Family murder suspect 'dumped clothes'

Jonathan and Victoria disappeared in 1975

A pensioner accused of murdering his family 27 years ago gave away their clothes soon after they vanished, a court has heard.

Brenda Jones told how her then neighbour John Allen invited her to clear out most of their favourite things, including his wife's underwear and make up.

Mr Allen, from Poole in Dorset, denies murdering his wife Patricia and their children Jonathan, seven, and Victoria, five, who disappeared in May 1975.

Mrs Jones told Exeter Crown Court she heard a child who she believed to be Victoria scream loudly on the night after she last saw Patricia, 40.

Virtually all the clothes I had ever seen Patricia wearing were there

Brenda Jones, neighbour

The neighbour said Mr Allen told her his wife had gone to see her mother, although the missing woman had never spoken to her of going away.

At the time Mrs Jones was living in the flat below the Allen family with her husband Michael, a chef at the Marine Hotel in Salcombe, Devon where Mr Allen was restaurant manager.

She said: "Virtually all the clothes I had ever seen Patricia wearing were there, tops, coats, make-up, underwear, everything.

"I kept it all for quite some time because I thought she and the children might come back but then gave it away."

The prosecution alleges Mr Allen, now 68, wanted his family out of the way because of his affair with Eunice Yabsley, a restaurant owner from Salcombe.

Patricia Allen has not been seen since May 1975

Earlier Mrs Yabsley, now 67, told the court how she failed to tell the police about scratch marks she saw on her lover the day after the prosecution alleges he killed his wife.

The case was reopened in 2000 after Mrs Yabsley published a book on the affair, Presumed Dead, under her maiden name Eunice Chapman.

The jury has been told that Mr Allen told a series of stories to different people about where his family had gone, saying they were staying with relations or had gone abroad with a boyfriend of Patricia.

No bodies have been found.

The trial continues on Monday.