Jurors were yesterday played a 999 call in which a woman confessed to murdering her neighbour and then cutting up his body.

Margaret Heeley told police she had killed 49-year-old John Cogan then dumped his body parts around the Thurnby Lodge area of Leicester.

The 55-year-old defendant, of Flamborough Road, Thurnby Lodge, is on trial at Nottingham Crown Court, where she has denied murder.

The court heard Heeley took Mr Cogan to the house of another neighbour, Mark Postles, on March 10 or 11 last year.

Postles (47) and Heeley are then alleged to have beaten Mr Cogan and fatally stabbed him in the neck before spending the next two weeks trying to dispose of his body.

Jurors were told Heeley then "cracked" and called 999 on the night of March 24.

In the recording played to the court, Heeley said: "Yeah, I have committed murder and I want someone to come round and arrest me.

"A man raped me and I have killed him.

"I have still got the body – well, parts of it."

When she was asked where the body was, she refused to say at first. Then added: "Bits of the body is (sic) all over the place. Around Thurnby Lodge."

She then said parts of the body were at Postles' house, but that he was not aware of them.

Heeley confessed she had been moving parts of the body for days.

Yvonne Coen QC, prosecuting, said: "The police did not know what to make of this extraordinary confession at first."

Pc James Boyall-Love, one of the first officers to arrive at Heeley's home, said she was drunk, listening to reggae music and smoking.

The officer said Heeley had made a cut-throat motion when she was asked how she killed Mr Cogan before hitting her chest to demonstrate stabbing.

He said: "She followed up by saying she wasn't going to tell us where the body parts were.

"We were still a bit confused and we didn't believe there was an offence at this time.

"She had a slight smirk and smile on her face."

Pc Boyall-Love said she then told them Mr Cogan's arms and legs were in a brook, off Thurncourt Road. However, they were eventually discovered wrapped in bin bags in an alley near the houses.

Pc Boyall-Love said when he was then told colleagues had searched a neighbouring garden and found a body, he arrested her. He said: "Her face looked to be one of relief that it was all over."

The court was also shown CCTV, allegedly of Postles going into a Wilkinson's store earlier that day and spending £37.63 on saws, a knife, gloves and a dust mask which the prosecution says were for dismembering Mr Cogan's body.

Postles also denies murder.

The trial continues.