Murderer returned to forest to show police where mother-of-two’s body buried

Andrew Burfield, 51, was jailed for life at Preston Crown Court on Thursday for the murder of Katie Kenyon.

Screengrab taken from body-worn video footage of police officers taking Andrew Burfield, wearing a white forensic suit, to the murder scene (Lancashire Police/PA) (PA Media)

A murderer who buried his ex-girlfriend in a makeshift grave returned to the scene to show police where her body was after claiming he had killed her accidentally.

Andrew Burfield, 51, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years at Preston Crown Court on Thursday for the murder of Katie Kenyon.

Burfield killed Miss Kenyon on April 22 but her body was not recovered until a week later, when he showed officers where he had buried her.

Video footage released by Lancashire Constabulary showed Burfield taking officers to the location in Gisburn Forest, Lancashire.

He is shown being produced from HMP Preston, wearing a blue and yellow T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms.

Wearing handcuffs and sitting in a van with police officers to the front and side of him, Burfield is seen pointing out a sign for the Forest of Bowland and giving directions.

Footage from a helicopter shows the police van driving down a road through the forested area, before turning back on itself.

Later footage from a body-worn camera shows Burfield, dressed in a white forensic suit, walking with police officers through the forest, which has crime scene tape stretched between trees.

He tells police: “This is where it begins.”

Burfield then sits down on the area of land where she was buried.

The court heard Burfield had dug the grave the night before he killed Miss Kenyon.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Goose said: “You dug a very precise and tidy makeshift grave before you returned home to Burnley.”

He continued: “You took an axe as well as the spade that you used to dig the grave.

“You parked up in a layby, carrying a cool box to pretend you were there for some refreshments.

“There you attacked her, striking her to the head and side of her face.

“There were at least 12 heavy blows with the axe.”

After killing Miss Kenyon, Burfield sent messages to her children and himself from her phone, pretending to be her, and denied knowledge of her whereabouts.

In interview footage released by police he is asked where she is and tells officers: “I think she’s at a rehab centre or some sort of clinic.”

In a later interview, he admitted causing her death but claimed he had accidentally killed her when attempting to throw an axe at a tree.

He continued to deny murder until the third day of his trial, when he changed his plea to guilty.