Scott Walker killed his ex-partner’s daughter Bernadette Walker, whose body has never been found.
image copyrightCambridgeshire Police
A man has been found guilty of murdering a teenage girl who called him her father, after she claimed he had sexually abused her.
Bernadette Walker, 17, told her mother in July 2020 Scott Walker had been abusing her “over a number of years”, Cambridge Crown Court heard.
Bernadette is presumed dead but her body had never been found.
The trial heard Walker, 51, and Sarah Walker, 38 formed an “unholy alliance” to cover up her death.
Scott Walker was also found guilty of two counts of perverting the course of justice.
image copyrightCambridgeshire Police
image copyrightScott Walker
Sarah Walker admitted two counts of perverting the course of justice by sending messages from Bernadette’s phone after she was last seen alive and by providing false information to the police relating to her disappearance.
She denies two counts of perverting the course of justice “knowing or believing” Bernadette to be dead, and jurors are continuing their deliberations on those two counts after the judge gave them a majority direction.
Bernadette was last seen when Scott Walker collected her from his parents’ home in Peterborough.
image copyrightTerry-Harris.com
Prosecutor Lisa Wilding QC said on 16 July last year, Bernadette, also known as Bee, told her mother Walker “had been sexually abusing her over a number of years”.
“Sarah Walker told Bernadette that she did not believe her,” said Ms Wilding.
“The following day, it was decided that Bernadette should go and spend the night with her paternal grandparents while things calmed down a little.”
The court heard she disappeared on 18 July, the day Walker picked her up, and since then she had not used her telephone or social media accounts, had no money and had not accessed banking, or been seen at any hospital or surgery.
image copyrightCambridgeshire Police
Ms Wilding said Bernadette was “presumed dead”, adding: “The prosecution allege that Scott Walker killed Bee to prevent her pursuing her allegations of sexual abuse any further.”
She said Mr Walker’s phone was off between 11:23 BST and 12:54 on 18 July and “the prosecution say that in that hour and a half he killed Bee”.
She said the first call he made, lasting nine minutes, was to Ms Walker.
“The only sensible conclusion that can be drawn from that telephone call is that Scott Walker told his wife that he had killed Bernadette and needed her help, immediately, to cover up Bee’s disappearance and death, and to buy them both time to work out what should happen next,” said Ms Wilding.
“From that moment on, Scott and Sarah Walker – Bee’s own mother and father – were joined, the prosecution say, in an unholy alliance, designed and intended to mislead, to divert and to pervert the inevitable investigation into the disappearance and ultimately the death of Bee Walker.”
image copyrightJoe Giddens/PA Media
The court was told the parents “hacked” into Bernadette’s social media accounts and pretended to be her to friends and family.
“They lied to everyone around them… about her disappearance and they were unflinching in their pursuit of their devious, wicked plan,” said Ms Wilding.
“All parental love and responsibility was gone, if ever it actually existed.”
During the trial, the prosecution said Scott Walker made repeated visits to a lock-up garage and a late-night journey to rural Fenland which could have given him opportunities to dispose of Bernadette’s body.
Sarah Walker was not married to Scott Walker but had changed her surname to Walker by deed poll.
At the time of Bernadette’s disappearance, Scott and Sarah Walker were living at the same address but Sarah Walker was in a relationship with another man.
A sentencing date has been set for 10 September.
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