MICHAEL Baldwin is a "callous" and "ruthless" man who murdered his teenage stepdaughter, Cardiff Crown court was told yesterday.

Barrister David Aubrey, QC, was summing up the prosecution's case. Mr Aubrey said: "It's murder, members of the jury. It is nothing less, it is nothing else."

Baldwin, (pictured) 36, formerly of Limekiln Road, Pontnew-ynydd, is accused of murdering his 15-year-old stepdaughter Jenna Brookfield sometime between Septem-ber 3 and September 11. He denies the charge.

Mr Aubrey spent much of his two-hour speech on Baldwin's account of how Jenna died by "accidentally" falling down the stairs following a furious row on September 10.

Mr Aubrey claimed the defendant's account was a "fabric of lies". Baldwin, a qualified first-aider, said he didn't give his daughter medical attention following her fall because he panicked and decided to drive her to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny.

En route to the hospital, Baldwin pulled over into a lay-by between Fiddler's Elbow and the Cordell Country Inn on Blorenge mountain and buried Jenna.

Mr Aubrey said: "You will want to ask yourself about his bizarre behaviour after she died. At some point that girl would have been in a position to be helped - medical help. "Of course if the defendant was killing her or intending to kill her he is not going to seek medical help. Why didn't he seek medical help? "Why did he bury her body and dispose of the evidence? Why did he go to the lengths he did to divert suspicions from himself?" Mr Aubrey also scrutinised the barrage of silent phone calls and hoax text messages Baldwin made to his wife Desiree and ten-year-old son, purporting to be from Jenna in the weeks following her disappearance. "The sender of those texts shows a man with a degree of callousness, ruthlessness and uncaring of the feelings of his wife," said Mr Aubrey. He added: "A man prepared to exploit his young son whom he protests that he loves so much. "What an appalling, cruel thing to do knowing his son is upset downstairs when his wife has gone out. "The picture of him standing at the top of the stairs looking down at this little boy on the phone saying 'Is there anybody there, who is it?' knowing his son is on the other end of the phone, disguising his voice and pretending to be Jenna. "He was using that boy to be able to persuade his wife and the police that Jenna was still alive and actually on the phone." Mr Aubrey said the defendant displayed "ruthless cruelty" towards Desiree and son Josh. He said: "Do not listen to that pathetic excuse, 'I was doing this for Des'." He added: "To what lengths will this man go to protect himself? We submit that he will go to the lengths of killing his daughter as he did. "He certainly used his wife. He certainly used his son and he sought to bamboozle you." Mr Aubrey asked the jury to look at the evidence from September 10, the day the defendant claimed Jenna accidentally died. "What's this evidence about his clothing?" Mr Aubrey said, "Yesterday...the first question I asked him was about what he was wearing. "He was a bit bemused by it because he had gone to bed in his boxer shorts." When giving his account, Baldwin told the court after he buried Jenna he went home and put his clothes in the washing machine. But Mr Aubrey told the jury Baldwin did not, at any point, tell them when he changed. "He did not say, 'I got dressed and let Jenna in'," Mr Aubrey said. "He had not considered it. "He did not have to get dressed. It did not happen on that day." Mr Aubrey next asked the jury to consider the position of Baldwin and Jenna, as alleged by the defendant, at the top of the stairs. Baldwin said he was on the landing and Jenna was close behind. He claimed he swung round with his right arm, struck her and she accidentally toppled down the stairs. Mr Aubrey said: "He cannot have done it. It would not have worked in that way, there simply is not room." Mr Aubrey said the space was too narrow. Mr Aubrey added: "He would have struck the wall or door post. It's impossible." Mr Aubrey went on to say Baldwin's claim that he did not see Jenna fall and failed to grab her was "nonsense". He said: "He says he did not see her fall down the stairs but he could say she went head over heels." The jury were then reminded of Baldwin's statement to police. Mr Aubrey said: "He made no mention of the blow to the back of his neck. Why? "He told you he was telling the truth and the whole truth. "Why, when Jenna is at the bottom of the stairs, when he picks the phone up twice, does he put it back down again?" The jury heard Baldwin did not phone for an ambulance or his wife, Desiree. "What did he do, this man, a reluctant first-aider?" Mr Aubrey said, "He does not try artificial respiration. He does not check to see if her pulse is going. "He does not try external heart massage, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and he takes a grievously injured girl and carries her and sits her in the car. "Who knows what damage may have been done to her back or neck." He went on: "Do you believe for a minute the picture of this man running around, panicking, wrapping his daughter in a duvet, putting her in the car? "Nobody sees him." Mr Aubrey said the jury could be "confident" Baldwin did not carry Jenna out in that way. He said: "If she died in the house he took her out some other way, took her out in a way that someone would not have seen, so he could safely bury her." Baldwin's claim that his car would not start, so he went into the house for a hammer, tapped the starter motor, went back into the house to put it back in the tool box, was "absurd."

"What happens on the 6th?" Mr Aubrey asked the jury. "He finished work just before 6am. Why didn't he go straight home? What was he up to? "Did he go and check on Jenna?" The court heard that Baldwin drove to Pontypool, bought a shovel, which forensic tests later revealed contained green paint identical to that found in Jenna's grave and the test dig site.

Mr Aubrey then asked the jury how could Baldwin's former Parc Prison cellmate, Mark Dando, know Jenna's grave was "camouflaged" unless Baldwin confessed.

Mr Aubrey said the jury must find the defendant guilty of murder, alleging: Baldwin was indisputably responsible for her death.

They had seen the "despicable actions" of a man who was "prepared and determined" to conceal her body, conceal evidence of what he had done to her and he knew he murdered her.

He made persistent efforts to lie to the police and his wife and deflect suspicion away from himself.

The jury had seen evidence of Baldwin disposing of material relevant to Jenna's murder. Like the shovel he used to dig her grave.

Mr Aubrey said: "These are the extreme acts of a man who deliberately and unlawfully killed her in a manner trying to cover up what he had done. "Michael Baldwin - he murdered her."

The defence closing speech was due today. Proceeding