A SINGLE gold ring pulled from Jenna Brookfield's finger was used to identify the Abersychan teenager, the jury at her stepfather's murder trial heard yesterday.

The jury at Cardiff crown court heard evidence from forensic archaeologist Barrie Simpson, who recovered the 15-year-old's body last November.

Mr Simpson, an honorary research fellow at Birmingham University, with experience of investigating mass graves in Kosovo for the UN, told of the painstaking recovery of the teenager's body.

He said a gold ring was removed from the middle finger of the teenager's right hand as she lay in her shallow grave.

Mr Simpson said the ring was not spotted immediately because it was caked in mud, but when it was detected he told scenes-of-crime officers.

Mr Simpson said: "Decisions were made about the ring that were above my head." It was removed by a pathologist and used to confirm Jenna's identity.

Her stepfather, Michael Baldwin, (pictured) 36, formerly of Limekiln Road, Pontynewynydd, has admitted burying the teenager last September, but denies murdering her between September 3 and 11.

Baldwin claims Jenna died after falling down the stairs at the family's former home in Ffrwd Road, Abersychan, on September 10.

Mr Simpson attended the place where Jenna's body was found near a layby on the B4246 road between Fiddler's Elbow and the Cordell Country Inn on November 18. Baldwin led detectives from Gwent Police to the burial site on Blorenge mountain, and pointed out the grave at 3.35pm.

David Aubrey, QC, for the prosecution, said: "He didn't go in close to the area but remained near the edge."

The area had previously been earmarked for search by Mr Simpson, who had been involved in searching for Jenna from October.

This had been hindered by atrocious weather conditions. Mr Simpson said: "There was a tremendous amount of rainfall and we had the worst October and November for rain since 1931."

The court heard that the road was cordoned off to all traffic, the area was declared a crime scene and a path was cut to the burial site Baldwin had pointed out.

Proceeding.