Woman jailed for dumping body

Woman jailed for dumping body

The car was abandoned in Church Lane, Gorleston

A woman who left a dead friend's body to decompose after dumping it in a car has been jailed.

A jury at Norwich Crown Court had heard that Johanne Fletcher, 31, had panicked when John Howard, 30, had died in her flat.

Mr Howard's body was found on the back seat of his Peugeot 106 car parked in Gorleston, Norfolk, in August 2002.

His body was wrapped in sheets and a duvet cover.

When police searched Fletcher's home in Lichfield Road, Great Yarmouth, they found keys to the car and duvet covers with the same pattern.

Mr Howard, who lived with his foster parents Derick and Joyce Platford at Catfield, was a former client of prostitute Fletcher.

You did not stop and think of an anonymous tip-off which might mitigate the harm rather than leaving the body to decompose

Judge David Mellor

They had become friends and on the day of his death he had been decorating her flat while she was out.

When she returned with a friend between 0300 and 0500 BST having taken heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis, Mr Howard was dead.

She claimed that with her police record she thought people might think she was responsible and panicked.

She and the friend had rolled the body in the bedding and put it in the car which they then abandoned.

The court heard Fletcher had convictions for prostitution, dishonesty, possession of drugs and theft.

Unplanned action

Katharine Moore, for Fletcher, said her client's amateurish and unplanned action had been out of panic and self-interest.

Fletcher, now of Church Road, Aslacton, had admitted causing a public nuisance by preventing Mr Howard's burial at an earlier hearing.

On Wednesday she was jailed for 22 weeks.

Judge David Mellor told her: "You thought only of yourself. You did not stop and think of an anonymous tip-off which might mitigate the harm rather than leaving the body to decompose."

He said her action had been an affront to society and a hurt to those who cared for Mr Howard.