of two prostitutes, whose bodies were
found within a few miles of each other less than three months apart.
Alun Kyte, a 33-year-old
lorry driver from Stafford, denies killing Samo Paull and Tracy Turner.
His trial began at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday.
Ms Paull, 20, from
Rowley Regis, West Midlands, was picked up in Birmingham's Balsall Heath
red light district on 30 December 1993 and her body found in a layby
near Swinford, Leicestershire, a few days later. She had been strangled.
On 3 March 1994 another
body was discovered beside a country lane near Lutterworth,
Leicestershire.
The body of 33-year-old
Tracy Turner was not identified for several weeks.
Miss Turner, who was
deaf and came from Stafford, is believed to have been picked up at the
Hilton Park motorway service station on the M6, where she often plied
her trade. She had been strangled and her clothes removed.
Mr Kyte was arrested
and charged with both women's murders in December 1998.
Opening its case, the
prosecution said it would show Mr Kyte had an unusual interest in
prostitutes, that he boasted to fellow prisoners about what he had done
to the two women and that DNA tests linked him to the murder of Miss
Turner.
A lorry driver has been
jailed for life for murdering two prostitutes in the Midlands.
Alun Kyte, 35, from
Stafford, was convicted of murdering Samo Paull and Tracy Turner, whose
bodies were found within a few miles of each other in Leicestershire.
Leicestershire Police,
who arrested Kyte in December 1998, have liaised with officers from
Operation Enigma, which was launched in 1996 and is now looking at more
than 200 unsolved murders.
Kyte is likely to be
reinterviewed by police and further DNA tests may be taken to see if he
can be linked to any of the unsolved killings.
BBC correspondent
Richard Bilton said Leicestershire officers would be inviting forces
from all over the country - including Scotland, East Anglia and the
South West - to contact them to see if unsolved cases could be re-examined
with Kyte in mind.
The jury at Nottingham
Crown Court heard that DNA from semen found on Ms Turner's body matched
that of a blood sample taken from Kyte, who - unknown to the jury - was
jailed for seven years in January 1999 for a series of rapes in Bristol.
A forensic expert said
the chances of the defendant sharing the same genetic profile with
someone else were one in 33,000 million.
Kyte had denied
murdering Ms Paull, 20, of Rowley Regis, West Midlands, in December
1993. She was picked up in Birmingham's Balsall Heath red light district
and her semi-naked body was found beside a lane near Swinford,
Leicestershire.
He had also denied
killing Ms Turner, who died in March 1994. The 30-year-old, who was
virtually deaf, worked at motorway service stations across the country.
She is thought to have
been picked up at Hilton Park services near Wolverhampton and was found,
stripped and strangled, at Bitteswell, near Lutterworth, Leicestershire.
Initial inquiries into
the murders drew a blank but advances in genetic fingerprinting led
police to Kyte, who had an "unusual interest in prostitutes".
After his arrest Kyte
boasted to fellow prisoners about what he had done to the two women.
James Hunt, QC,
prosecuting, said Kyte was seen at the Corley service station near
Coventry, just days after Ms Turner's body was uncovered, posing as a
newspaper reporter.
He told staff he was
conducting an investigation into prostitution.
Under cross examination
by Mr Hunt, Kyte could not explain the presence of his DNA in her body.
He said: "I cannot
explain how it got their because I am not a forensic scientist. It is
for the jury to decide on that evidence".
But he said he may have
slept with her after meeting her at a Stafford nightclub and added: "They
say the DNA is mine and in that case I must have had sex with her at
some point.
"You meet people and
have sex with them or a one night stand and you don't remember it."
