Retired academic’s daughter, 27, ‘hid murderer boyfriend in her parents’ £800,000 home’

The graduate daughter of a retired academic shielded her murderer boyfriend from police after he stabbed his cousin to death and may have used her father’s Scout knife, a court heard today.

Former Manchester Metropolitan University student Megan Armstrong-Challinor, 27, moved Jerome Bailey, 38, into her parents’ £800,000 home while they were holidaying in Spain.

Croydon Crown Court was told he used his girlfriend’s mother’s Oyster card to travel to the murder scene and is suspected of using her father Bruce’s old Scout knife to stab Tesfa Campbell, 40, in Battersea on July 3, last year.

There was even evidence that Armstrong-Challinor, a graduate in film and global media, made internet searches if ‘conjugal visits’ were allowed to prisoners in the UK in the aftermath of the killing.

Bailey was convicted on January 21 of murdering Mr Campbell in Latchmere Road, Battersea on July 3, last year and is in custody awaiting sentence.

Now his girlfriend at the time is on trial for allegedly perverting the course of justice. 

Prosecutor Mr John Price QC told the jury: ‘This trial concerns a third person, Bailey’s then-girlfriend Megan Armstrong-Challinor.

‘The prosecution says that after the killing and knowing what Bailey has done, she helped him evade capture by the police.’ 

Officers raided her parents’ home at 8.15am on July 7, 2019 and the defendant’s father Bruce Armstrong, 62, told the jury the first he knew about it was: ‘When they put the door in.’

Mr Armstrong, the retired Dean of Students at Kingston University and his wife Mary saw police arrest their daughter and Bailey and then search their home and garden.

He told the court the couple had lived in a variety of addresses during their three-year relationship, with Armstrong-Challinor holding down a variety of jobs to support the pair.

‘It was fairly obvious he was not contributing his fair share,’ said Mr Armstrong of Bailey. ‘That was my suspicion.’

He told the jury his daughter lied she needed to borrow the family car for a hospital emergency involving Bailey hours after the murder.

Now the director of an educational business, Mr Armstrong added: ‘I said if he’s being discharged from hospital he can make his own way back.

‘He was a grown man and I felt she ran after him too much.’

His daughter had moved back into the family home after an ankle operation and an ‘incident’ forcing her to leave her previous address, but on returning from Spain her parents found Bailey was also there.

Confirming he was not happy about it Mr Armstrong said: ‘They were looking for somewhere else to live and were due to leave in a week.’

After the arrests he phoned the police because his old Scout knife was not in its usual place.

‘I noticed the knife was missing from the sheath. I used it for opening heavy parcels and packaging.’

It was later found in the kitchen. ‘That knife was similar to the description given by eye witnesses,’ said Mr Price.

The prosecution say Bailey deliberately changed his appearance after the murder, ridding himself of his distinctive long hair.

The defendant’s mother Mary Armstrong-Challinor told the court: ‘It was very hot in July and I said to him it must be hot if you had your head shaved.’

She also offered him medical advice after the supposed 1am hospital dash. ‘I suggested he look after himself better and he said he had stomach problems, nothing more than that.’

Mr Price told the jury the Oyster card used by the murder suspect was registered to Mrs Armstrong-Challinor at the Teddington address.

Police attended four days after the murder. ‘There they found Bailey and arrested him at the home of this defendant’s parents.

‘She too was in the house that morning when the police arrived and she too was arrested.

‘Her involvement came in the aftermath of the killing, assisting her boyfriend to evade arrest by the police, knowing what he had done.

‘In the Summer house in the back garden were two yellow plastic string bags of the same kind taken from Mr Campbell by his killer.

‘Both of these were within another bag that contained a quantity of cannabis and items related to the use of cannabis.

‘The Oyster card that was registered to Mrs Armstrong-Challinor and used to travel from Teddington to Clapham Junction was in one of the yellow bags.

Armstrong-Challinor denies one count of perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.