JURORS heard how Michael Baldwin offered to get on his "hands and knees" to aid the recovery of his stepdaughter's body.

Baldwin pleaded with detectives to help the search team find Jenna Brookfield while he was in custody at Newport Central police station on the evening of November 18, Cardiff crown court was told.

Just hours earlier, prosecutor David Aubrey, QC, said, Baldwin took officers to the lay-by on the Blorenge mountain bet-ween Fiddler's Elbow and The Cordell Country Inn - where he had buried Jenna.

Baldwin, 36, formerly of Limekiln Road, Pontnewynydd, denies murdering 15-year-old Jenna between September 3 and September 11 last year.

He has claimed in an 11-page statement to police that she accidentally fell down the stairs during an argument and he panicked and buried her.

Jurors heard that, in an interview, Detective Consta-ble Martin Webb told Baldwin that Jenna's body had yet to be found, and asked if he was sure she was buried in the layby on the B4246, the court heard.

Baldwin replied: "I'm 99% sure," before adding there was a slim chance she may have been buried in a layby further down the hill.

When DC Webb cast further doubt on his recollection of Jenna's burial site, jurors heard, Baldwin told him: "I will go back up there and stay up there with you and go on my hands and knees and find her."

He added: "It's definitely one of those two spots. You can take me up there tonight or all day tomorrow and I will get on my hands and knees."

During the interview Baldwin also said: "I told her (Desiree, Jenna's mother) one or two lies before because I was scared, but she (Jenna) is definitely in one of those two spots.

"Just get me in some overalls and take me up there. I just want to find her in one of those two spots so Des can bury her - take me up there to find her, please."

He added: "I know it would kill me going up there but I just want to find her."

DC Webb also asked the defendant about the old shovel Baldwin claimed he had used to dig his stepdaughter's shallow grave.

Baldwin said: "I don't know if I put it in the car because I was so stressed when I put her (Jenna) there."

Baldwin was due to give evidence in court later today.

Proceeding