A MURDERED Rossendale man’s mum wept in court yesterday as she told how her son knew his lover was ‘crazy’.

Joyce Townsend’s son Shaun Corey, from Bacup, was found dead in a bin by police in south London last June.

Karen Otmani, 42, has admitted smothering 42-year-old Corey, from Rossendale, with a pillow, but denies murder.

The Old Bailey heard how she tied him to a bed, strangled him, and then used his makeshift coffin as a sideboard in her bedroom before putting the body into a wheelie bin.

Mrs Townsend said Mr Corey only maintained his relationship with Otmani because he was terrified of what would happen to their baby son.

She said: “He used to say to me: ‘She’s mad Mum’. I told him to come home. He said he couldn’t. He said she was crazy, she was not right in the head.”

Otmani shouted from the dock: “'Don’t you think your son was making me mad?”

Mrs Townsend went on to say that Otmani was upset with Mr Corey for joining an adult dating website.

Otmani’s friend Bernie Beddoe also denies murder and a further charge of assisting Otmani in hiding the body.

The trial continues.