A man accused of murdering his ex-partner said he “was not thinking right” when he left her body near a lay-by after she died, a court has heard.

Darren Hall said he “just panicked” after Sarah Henshaw died following a fall down the stairs during an argument on 20 June this year.

He then moved her body more than 20 miles from her home in the Derbyshire town of Ilkeston to a lay-by on the A617 near Chesterfield, where he left her in some woodland.

Giving evidence at Derby Crown Court, Hall told jurors he did not murder Ms Henshaw, but did move her body and lie to friends and family after her death, suggesting instead she had gone missing.

When questioned by his lawyer Andrew Vout KC, Hall said he and Ms Henshaw, 31, had been arguing on the night in question, and he had been accused of not being faithful to her before he got up to go downstairs at her home on Norman Street.

Sobbing in the dock, Hall said: “As I got to the top of the stairs, she goes to push me downstairs.

“I don’t think she was doing it to push me down the stairs, she has got her hand on my back saying, ‘Go on, get out’.

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“I put my right hand out to brace myself and she pushed a bit harder, I swung my left arm back out at her and as I turned around she was already falling down the stairs.

“I just saw her fall head first. It was so quick, it was like I blinked and then she was at the bottom, it was so quick.

“She was not moving, she was just in a pile at the bottom of the stairs.”

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He added he was not trying to push or harm Ms Henshaw, and her fall happened in a “nanosecond”.

Hall said he knew she was dead but did not call for help, over fears he would be accused of murder.

Data from Hall’s phone showed he drove to the westbound lay-by, which he said he chose at random due to being in “such a panic”, stopped for nine minutes, and dumped her body without hiding it, adding he was “not thinking right”.

He said “there is no real, reasonable reason” why he moved her body, which was not found until 26 June.

The carpet fitter admitted to using Ms Henshaw’s phone to text a friend to make it “seem like she was still okay”, before he threw it out of the window of his work van on the drive back to his house, later sending messages to the discarded device to “try and make out as if she had just left”.

The pair met in 2011 and separated in 2017, before getting back together in 2022. Their relationship became strained earlier this year.

Hall said he was “so sorry to everyone” and felt “horrible” for lying to friends, family, and the police.

The Crown say Hall “callously dumped” Ms Henshaw’s body in the lay-by after killing her, further accusing him of letting himself into her property that afternoon and staying, despite being asked to leave.

When cross-examined by Michelle Heely KC, Hall denied he was violent to Ms Henshaw, and he did not leave the house as he was living there at the time, rather than his home on Rodney Way.

The Crown admits it does not know how Ms Henshaw died, but accuses Hall of strangling her during a struggle – something he denies.

The trial, before Mr Justice Goss, continues.

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