A woman murdered a man she claimed raped her before trying to cover it up by dismembering his body with the help of a friend, a court has heard.

Police discovered the remains of 49-year-old John Cogan in a shallow grave in the back garden of a bungalow.

Margaret Heeley had called 999 earlier to confess to stabbing him and slashing his throat.

Heeley (55), of Flamborough Road, Thurnby Lodge, Leicester, is accused of murdering Mr Cogan on March 10 or 11 last year and then trying to dispose of his corpse over the next two weeks by burning, then cutting it up.

Heeley's neighbour, Mark Postles (47) is jointly accused of the murder. They denied the charge when they appeared at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday.

Yvonne Coen QC, prosecuting, told jurors the drunken pair killed Mr Cogan, also of Flamborough Road, in Postles' living room but then unsuccessfully tried to get rid of his body.

They had attempted to bury him but could dig only a shallow trough because the ground was too hard.

The pair also tried unsuccessfully to burn the body, before choosing to cut it up.

The court heard Mr Cogan's body was dismembered and body parts dumped in an alleyway.

Ms Coen said: "On the day they started this grisly exercise it became too big a secret for Margaret Heeley. She cracked first and told police she killed Mr Cogan."

The court heard Heeley had told Postles that Mr Cogan had raped her in the January before he was killed and also three years before that.

Ms Coen said Postles seemed to have "enacted a terrible summary justice".

The jury heard Mr Cogan was beaten, possibly with a walking stick, and stabbed in the neck, chest and back.

Ms Coen said the victim had so much alcohol in his system he would not have been able to put up "much of a fight".

She said: "It's not possible to say who struck which blow in the attack and who did what after the killing, but the prosecution doesn't have to. The prosecution's case is they were in it together –it was a joint offence and a joint cover-up."

Heeley originally told police Postles knew nothing about Mr Cogan's death and that she had used his garden to get the body out of the way without his knowledge.

She then changed her story, saying Postles forced her into disposing of the body and had kept her prisoner in her home.

When police discovered Mr Cogan's remains under plastic sheeting in Postles' garden and arrested him, he told officers: "I am not a bad person.

"You found what you found. Nothing to say, I put it there."

The court heard Postles went on to admit to police that he stabbed Mr Cogan in the back in self-defence and was then holding a knife to his unconscious victim's throat when Heeley grabbed it and caused the fatal injury.

Ms Coen said: "Even now neither of them neither of them wants to admit the full awfulness of what they have done. What they have done is what lots of people do. They have blamed each other."

The court also heard that after Postles collected his benefits on March 24, he was recorded on CCTV in Wilkinson's, on Uppingham Road, buying gloves, a dust mask, saws, a spade and knives.

He was also seen buying a bottle of whisky from the nearby Co-op store on the same day. The trial continues.