The Portslade man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend, 19-year-old Shana Grice, told a jury that he found her dead and then went and checked his lottery ticket.
Michael Lane, 27, of Thornhill Rise, Mile Oak, told the jury at Lewes Crown Court that he didn’t check whether Miss Grice was alive.
He didn’t dial 999, call for help or tell a single soul, he said yesterday (Friday 17 March) from the witness box in answer to questions from his barrister Simon Russell Flint.
Instead he went and checked his lottery ticket, bought some water and dumped his trainers, having found Miss Grice’s blood on them. But he was spotted and reported.
Lane also got rid of the t-shirt that he had been wearing. After going home for a shower, he went to the dentist in Hangleton and then to work at Setyres in Burgess Hill.
At the start of his evidence Lane was asked straight out by Mr Russell Flint whether he murdered Shana Grice. He said: “No.”
Mr Russell Flint asked Lane what he saw when he went into the bedroom of Miss Grice’s home in Chrisdory Road, Mile Oak, on the morning of Thursday 25 August last year.
Lane said: “I saw her slumped against the bed. Her back was against the side of the bed.”
Mr Russell Flint asked: “How did she seem?”
Lane said: “She wasn’t moving.”
Mr Russell Flint asked: “Did you see anything?”
Lane said: “I saw blood on the bed and blood on the floor.”
Mr Russell Flint asked: “What did you think?”
Lane said: “I thought she was dead.”
Mr Russell Flint asked: “What did you do?”
Lane said: “I didn’t know what to do.”
