Dad and daughter who dumped body in canal convicted

A disabled man and his daughter have been convicted after a sex worker was murdered and her body was dumped in a canal.

Chereiss Bailey was found dead near a waterway off Ryders Green Road in West Bromwich in October last year.

John Anslow, 65, assaulted Bailey in his home, before he and his daughter, Hayley-Marie Ferguson, 42, moved her body in a wheelchair and used a washing line with paving slabs attached, to submerge it in the water, police said.

Anslow had denied murder but was found guilty following a three-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court. Ferguson was found guilty of assisting an offender and preventing a lawful and decent burial, a charge Anslow had already pleaded guilty to.

They are due to be sentenced at a later date.

Warning: This story contains details which some people may find distressing

On the opening day of the trial, the court heard Bailey was last seen on the afternoon of 27 September.

Police said CCTV footage revealed Bailey had entered Anslow's home on Stour Street in West Bromwich on that day, after the pair met on Great Bridge Street.

West Midlands Police said her body was later found on 7 October.

Opening the case, prosecutor Michael Duck KC told the court the victim was a vulnerable individual who lived alone in Tipton, and had been leading "something of a chaotic lifestyle".

She had occasionally been a sex worker in the area, Duck said.

He added that while it was not clear exactly what happened inside Anslow's property, the evidence suggested he had attacked her inside his bedroom.

"During that attack she sustained a number of facial fractures, bruising to many parts of her body [and] was ultimately strangled and very likely bitten to intimate parts of her body", Duck said.

Police said the assault led to her death and described how the following morning, Anslow had cancelled his community carers and called his daughter for help.

Ferguson travelled to her father's address in a taxi with slabs and claimed she was helping in him with his garden, the West Midlands force added.

The 42-year-old returned in the early hours of 29 September when the pair were caught on CCTV as they moved Bailey's body in Anslow's "distinctive wheelchair", police said.

The force added that the father and daughter then dumped the victim's body in the canal known locally as "eight locks".

In a tribute, Bailey's family said: "Chereiss was a much-loved daughter, sister, mother, auntie, granddaughter and friend.

"She had a huge personality, a beautiful heart and a way of making her presence known wherever she went."

They added that "her little boy had been robbed of growing up with his mum beside him", but said they would make sure he grew up knowing "how much she adored him".

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