A MURDER suspect ran into a pub and asked stunned drinkers for help moments after his girlfriend fell from a multi-storey car park roof, a court heard yesterday.
Shaun Foley, 45, from Torquay, Devon, ran into the pub saying his girlfriend Teresa Parkin, 29, originally from Colburn, North Yorkshire, had fallen 80ft.
Mr Foley and two men from the pub in Torquay searched the Fleet Walk car park for Ms Parkin, after the incident on June 10, last year.
Mr Foley, who has been charged with murder, denies pushing Ms Parkin from the car park’s ninth floor.
He is on trial at Exeter Crown Court, but said she committed suicide because she was so depressed about access to her ten-year-old son.
Former firefighter Keith Blackburn told the jury he was in the Green Ginger pub with a friend when Mr Foley walked in.
He said that after making the frantic appeal for help, he and another man followed Mr Foley out of the pub to the car park.
Mr Blackburn said: “His speed was such that I could not keep up with him. He did not have a route and it was manic; absolutely manic. He seemed to be trying to get away from me.”
Mr Foley ran up ramps in the car park and backtracked along his route several times.
Mr Blackburn said he called on the accused to stop.
He said Mr Foley then stopped and stared at him aggressively, before he swore at him and then threw his mobile phone at him.
Mr Blackburn said the phone smashed at his feet, then Mr Foley ran away from him and the other man.
Mr Foley was not seen by them again and they resumed their search for the missing woman.
They found Ms Parkin’s body on the floor of a courtyard on the opposite side of the car park.
The final moments before Ms Parkin fell from the bridge were not captured on the car park’s security camera.
Mr Foley, of Rock Road, Torquay, is yet to give evidence.
The trial continues.
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