Killer disposed of soft targets, court told

A lorry driver murdered two young mothers, whose bodies have never been found, because they were from the fringes of society and he did not think anyone would bother to look for them, a court heard yesterday.

Xiao-Mei Guo, 29, an illegal Chinese immigrant who sold pirate DVDs, and Bonnie Barrett, 24, a prostitute, disappeared a year ago, three weeks apart and half a mile from each other in Whitechapel, east London. Derek Brown, 47, denies the murders.

Brian Altman, for the prosecution, said Mr Brown "lured each woman back to his flat," and, "following a murderous attack", disposed of their bodies. He added: "Both women lived on the edge of society and both were soft targets for a killer who thought neither would be missed or whose disappearance would trigger a massive police hunt. He was wrong." The Old Bailey heard that Ms Guo, who had two children, was the first to disappear, on 29 August. She met Mr Brown in Whitechapel Market and went back to his flat in Rotherhithe, south-east London, never to be seen again. Three weeks later, on 18 September, Ms Barrett, a crack cocaine addict who financed her habit through prostitution, also went missing.

Mr Altman said: "These two young women disappeared from the east of London and off the face of the Earth. Not only has each not been seen or heard from again, neither woman's body has been recovered, despite a massive police investigation in to each of these disappearances.

"Save for the evidence you are going to hear about in this case which links them together they were both entirely unconnected with each other. Evidence of both a direct and substantial nature links the disappearance of both young women to this defendant, Derek Brown."

The jury, of five women and seven men, was told that Mr Brown, who has three children, had recently separated from his long-term partner and was a habitual user of prostitutes. Originally from Preston, Lancashire, he worked as a nightshift lorry driver, delivering newspapers.

Ms Guo came to Britain in August 2006, leaving her children, aged 11 and 12, in China. She and her husband had paid a Chinese mafia organisation known as the Snakeheads "a considerable amount of money" to get them to the UK, but they had no outstanding debts with the gang.

They lived in a small, shared, rented flat. To make money the pair sold counterfeit DVDs on the streets of Whitechapel. Mr Altman described their marriage as "a happy one, by all accounts".

At the time she went missing, Ms Guo's husband was in prison, serving a sentence for selling the DVDs, and was not released until two weeks after her disappearance. She was reported missing by a friend on 4 September, six days after she was last seen.

Ms Barrett lived in a flat in Newham, east London, with a male friend and had recently separated from her partner, with whom she had a six-year-old son. She worked as a prostitute in the Whitechapel area. In the sex workers' trade she was known as a "clipper", a woman who agreed to sex, but stole the money and ran.

The court was told she had gone missing before, for short periods, but that her disappearance on 18 September was "out of character".

The trial continues.