Chloe Mitchell murder accused 'dismembered body', court told

This article contains details that some may find distressing

The man accused of killing Chloe Mitchell murdered her at his house before dismembering her body and disposing of it in wheelie bins, a court has been told.

Brandon Rainey, formerly of James Street, Ballymena, denies murdering the 21-year-old in June 2023 and preventing the lawful burial of her remains.

At Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday morning the prosecution opened its case against Rainey.

Crown barrister David Russell KC told the jury it was the prosecution's case that Chloe Mitchell and Rainey had been in "an on-off relationship" and that he killed her in the early hours of 3 June, sometime between 00:36 and 05:18 BST.

"We say a wealth of evidence will show beyond reasonable doubt that the accused murdered her and disposed of her body in a way that prevented her burial," Russell said.

The jury heard that weeks before Chloe Mitchell's death Rainey ordered a range of knives.

The jury was also told that Rainey had conducted multiple online searches about Jack the Ripper.

Jurors were told Chloe Mitchell had significant addiction issues and was last seen alive by two of her friends in the company of Rainey in his flat in James Street shortly before her death.

The court also heard that one of her friends later told police that Rainey had made a comment while they were at his flat that he would "love to chop someone up and melt them in the bath" but then claimed he was joking.

When Chloe was discovered to be missing, one of those friends contacted Rainey, who told her she had only stayed about 15 minutes and left after an argument "to go to Belfast to see some fella," the court was told.

Jurors were told that after denying murdering Chloe when interviewed by the PSNI, Rainey later told a male how he killed her in his James Street flat in Ballymena.

Rainey told this male he knew how to cut her up and get rid of her body as he'd watched the TV programme Dexter, the court heard.

Extensive searches were launched by police to try to find Chloe Mitchell.

Her dismembered remains were found by a police officer on 11 June in two bins in James Street.

The jury was shown several pieces of CCTV including footage of a figure in James Street making three short journeys to and from where Chloe's remains were later found.

This footage was recorded at 05:18 on 3 June and showed the figure carrying something bulky.

Russell said it was the Crown's case that the figure on the footage was Rainey and he was "disposing of the body of Chloe" which he placed in the two bins.

Russell then turned to the post mortem on Chloe's remains which was conducted on 13 June.

State pathologist Dr James Lynas concluded that Chloe's death was due to blunt force trauma of the head, possible gagging and stab wounds to her chest.

It was also noted that Chloe had sustained at least 55 stab wounds to the skin surface of her torso, some of which were inflicted before she died and some after.

Revealing the pathologist concluded it was a "complex case", Russell said there was "little doubt she had been the victim of a severe physical assault before her death."