Model Amy 'told friends her boyfriend was a psycho'

Ricardo Morrison had been physically abusing teenager Amy Barnes for months before he finally killed her at the home they shared in Moss Street, Farnworth, on Saturday, November 8, last year, Manchester Crown Court heard. Morrison, aged 22, from Birmingham, denies murder. A jury yesterday heard how Amy, aged 19, had told friends of her boyfriend’s violent outbursts, even on the morning the prosecution say she was killed by him.

She had also confided she was afraid of what he might do if she left him.

The court heard Amy was also having an on-off relationship with Kenneth Brady, a footballer with Northwich Victoria.

Mr Brady told the court Amy had confided in him in the days leading up to her death.

She sent him a text message detailing the alleged abuse at the hands of Morrison, who she referred to as “psycho”.

It said: “You wanna know for the past seven months Ric has been hitting me, locking me in rooms with him so I cannot get out, putting knives to my throat, telling me he is going to kill me, putting his hands over my face and covering my mouth, and he stares at me while I’m struggling to breathe.

“He says if I leave him, he will kill me and then kill himself. He tries to get me to have a baby with him and says if I go out with my friends I might get raped. He threatened my mum and says she made me leave him. I know you do not care, but I have feelings. I’m not just sex on tap. lol.”

Mr Brady said he felt sorry for Amy and arranged to meet her on Saturday night, November 8, in Manchester.

Another footballer, Nathan Eccleston, from Maghull, Merseyside, told the court he first knew of Amy after a night out at the M2 club in Manchester, a haunt of footballers, a week before she died.

She put a “friends request” on his Facebook profile and made contact through text messages throughout the following week.

Amy told him she was single, but her “ex” was a “psycho” who would not leave her alone.

They agreed to meet up on the Saturday afternoon, the day Amy was killed, following “flirtatious” texts and further messages of a “graphic sexual nature,” the court heard.

That morning, Mr Eccleston received text messages from Amy saying: “My psycho ex just punched me and sprayed aerosol in my face and slammed my arm in a door. I can’t stop crying.”

Mr Eccleston phoned Amy less than an hour before she was found dead by her father. Mr Eccleston told the court: “She was upset and sounded like she had been crying. I asked her if she was OK. She said she had just been punched and she was frightened. She said her ex-boyfriend punched her. I asked if she wanted to meet me earlier because she did not want to be in the house when he came back.”

He tried to call Amy later that afternoon when he was in Manchester, but she did not answer.

Amy’s friend, hairdresser Chantelle Perry, was working on the Saturday morning. She received a text message from Amy saying: “Ricardo has just beaten me up, will be full of bruises, my eye and cheek are well red and he sprayed aerosol in my face. Can you talk? Can I call you? Are you free?”

Miss Perry said: “I was dealing with a client and I replied saying I was busy and asked if she was OK. She said she was not OK. As soon as I was free, I tried to phone her, but it kept going to the answering machine.”

Amy also confided in Patricia Rooney, the mother of a friend, on the weekend before she died.

She had known Amy for eight years, and said: “She told me Ricardo Morrison was behaving nastily towards her.

“On occasions when she went out he said he hoped she got raped. She was very upset and we were both crying. She told me of incidents when he threatened her. While living at her grandmother’s they had an argument and she took his mobile phone off him and he threatened to strangle her with the phone charger.

“She hit him on the head and ran out shouting, ‘I want you gone’. After that they made up.

“On a separate occasion, they went to Birmingham and stayed in an apartment. They had an argument and he pushed her outside in her underwear and would not let her in until he wanted to. She said she was worried about leaving him because of what he might do to herself and her mother.”

Janette Kirkman, a lead project worker at Fort Alice, which supports women suffering from domestic abuse, saw Amy on the Monday before she died.

When she asked Amy if she was going to leave him, she said she was not ready and that she loved him very much. Amy got upset and appeared timid and looked vulnerable.

Amy told her about an argument when the couple stayed at her mother’s house in the summer. During the row Morrison held a knife to her throat.

Ms Kirkman said: “Neighbours heard a commotion and he ran outside the house with the knife. The police were called. When her mum came home from holiday, she did not want him in the house any more so they went to live at her grandmother’s.

“During another incident Amy said he gave her a black eye. I said she should consider the safety of her grandmother and she said that he was not violent or abusive in front of others and when in company he portrayed himself as a nice man.”

The court heard Amy made an appointment to return to Fort Alice the following Monday.

Morrison is in the dock with his police officer mother, Melda Wilks, aged 49, of Birmingham, who denies assisting an offender by destroying evidence.