Helston murder investigation - St Austell man appears in court
4:00pm Friday 22nd June 2012 in News
Helston murder investigation
UPDATE: Friday 3pm. A man has has appeared in court in Truro charged with the muder of 72-year-old pensioner Colin Payne following the discovery of his body at his Helston flat on Father’s Day.
Alexander Channer was brought from Truro Magistrates court to the Truro Crown Court, when he appeared before Mr Justice Butterfield. He made no plea and the hearing was put off to a plea and case management hearing on Sept 14.
UPDATE: A man has been charged with muder following the discovery of the body of 72-year-old pensioner Colin Payne in his Helston flat on Father’s Day.
Alexander Channer, aged 54 years from St Austell has been formally charged with murder and will appear before Truro Magistrates Court this morning, Friday June 22.
UPDATE: A 54-year-old man was arrested in the Nottingham area last night on suspicion of murder. Officers from Devon and Cornwall police will escort him back to the force area today where he will be formally interviewed.
The arrest follows the discovery of the body of a pensioner in his Helston flat on Father’s Day.
Identified as Colin Payne, his body was discovered at his top-floor home in Sanctuary Lane on Sunday at around 7pm by, who neighbours believed, was his son.
MURDERED: Colin Payne (pictured above)
Police cordoned off the scene, but didn’t move the body of the man thought to be in his 70s until around 4pm the following day, while scenes of crimes officers investigated.
A police spokesman said: "Enquiries have been continuing in relation to this investigation including continued forensic examination of the scene. "The deceased can now be formally named as Colin Payne a 72 year old local man from Helston. His family have been informed. "This is now being treated as a murder investigation with an incident room being run from Camborne Police Station. Officers remain keen to speak to anyone who may have seen Colin between May 31 and June 7.
A trusted source has told The Packet that a knot expert had been called to the flat to help with investigations.
The same source said the body could have been left undiscovered for “a week or more”.
One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: “I saw a man; I think it was his son, trying to get into the flat with a ladder but I didn’t think anything of it.”
Another added: “I saw one police car, and then all of a sudden there were five of them and an ambulance. I realised it must be quite serious then. It’s usually a quiet area, this is quite a shock.”
Mr Payne, was described by neighbours as a “friendly man”, who loved to ride his electric bike.
“I didn’t know him that well,” said one neighbour who had lived in the lane for 40 years, “but he was always friendly and would say hello and smile when I saw him. It’s sad, but you don’t really know your neighbours like you used to.”
Another neighbour added “We used to see him on his electric push bike and he had it parked just outside.
“We didn’t really know him, but he was always very friendly. He would always say hi and smile.”
PCSOs knocked on the doors of residents in Sanctuary Lane the night Mr Payne was discovered, scouring for information.
Anyone with any information is asked to call the police on 101 quoting reference 1540 of June 19 2012.
