Barmaid murder trial told she left cab 'which would have taken her home safely'
A barmaid got out of a taxi that would have taken her home safely on the night she was murdered after being asked for the £10 fare up front, a court has heard.
Twenty-year-old India Chipchase "threw a wobbly" according to the cab's driver after he told her he needed the money for a journey back to the Wootton area, in Northamptonshire, in advance.
Ms Chipchase, who had been drinking with friends, had just been put in the taxi by a doorman at NB's nightclub in Northampton, after she repeatedly told him she wanted to go home.
Taxi driver Andrew Birkenshaw said:
The prosecution's claim that after leaving that cab, the 20-year-old crossed paths with Edward Tenniswood outside the club, who took her back to his house where he raped and killed her.
The Crown say that Tenniswood "raped and throttled" his victim, but havealready told a jury at Birmingham Crown Court that he will claim she consented to sex and her death was "an accident".
On the second day of the trial, jurors heard how Ms Chipchase was on a night out with friends on Friday January 29, but got separated inside the club.
One of her group recalled pulling Ms Chipchase's leg over being "steaming"drunk earlier in the night, while she spoke of having already had a bottle ofwine.
Jurors heard evidence on Wednesday about how Ms Chipchase was said by friends, who bought rounds of Jagerbombs, to have been "dancing" and having a good time.
However, another friend Alice Lewis described how later on her friend got upset and had "a 30-second outburst" about a romance with Grant Hare, whom she had been seeing.
Ms Chipchase also showed Ms Lewis "marks she had on both her forearms" and was "just crying about everything" but then "she completely changed the subject".
However, Mr Hare, giving evidence in the trial, told the court the couple were "not quite" boyfriend and girlfriend.
When he got home that night, he charged up the flat battery on his phonerevealing nine missed calls and two mispelt text messages from Ms Chipchase, including one reading: "Where are you?"
Three of the missed calls were at 1.26am, 1.27am and 1.28am that night, after she had been "led, steered or escorted" into a cab by Tenniswood.
Mr Hare told jurors any suggestion there were romantic problems between he and Ms Chipchase was "the first time" he had heard that claim.He did attempt to ring Ms Chipchase three times when he got home, but the calls went to her answerphone.
Inside the nightclub, her friends Harry Moylan and Ms Lewis noticed MsChipchase was no longer with their group and "looked everywhere" in the club for their friend but without success.
Mr Moylan said: "We thought she'd either gone home, or met up with other friends."
The jury has already seen CCTV showing Ms Chipchase being helped outside the club by a doorman, who said he placed her inside a cab.
But at about 1am, she returned to the club's entrance and can be seen in the footage leaning against the wall, and appearing to check her phone.
Video then shows her being approached by a man whom the prosecution allege is Tenniswood who begins talking to her.
Opening the case on Tuesday, Christopher Donnellan QC said:
When police broke down the door of Tenniswood's rented terraced home in Stanley Road on Sunday evening they found the victim lying on a mattress on the floor of the upstairs front bedroom, covered in a sheet.
She had also suffered blunt force trauma to her head and face. Prosecutors said there was evidence Ms Chipchase put up a struggle against her alleged attacker, with Tenniswood's blood under one of her fingernails.
Suggesting a possible motive on Tuesday, Mr Donnellan said: