A 66-year-old man has pleaded guilty to murdering Patricia Lashley, a mother of seven, in 1998, after admitting to police that he kept her decomposed body in a cellar before disposing of it in a wheelie bin months later. Trevor Dunkley, of Himley Road, Dudley, also admitted preventing her lawful burial. The case relied entirely on his own admissions during police interviews, as Ms Lashley's body was never recovered and there was no other evidence of what had happened to her.

Dunkley appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court, where his barrister told the judge the skeleton was disposed of in the bins when Dunkley moved house roughly nine months to a year after her death. Ms Lashley, who was last seen near her home on Hall Street, Dudley, in September 1998, was known locally as Pat or Jade and had links to London, Newcastle, Wales and Scotland; her family made a fresh appeal to trace her in 2017, before knowing what had happened. Dunkley was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on 6 November.