Мать, помогавшая отцу утилизировать тело жертвы убийства, получила татуировку «Семья — это сила»

"Family is power", those are the words etched into callous mum Hayley-marie Ferguson's back as part of an elaborate Peaky Blinders tattoo. If her Facebook page is to be believed she had the artwork plastered on to her days after she helped her father John Anslow dump his murder victim in a canal in West Bromwich. The brutal killing of 36-year-old Chereiss Bailey and the weighing down of her naked body with paving slabs to conceal it beneath the water is one of the darkest homicide cases to have ever taken place in the Midlands. READ MORE: Last moment mum seen alive before murdered body was wheelchaired to canal ‌ But the antics of 42-year-old Ferguson during her trial at Birmingham Crown Court became a subplot all of their own. They began on the first day when, whilst wearing an eye-catching pink outfit, she appeared terrified at the arrival of her father next to her in the dock, escorted by several custody officers who pushed him in his wheelchair. The next day, when the prosecution was part through opening their case, Ferguson was a no-show. Judge Simon Drew swiftly issued a warrant for her arrest. Police soon tracked her down to her home and her barrister told the court she was in 'enormous pain' and awaiting spinal surgery. ‌ Upon arrival Ferguson was practically frogmarched into the dock and was unceremoniously searched in front of the awaiting public gallery. Again, she turned her back on Anslow. Judge Drew revoked her bail and remanded her into custody for the remainder of the trial. The full horror of the dad and daughter's actions was laid bare before the jury. ‌ According to the prosecution Ms Bailey had lived a 'chaotic lifestyle', including operating as a sex worker, they said. She was last seen alive pushing Anslow in his wheelchair near his home in Stour Street, West Bromwich on September 27 last year. He posed as someone who was significantly disabled. In reality he was a predator hiding in plain sight who had previously been jailed for raping teenagers. Anslow brutally killed Ms Bailey at his bungalow that night, leaving her with a broken face, bruises and bite marks to her body. She had also been strangled. ‌ On the morning of September 28 he called Ferguson, who arrived in a taxi bringing with her paving slabs from her own address. It is believed they carried out an initial cleanup of the scene, before Ferguson returned home. That night she attended a Peaky Blinders themed event at Planet Ice in Coventry like nothing had happened. ‌ After she got home she uploaded pictures of herself to Facebook, gleefully posing in her fancy dress costume. She also made Google searches about whether bite marks could be detected on a body submerged in the water. Ferguson returned to her father's address in the early hours of September 29. Together they placed Ms Bailey's body in Anslow's wheelchair in different clothing to that she had been wearing when she was alive. ‌ They pushed her to a spot on the Walsall Canal, known as 'eight locks' near Ryders Green Road, and dumped her naked body in the water. Attached to it were the paving slabs from Ferguson's garden, used to weigh it down. Further scrutiny of her Facebook page, where she states she is a 'full time mom of five' who works at Greggs, makes for chilling viewing. ‌ On Oct 2, three days after she had helped dispose of Ms Bailey's body, Ferguson posted her latest in a flurry of Peaky Blinders-related posts. This time she was showing off her extensive back tattoo featuring prominently the flat-capped face of Cillian Murphy's Thomas Shelby character, together with skulls, a knuckleduster, heart, guns and roses. Ferguson wrote how she was 'so impressed with myself' for sitting through the inking session, adding: "Carnt (sic) wait till it's finished now over the moon I am." Meanwhile Ms Bailey's body remained at the bottom of a canal where it was eventually recovered by police on October 7. ‌ At trial Ferguson was granted permission to give evidence from behind a screen. She claimed she only helped her father out of fear of him because he had threatened to kill her and her children if she told anyone what had happened. A 'skilled liar' who 'faked tears' Ferguson also purported that she initially thought it was her father's drunk friend she was helping to push home in Anslow's wheelchair, only realising it was a dead body moments before he dumped it into the water. At that stage much of her melodramatics had been shielded from the jury. ‌ But they were brutally exposed in full during cross-examination from Gurdeep Garcha KC, defence barrister for Anslow who had made the shock decision not to give evidence himself. The barrister accused Ferguson of being a 'skilled liar' who had 'faked tears' to gain sympathy, even dismissing her request for a court screen as a 'charade'. At one point he questioned whether there was anything wrong with her tear ducts, as he declared 'not a single tear has fallen from your eyes'. Mr Garcha put it to Ferguson that when the jury was not in the room her 'mask slips'. ‌ "You have a temper don't you? On occasion in the dock you have made comments to him (Anslow), sworn at him?" Ferguson replied saying she had told her father to 'get up' because he could walk and did not require a wheelchair. Mr Garcha further quizzed her about a Father's Day card she had sent to Anslow in June last year, describing him as 'One in a million. My hero. My dad'. ‌ Ferguson claimed Anslow had told her what to write in it. As the grilling continued Ferguson admitted she shifted the blame for Ms Bailey's death on to her ex-partner and own son to protect her father. Both were arrested by the police before they were established to be innocent. As her tattoo says "Family is power" indeed. ‌ Ferguson, of Heronville Road, West Bromwich, was found guilty of assisting an offender and preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body. Anslow admitted the latter offence but more significantly was found guilty of murder. Both will be sentenced at a later date.