A Coastal man who murdered his flatmate and buried his body in a North-West forest, has lost an appeal against his sentence.
Darren Gale Ward was jailed for 23 years in 2019 for murdering Noel Ingham at a unit in Ulverstone in 2016.
Mr Ingham was missing for four months before his decapitated body was located in November 2016.
During his trial Gale claimed Mr Ingham died when he fell and hit his head.
Fearing he would be blamed for the death, Gale decapitated the body and later threw the head into the Mersey River before burying Mr Ingham’s remains along with his two dogs, which Gale also killed.
He also sent fake texts from Mr Ingham’s phone after the murder and removed the blood-stained carpet from the unit in a bid to conceal the murder.
In a written decision published yesterday, Justice Alan Blow said Gale’s actions after Mr Ingham’s death were incriminating and the only reasonable inference which could be drawn from the evidence is that Gale killed Mr Ingham.
