Fireman recalls moment he found Jamie Dack's body in a bin (From Daily Echo)

Fireman recalls moment he found Jamie Dack's body in a bin in Southampton

11:00am Saturday 20th October 2012 in News By Julian Robinson, Eastleigh Chief Reporter

A FIREFIGHTER has described the sickening moment he discovered the body of Jamie Dack in an industrial bin in Southampton.

Kevin Bicknell was part of the first crew to arrive at the scene after reports of a blaze at Empress Road industrial estate in the early hours of Easter Sunday this year.

He told jurors at Winchester Crown Court that 5ft flames were coming out of the top of a metal bin.

He and his colleague used a pressure hose to put out the blaze before examining the contents of the bin.

Inside he saw what he first thought was a “shop mannequin”, but on further inspection turned out to be a badly burned body – later identified as Jamie Dack.

Further examination by police revealed that the bin also contained the remains of a green household waste bin that had melted in the heat of the fire. A second wheelie bin had been left next to the fire, the court heard.

Jurors were told how in the hours running up to the grim discovery two police officers had come across three men and one woman pulling two household wheelie bins along Empress Road.

One of the officers, PC Ben Bowles, described to jurors how they stopped their vehicle and his colleague asked one of the men what they were doing.

PC Bowles told the court that they did not see what was in the bins or ask to look inside them. The officers asked the group to put the bins back where they had found them and once they were satisfied this had been done, drove away from the area.

Earlier that morning, between midnight and 1am, a doorman at the nearby Shooting Star pub had seen a group of people dragging a wheelie bin across Bevois Valley Road before disappearing in to the Aldi car park.

Donna Chalk, 21, and Andrew Dwyer-Skeats, 26, of Bevois Mews, Southampton; Ryan Woodmansey, 32, of no fixed address, and Lee Nicholls, 28, of Southampton Street, Southampton, all deny murder.

The three men have admitted perverting the course of justice by disposing of and setting fire to Jamie’s body. Chalk denies that charge.

Jurors have already heard how 22-year-old Jamie had been lured to a flat at Bevois Mews in Southampton before allegedly being stabbed to the neck, chest, abdomen, legs and shoulder and beaten by a gang, who had set out to rob him of his laptop and cash card.

Proceeding