An English man accused of murdering a woman and keeping her dismembered body in a freezer with her pet guinea pigs told his cousin she had run off to New Zealand with another man's girlfriend among other "fantasies", a UK court has heard.
George Gordon, 65, is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England, accused of killing Delia McInerney, 62, at his flat in nearby St Helens in April 2023.
Prosecutors allege he killed McInerney days before she was due to start a new life in Portugal.
Gordon's cousin, John Lawler, told the court Gordon had come up with "fantasies" about where she was, according to UK media.
"She'd gone to Australia to meet this man Rene. Then she ran away with his girlfriend to New Zealand," Lawler said.
"The girlfriend's parents in New Zealand were mega rich. This is what he told me. He just kept fantasising where she was. She was here, she was there, she was moving on everywhere."
Gordon also claimed McInerney had travelled to Mexico, Peru and Denmark, and had a farm in Cornwall, the court heard.
Lawler said McInerney had told him in 2021 that she planned to move to Australia to be with a man she met online. He lost contact with her in 2022 and assumed she had moved there.
Prosecutors allege Gordon bought a sledgehammer, a cordless handsaw and a copy of the medical textbook Gray's Anatomy in the weeks before McInerney died, UK media reported.
After her death, he allegedly took thousands of pounds from her bank accounts and took out credit cards and loans in her name. He is also suspected of posing as her for about 18 months, sending messages and emails to her friends and family lying about where she was.
According to UK media, prosecutors said his "web of lies" began to unravel in December 2025, when a council official raised concerns about her welfare with benefits staff.
When police came to his home in January, Gordon told them: "She is in the freezer."
Prosecutors alleged he also killed McInerney's pet guinea pigs and put their bodies in the freezer.
Gordon has admitted concealing her body and fraud after her death. He denied murdering McInerney and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
The trial continues.
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