'Drive safe, I love you': murdered Suffolk dog walker Anita Rose's partner describes last phone call
The long-term partner of a woman who died after being attacked while walking her dog has told a court that the last thing she said to him was "drive safe, I love you", in a phone call an hour before she was found.
Lorry driver Richard Jones said he would keep in touch with his partner Anita Rose while he was working away, and that they spoke on the morning she was found injured.
Prosecutors allege that 56-year-old Roy Barclay, who had been “on the run trying to avoid the police… and avoid being recalled back to prison”, killed Ms Rose.
Barclay, of no fixed address, denies her murder and is on trial at Ipswich Crown Court.
Mother-of-six Ms Rose, 57, was found injured by a cyclist in Brantham, Suffolk, at approximately 6.25am on 24 July last year and died four days later of traumatic head injuries.
Mr Jones said he and Ms Rose shared an English springer dog called Bruce, but she would tell him it was his dog when she walked it.
Prosecutor Christopher Paxton said that in a call at 5.24am, Ms Rose told Mr Jones: “I’m walking your bloody dog already.”
Mr Jones said he had been working away at Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire when he called her that morning.
Mr Paxton said: “We know the call lasted just over three minutes.
“What can you remember talking about?”
Mr Jones said: “She asked if I was up ready for work, I said I was but I was running late.
“I said I will phone you when I get there.
“She said ‘drive safe, I love you’.
“That’s the last conversation I had with her.”
Mr Paxton asked how Ms Rose had sounded, and Mr Jones replied: “Fine.”
The court heard Mr Jones made a WhatsApp video call to Ms Rose at 6.15am as he was off-loading his lorry at a Tesco site.
Mr Jones said: “It got answered but there was a black screen.”
He said there was “no sound”, and asked by Mr Paxton if he could hear anything he said: “No, nothing.”
Mr Paxton said: “We know the video call was open for a minute – did you say anything?”
Mr Jones replied: “All I said was ‘Anita, Anita’.”
He said he did not hear anything back.
Judge Martyn Levett asked Mr Jones: “Had that ever happened to you before on a call like that?”
He replied: “No, never.”
Mr Jones said he ended the call, and that a number of further calls that he made to Ms Rose went unanswered.
“I thought it was strange for her not to answer her phone,” he said.
“The night before she puts her phone on charge.”
Mr Jones said he had known Ms Rose since he was a teenager, and he is now “coming up to 60”.
He said they had been in a relationship since 2011 and described Ms Rose as feeling "very safe" in Brantham.
The trial continues.
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