Labourer guilty of killing mother-of-two he buried in shallow grave

A man has been found guilty of killing a mother-of-two whose body was found in a shallow grave in woodland near Coventry.

Reanne Coulson was heard screaming and crying for help five weeks before she was discovered near a bridleway, Warwick Crown Court heard.

Mohammed Durnion, 42, did not murder her, jurors concluded. But they found him guilty of manslaughter.

Durnion claimed Ms Coulson died from a drugs overdose after an argument on 21 May last year.

But prosecutors told the court he strangled the 33-year-old in a deliberate attack and feigned a mental health crisis when police arrived at his flat in Paynes Lane, Coventry, after a neighbour heard screaming and called 999.

Officers searched the property using a torch from a mobile phone but didn't find Ms Coulson's body - which is believed to have been hidden under a mattress.

Durnion, a labourer, moved Ms Coulson after police left and she was found in Binley Woods a month later. She had been partially set alight with petrol.

A witness later saw the killer smirking and carrying a suitcase he had used to move the body.

Durnion was arrested on 24 June and initially refused to talk, but led police to the burial site three days later after being shown footage of her family's appeal.

Video shows him pointing to undergrowth and telling officers, "she is under there" and saying the body is "deep enough".

Adam Moore, 39, Durnion's friend, was also found guilty of assisting an offender by helping hide the corpse in the woods.

The trial was told Ms Coulson, a sex worker who was 5ft 1in and under nine stone, had was last seen on 21 May after going to a support group at a Catholic church where she seemed well.

Her family raised the alarm after she failed to make contact with them on her birthday on 17 June.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray KC said the killing was a "deliberate attack by a powerfully built man, on a vulnerable and defenceless woman who he had taken back to his address".

He said evidence suggested the attack happened within a minute of Durnion arriving at the flat.

"The police did not find her body because he hid her and then he threw the uniformed officers off the scent," he added.

Detective Inspector Nigel Box, of West Midlands Police, said officers were "heartbroken" for Ms Coulson's family.

"Reanne was a mother, she was an auntie, she was a sister, she was a daughter, and our heart goes out to the family," he said.

The force said its professional standards department was reviewing the search of the flat and said it had "expressed our regret" to Ms Coulson's family over the failure to find her body.

Both defendants will be sentenced on Thursday.

(c) Sky News 2026: Labourer guilty of killing mother-of-two he buried in shallow grave