Lorraine Cox: trial at Exeter Crown Court reaches verdict and finds Azam Mangori guilty of her murder

A man has been convicted of murdering and dismembering a woman who went missing on a night out.

Azam Mangori, 24, killed Lorraine Cox, 32, in his room above an Exeter kebab shop in September last year.

Following a four-week trial at Exeter Crown Court, Mangori, of no fixed address, was convicted of murder by a jury after six hours of deliberations. He had previously admitted a separate charge of preventing Miss Cox’s lawful burial.

Following the guilty verdict, Mr Justice Garnham thanked the jury and said Mangori will be sentenced on Wednesday next week (7 April).

A ‘morbid interest in amputation’

During the trial, the court watched CCTV footage of Mangori encountering Cox in the street. After meeting they had sex in an alleyway, which Mangori recorded on his mobile phone, telling the jury he did so in case she accused him of rape.

Prosecutors said Mangori can be heard on the recording offering Cox money, alcohol and drugs if she goes to his flat – the defendant said he could not remember what he said.

The Iraqi national – a failed asylum seeker liable to deportation – cut Cox’s body into seven pieces with a knife and a saw over the course of a week, wrapped her remains in cling, bin liners and tape and disposed of her clothing and possessions in bins and woodland.

Mangori previously told the jury that in his mind he was cutting up tobacco instead; prosecutors said he cut the body into pieces over a week-long period due to a “morbid interest in amputation”.

Mangori had previously denied murdering Cox, telling Exeter Crown Court on 24 March she died after drinking alcohol and smoking drugs after having sex with him.

The court heard Mangori looked at videos of people with amputations, as well as others with deformities to their legs and one of a woman’s lower leg experiencing cramp.

A post-mortem examination was carried out, but the pathologist was unable to determine a cause of death due to the length of time between the death and the remains being found. She could have been suffocated as the T-shirt she had been wearing was found in her mouth.

After murdering Miss Cox, Mangori used her SIM card in his mobile phone to pretend she was alive and well to family and friends, who reported her missing to the police.

Additional reporting by Press Association