Jury considering verdict in Hull & Rotherham double murder trial
47 year old Gary Allen, formerly of Grimsby, denies two counts of murder
A jury has been sent out to consider its verdicts in the trial of a man accused of murdering two women 21 years apart.
Gary Allen, 47, denies murdering Samantha Class in Hull in 1997 and Alena Grlakova in Rotherham in 2018.
A jury at Sheffield Crown Court has heard how Allen was cleared of the murder of Samantha Class following a trial in 2000 but this acquittal was later overturned.
Ms Class's body was found by children on the banks of the Humber in North Ferriby 24 years ago, the jury heard.
Prosecutors said she had been "brutally murdered" and a pathologist found that she had been stamped on, strangled with a ligature and run over with a car before her body went in the water.
Ms Class, who was 29, had been a sex worker at the time of her death.
The jury heard that 38-year-old Ms Grlakova's body was found naked in a stream in Rotherham in April 2019, after she was last seen on Boxing Day 2018.
She was born and brought up in Slovakia and moved to the UK in 2008.
The court was told "Alena was at something of a low point in her life" at the time of her death and had started to work in the sex industry.
But prosecutor Alistair MacDonald QC said "one of the tragic ironies of the case" was that she had been planning to return to live in Slovakia when she was killed.
Mr MacDonald told the jury that months after Allen was cleared of murdering Ms Class in February 2000, he attacked two sex workers in separate attacks in Plymouth and was convicted of both assaults.
Following this, in 2002, he was interviewed by probation officers and told them about his dislike of sex workers and women in general.
The prosecutor said Allen told one probation officer: "I like to frighten them. I like to cause pain. I like to make them cry. I like blood. I like to hurt them. I enjoy it. It makes me feel good."
Mr Macdonald said Humberside Police launched an undercover operation in 2010 to assess the threat posed by Allen.
An officer referred to as "Ian" befriended Allen who told him about an encounter with a sex worker who got angry with him "so I strangled her and dumped her in the Humber".
Mr MacDonald said: "This was the clearest possible admission to the defendant's guilt in murdering Samantha Class and disposing of her body afterwards."
Allen told the jury that he did not kill either of the women.
When asked about Ms Class, he said he did not strangle, beat, or drive over her and did not dump her body in the river.
He told the jury he paid her for sex and last saw her as she walked away from his car.
Allen said the confessions he made to "Ian" about killing Ms Class were not true and he was just telling him what he thought he wanted to hear.
Giving evidence about Ms Grlakova, Allen told the court that she had visited his flat on December 26 and he had made an "idle threat" to beat her in an attempt to get her to leave.
He denied playing any part in her disappearance or death and said he last saw her as he marched her away from his home that evening.
Allen also denied committing any offences against the women he was convicted of attacking in Plymouth and said he had not told probation officers that he had fantasies about hurting sex workers.
Allen, of no fixed address but formerly of Grimsby and Rotherham, denies two counts of murder.
The judge, Mr Justice Goose, completed his summing up on Tuesday morning and the jury retired to consider its verdicts.