A JURY was this week asked to consider its verdict in the trial of two men accused of taking part in a 'clean up' to cover up the scene of the murder of a Petersfield man. Keith Sims, 51, from Portsmouth, is accused along with Mark McGaughey, 24, from Bordon, of helping to clean up the house where 29-year-old Danny Matthews was killed. Mr Matthews, of Chapel Street, Petersfield, was murdered by Malcolm Carter at Carter's Rival Lodge Farm home in West Harting, West Sussex, on June 3 last year. Carter, 43, stabbed Mr Matthews in the base of the neck with a hunting knife after an altercation between the pair, a jury was told. Carter, who has admitted murder, Graham Palfrey, 46, and allegedly Sims and McGaughey then cleaned the bungalow and burned a green sofa in a bid to hide the killing from police. Following the killing, Carter took the body of Mr Matthews and buried it in woodland at Inholm Wood, near Chichester, West Sussex. Mr Matthews' body remained hidden until September, when Carter led police to the woods and showed them where it lay. Palfrey and his girlfriend, 32-year-old Kirsty Harper, from Petersfield, have already pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. On Wednesday, a hushed Winchester Crown Court heard Judge Michael Broderick sum up the case. Speaking to the jury, Judge Broderick referred to evidence given by Sims during police interviews in which he said he spent the night of June 3 in the cab of his lorry, which was parked in the yard of Rival Lodge Farm. He said Sims claimed he woke up at around 9.30am the morning after the killing and tried to get into the house but there was no answer. He claimed that he then went back to his lorry and cleaned it out, throwing two bags of rubbish onto a bonfire which, the prosecution claims, had been used to burn the green sofa. Judge Broderick said that Sims denied having seen any evidence of the sofa on the fire. He added: "The prosecution say that when you consider all the evidence, in particular some of the things Sims said in interview, that it is safe and proper to conclude that Carter was there and was engaged in a clean up on the morning of June 4. "If you feel sure that Carter was present first thing in the morning then you will have to decide whether you can conclude that Sims must have become aware of what had happened in the early hours." Judge Broderick also referred to a phone call made by Palfrey to Rival Lodge Farm the morning after the murder. The call lasted more than four minutes, which according to the prosecution showed that someone was at home that morning and that the clean up had already begun. But according to Sims, if the phone at the farm is not answered, it is diverted straight through to Palfrey's mother. The court had earlier heard evidence from McGaughey in which he claimed that he found out about the killing but failed to tell police because he feared for his own life. McGaughey, who did odd jobs for Palfrey, said that he went to Rival Lodge Farm on Monday, June 5, and was asked to clean the inside of the silver Jeep Cherokee used to take Mr Matthews' body away. He told the court that when he first arrived at the farm he smelt a strong smell of bleach and confronted Carter about what had happened. He said: "I just noticed a strong smell of bleach and I also noticed that one of the chairs was missing. "I went up to Carter and said 'who have you rubbed out then?' He said, 'you're not stupid are you, Mark?' "I asked him who he had killed and he said, 'Danny.' "I didn't want anything to do with it but I wasn't going to go lurching off because for all I knew I could be next." McGaughey said that he was then asked to clean the fireplace of the house. But he denied that he cleaned it in a bid to remove forensic evidence of the killing. He added: "I can't deny that I may have cleaned some forensic evidence, but I was not intentionally at any time trying to clean off forensic evidence." The court had earlier heard that Sims had been drinking with Carter, Mr Matthews and Palfrey in the Market Inn, Petersfield, earlier on the night of June 3. Palfrey, who lived with Carter, got into a 'minor fracas' with another group of people in the pub and the two rival groups agreed to meet later for a fight. Prosecuting, Michael Parroy QC told the court that just after midnight, Carter, Palfrey, Sims, Mr Matthews and Peter Farrell, who has since died, left the pub in Palfrey's silver Jeep Cherokee car to meet the other men. When the other group failed to turn up the men got back in the jeep and drove back to Rival Lodge Farm. There, Sims went to sleep in his lorry, which was parked in the yard, and the other men went inside the house. Once inside the house an argument broke out between Carter and Mr Matthews. Without warning Carter went into his room and returned with a hunting knife, which he plunged into Mr Matthews' neck. Both Carter and Palfrey were remanded in custody by Judge Michael Broderick to be sentenced at a later date. Sims and McGaughey both deny perverting the course of justice. The trial continues.
