South Yorkshire man accused of murder searched for 'ways to commit the perfect murder' on internet

Gary Allen, aged 47, is alleged to have murdered Alena Grlakova, 38, after she repeatedly turned up at his flat in Bradbury Close, Parkgate, Rotherham, on Boxing Day 2018.

CCTV footage played at Sheffield Crown Court showed Mrs Grlakova going to Allen's flat on a number of occasions that day and Allen could be heard making threats to ‘beat her’ if she went round again.

Mrs Grlakova, a mum-of-three, was last seen alive that day.

Her naked body was found in a nearby stream on April 8, 2019 and a post-mortem revealed she had been strangled.

Allen is on trial accused of her murder and the murder of Samantha Class in Hull in October 1997.

Both women were sex workers.

It is alleged that Allen, who first met Mrs Grlakova in October 2018 after she had separated from her husband and turned to drugs and sex work, murdered her in his flat late on Boxing Day night or in the early hours of December 27.

The prosecution alleges that Allen left his home for two hours between 1.17am and 3.21am on December 28, when he could have deposited Mrs Grlakova's body, before returning to the flat where he searched for duvets and quilts online.

Later that day he also bought cleaning products from Asda and was seen returning home again, before leaving the flat to deposit something in a bin in the street.

Mrs Grlakova's dismembered body was found in the Old Slaugh stream by a police offer who could smell ‘decomposing flesh’.

Alistair MacDonald, prosecuting, said: “It is the Crown’s case that all the evidence tells us that Alena was strangled, that her body was deposited, naked, in the Old Slaugh in a place where detection would be difficult, as proved to be the case. This was no accidental death.”

Allen was arrested on April 10, 2019 - two days after Mrs Grlakova's body was discovered.

A search of his flat was carried out and a broken mobile phone was recovered.

Analysis revealed a series of images of dead females in circumstances similar to those in which Mrs Grlakova's body was found.

Mr MacDonald said: “A number of highly pertinent web searches had also been found on that telephone. A search had been made for ‘ways to commit perfect murder’ which produced a web response about most common traits of serial killers.

“A search had been made for ‘murdered female’ which produced a response about girls attacked when sleeping. It has not been possible to date these web searches.”

The court previously heard Allen had a ‘strong dislike of sex workers’.

Ms Class' body was found by schoolchildren walking on the foreshore in North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, in October 1997.

Jurors were told Allen was acquitted of Ms Class's murder but ‘significantly more evidence’ had since emerged.

Mr MacDonald said: “Can it be a coincidence that Gary Allen had contact with two murdered sex workers shortly before their deaths in places as far apart as Parkgate in Rotherham and in Hull so shortly before they were brutally killed? The Crown says that there is nothing coincidental about any of this.”

Allen denies two counts of murder.

The trial continues.

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