A FATHER has appeared in court in connection with a brutal killing by his daughter 19 years ago.

Edward Adamson, 74, from Hove, stands accused of perverting the course of justice by helping to dispose of a bloody mattress, on which his daughter Julia Adamson stabbed to death her ex-boyfriend Robert Kavanagh at her flat in Hove in 1999.

Mr Kavanagh’s body was only discovered when a dog was seen by its owner chewing a hand. His body had been cut up and discarded in countryside near Bexhill.

Julia Adamson was found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in 2000 after claiming she was repeatedly beaten by Mr Kavanagh.

Her father is now in court in relation to the death following a failed attempt to extradite him from Portugal.

The trial is being heard at Hove Crown Court, where a jury of six men and six women, will decide whether Adamson tried to dispose of the bloodied mattress.

The court heard Julia Adamson, 17 at the time, fatally stabbed Mr Kavanagh in the chest at her flat in Downland Drive, Hove, on June 24 1999. After telling her friend, who was sleeping in the flat at the time, she had just killed her boyfriend, she hid Mr Kavanagh in a cupboard under the stairs.

She then asked another friend if she knew anyone with a car, after showing him Mr Kavanagh’s body, but he did not want to get involved. The prosecution claims at this point she turned to her father for help, who took the mattress in his Volvo to the tip.

The court heard evidence from neighbour Rosemary Backshall, in a written statement, who said she saw two men in blue overalls moving a “pinky” coloured mattress from Julia Adamson’s flat to a car, two days after the killing.

Opening for the prosecution, Richard Milne, told the court: “In plain and simple terms the Crown says the mattress was carried from the house and the Crown says Edward Adamson, and it may not well be an issue, his son Grant Adamson was the other male, carrying the mattress to the car.

“The Crown say how could he not have seen blood staining on that mattress when he carried it.

“And why has he equipped himself with blue overalls unless he knew to come to carry something, which was going to be messy.”

The court heard CCTV showed Adamson’s family car entering the Sheepcote tip in Wilson Avenue, Brighton, on June 27.

Giving evidence from the witness box, tip worker Malcolm Bond said his offer of help to unload the mattress was declined by the man who dropped it off.

He told the court: “The blood on the mattress was excessive. I would not have wanted to lose that much.”

Adamson was arrested after the killing but told police he was taking furniture from his daughter’s flat.He told detectives at the time he did not believe he was doing anything wrong.

Adamson, of Hangleton Valley, Hove, denies one count of perverting the court of justice.

He was arrested in May last year.

The trial continues.