THE decomposed body of a drug dealer was found during a police search for the missing man at a house in Stafford, jurors were told.
Crack and heroin pusher Mark Carroll met "a violent death" at the home of murder-accused Simon Taylor in January last year, but his body lay rotting in an upstairs bedroom for over two months.
The grisly discovery, on 29 March led to the arrest of Taylor, a voracious drug addict who had been letting Mr Carroll stay at his house in Marston Road in exchange for drugs.
Mr Andrew Lockhart QC, prosecuting, said Mr Carroll's body was so badly decomposed it had been difficult to determine the exact cause of death, but a pathologist had found the deceased suffered "severe injuries" to his larynx.
There was no dispute that Mr Carroll, who was 35, had been killed in a violent attack in the early hours of 23 January.
"We can't say exactly what happened in the early hours, but it is the Crown's case that the defendant killed Mark Carroll, in all likelihood because he was desperate for drugs and he killed him by causing a very substantial injury to his neck and leaving him to die of his injuries," alleged Mr Lockhart.
Taylor, aged 36, of Marston Road Stafford denies a charge of murder.
Mr Lockhart warned the jury at the start of the trial at Stafford crown court that they would be delving into "the murky world of drug dealers and drug users and their chaotic lives in the early part of 2011. Some of them might still be taking drugs.
One of the witnesses would be Micky Revins, Mr Carroll's "partner" in a crack cocaine and heroin business. Taylor, who had a £400 a week habit, was one of their 'customers'. He allowed Mr Carroll to stay at his house in exchange for "a modest amount of drugs".
On the night Mr Carroll was killed, he had been out selling drugs in Stafford, but then decided to "shut up shop" and went back to Marston Road to watch Match of the Day.
The last person to see Mr Carroll alive apart from the defendant was Amy Dodd, who went round to the house as a result of a request to purchase drugs.
"It was plain to her that this defendant was very keen on getting drugs and he was short of funds. She shared drugs with Mark Carroll and then she left. She never saw or heard of him again.
"It was some time before dawn that this defendant murdered Mr Carroll, exactly how it is hard to say, for he told no-one of the death and the body wasn't found for two months by reason of what this defendant did or didn't do," claimed Mr Lockhart.
The following day, 23 January, people were looking for Mr Carroll, either to buy drugs or pay debts, or in the case of his friend Mr Revins, to find out what had happened to him.
"This defendant began to weave a web of lies about what happened and where he had last seen Mr Carroll." He initially maintained that the victim had been at his house, but had left around 5.30am - but that was "a lie".
No-one saw or heard of the victim over the next few weeks and Taylor was quizzed again by police and again lied.
The inquiries dragged on until the end of March when police went to the house in Marston Road and made a search. The body was found in an upstairs bedroom.
Confronted with the discovery, Taylor gave a different version of events. He said around 5.30am three men came to the house asking to see Mr Carroll.
They barged in and went upstairs; there was a commotion and they left. Taylor said he went upstairs to find Mr Carroll fighting for his life, bleeding heavily from a wound to the eye, and he died. Taylor said he panicked and told no-one.
Mr Lockhart told the jury that Mr Carroll had been attacked - but that was on Christmas Eve. The men who attacked him would be giving evidence in the trial and there was no suggestion that they were involved in what happened to Mr Carroll on 23 January.
There was "no shred" of evidence that three men came to the house that night to kill Mr Carroll.
Mr Lockhart told the jury: "There will be no issue Mr Carroll was killed in a violent attack: the issue will be who carried out that attack. Was it this defendant, perhaps desperate for a fix he couldn't get, or was it an unknown and unnamed gang of men who came to the house and disappeared off the face of the earth?"
The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.
