A man has been found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of a woman whose body was discovered in a wooded grave after neighbors reported hearing screams and contacting the authorities.
Mohammed Durnion strangled Reanne Coulson, a mother of two, at his residence in Coventry on May 21 of the previous year. He then placed her body in a suitcase and buried her in a shallow grave in Binley Woods, four miles away. Her remains were not located until June 27, over three weeks after her death.
Following more than 10 hours of deliberation over four days, a jury at Warwick Crown Court acquitted Mohammed Durnion of murder but convicted him of manslaughter by an 11-1 majority verdict.
Additionally, his co-defendant and friend, Adam Moore, aged 39, was found guilty by an 11-1 majority verdict of assisting an offender by participating in the disposal of Reanne Coulson’s body the day after she was strangled. Durnion received the verdict calmly as it was delivered in court.
The jury’s decision was reached shortly after Judge Kristina Montgomery KC provided a majority direction to the seven women and five men on the panel.
A neighbor had reported hearing Reanne screaming and asking for help weeks before her body was discovered. Despite a search of Durnion’s flat at the time, her body was not found. Durnion later admitted to concealing her body under a mattress.
During the trial, Durnion, aged 42, claimed that Reanne had died from an overdose following an argument at his flat. He confessed to placing her in a suitcase and transporting her to the woodland out of fear of being implicated in her death.
Prosecutors alleged that Durnion had fatally assaulted Reanne in a premeditated manner before feigning a mental health crisis upon the arrival of the police. He was captured on police video footage indicating the location where he had buried the victim, stating, “under there.”
In the video, Durnion is asked about the depth of the burial, to which he responded, “Deep enough,” explaining that he had used a shovel to dig the grave.
Durnion is set to be sentenced at a later date.
