Man Accused Of Stevenage Murder

12 April 2011, 15:52 | Updated: 12 April 2011, 16:08

A man has gone on trial accused of murdering a 24-year-old woman from Stevenage and hiding her remains in a garden bin.

Robert Chalmers is accused of killing Samantha Wright, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in Edinburgh in June 2008 and concealing her body for more than a year until it was found in October 2009.

It is alleged he attempted to dismember Miss Wright by cutting her neck and body with a knife, or something similar, before placing her in a garden bin covered with foliage.

Chalmers, from Edinburgh, is accused of assaulting Miss Wright "by means unknown'' which resulted in her death.

Prosecutors claim he murdered her at a house in Magdalene Drive in Duddingston, Edinburgh, on June 12 or 13 in 2008.

He went on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh today after the jury was sworn in.

Chalmers, 59, denies all charges against him and lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming another man who was named as Vasile Ungureanu.