A police officer has described the moment he discovered a dismembered body partially buried under a DIY patio.

Pc Ben Orton told jurors how he made the grisly find in the back garden of a bungalow in Thurnby Lodge, Leicester.

Officers were called by 55-year-old Margaret Heeley, who told them she had killed a man and cut up his corpse after he raped her.

They went round to her home in Flamborough Road on the night of March 24 last year, when she told them victim John Cogan's body was in the garden of a neighbouring property.

Both Heeley and her 47-year-old neighbour, Mark Postles, are on trial at Nottingham Crown Court, where they deny murdering Mr Cogan.

Yesterday, Pc Ben Orton told the court he was one of the officers called to Flamborough Road after Heeley phoned 999 to confess to the killing.

As the beat bobby for the area, he said he already knew Heeley and initially doubted there had been a murder as, at first, she refused to say where Mr Cogan's remains were.

He said: "I had my suspicions this wasn't quite as reported and why she didn't just tell officers where he was.

"To her, it was some sort of game."

Pc Orton said Heeley promised to tell them where the body was in exchange for a cigarette. He said Heeley then gestured next door.

He said: "It completely shocked me. I went next door."

Pc Orton said he climbed up on an abandoned television set to look over the fence into Postles' garden.

He said: "Directly below was what I would describe as a DIY patio. I immediately suspected that this was what she (Heeley) meant.

"I saw several concrete paving slabs looking uneven and a mound of polythene.

"I moved one of the slabs and lifted the polythene. I saw what looked like a bloody stump."

"I saw a torso and the back of the head, which was face down in the dirt."

He said there was a strong smell of bleach and that he discovered kitchen roll covered in blood in a nearby bin.

Mr Cogan's legs and an arm were found nearby in an alley at the back of the garden, and both Heeley and Postles were arrested.

Pc Orton's colleague, Pc Susan Oakes, told the court: "She (Heeley) said her friend Mark had helped her dispose of the body, but not to kill him."

Forensic scientist James Howarth examined the grave and said there was evidence that petrol might have been used to try to burn the body.

He said: "A small, very localised fire had occurred in the vicinity of the grave.

"A flammable liquid had been used in an attempt to destroy the remains of John Cogan in a fire."

The trial continues.