Murderer's Girlfriend Cleared Of Helping Him Avoid Justice

Not Guilty: Megan Armstrong-Challinor

The graduate daughter of a retired academic, accused of shielding her bad-boy murderer boyfriend from police after he stabbed his cousin to death in broad daylight, has been cleared.

Former Manchester Metropolitan University student Megan Armstrong-Challinor, 28, moved Jerome Bailey, 39, into her parents’ £800,000 home while they were holidaying in Spain.

A Croydon Crown Court jury found her not guilty of one count of perverting the course of justice.

Armstrong-Challinor has fought the case over two trials, consistently protesting her innocence of knowing what her boyfriend had done. 

The trial heard Bailey used his girlfriend’s mother’s Oyster card to travel to the murder scene to stab Tesfa Campell, 40, in Battersea on July 3, last year.

He was convicted on January 21, last year of murdering Mr Campbell in Latchmere Road, Battersea on July 3, 2019 and is in custody awaiting sentence.

The prosecution maintained Armstrong-Challinor, of Victor Road, Teddington, knew Bailey had stabbed his cousin to death and assisted him in evading police capture.

There was even evidence that Armstrong-Challinor, a graduate in film and global media, made internet searches if ‘conjugal visits’ were allowed to prisoners in the UK.

Parents: Mary Armstrong-Challinor & Bruce Armstrong

Officers raided her parents’ home in Victor Road, Teddington at 8.15am on July 7, 2019 and the defendant’s father Bruce Armstrong, 62, told the jury the first he knew about it was: “When they put the door in.”

Mr Armstrong, the retired Dean of Students at Kingston University and his wife Mary saw police arrest their daughter and Bailey and then search their home and garden.

He told the court the couple had lived in a variety of addresses during their three-year relationship, with Armstrong-Challinor holding down a variety of jobs to support the pair.

“It was fairly obvious he was not contributing his fair share,” said Mr Armstrong of Bailey. “That was my suspicion.”

He told the jury his daughter said she needed to borrow the family car for a hospital emergency involving Bailey hours after the murder.

Now the director of an educational business, Mr Armstrong added: “I said if he’s being discharged from hospital he can make his own way back.

“He was a grown man and I felt she ran after him too much.”

Cleared: Armstrong-Challinor

His daughter had moved back into the family home after an ankle operation and an “incident” forcing her to leave her previous address, but on returning from Spain her parents found Bailey was also there.

Confirming he was not happy about it Mr Armstrong said: “They were looking for somewhere else to live and were due to leave in a week.”

The prosecution say Bailey deliberately changed his appearance after the murder, ridding himself of his distinctive long locks.

The defendant’s mother Mary Armstrong-Challinor told the court: “It was very hot in July and I said to him it must be hot if you had your head shaved.”

She also offered him medical advice after the supposed 1.00am hospital dash. “I suggested he look after himself better and he said he had stomach problems, nothing more than that.” 

The Oyster card used by the murder suspect was registered to Mrs Armstrong-Challinor at the Teddington address. 

Police attended four days after the murder where they found Bailey and arrested him, along with Armstrong-Challinor at the family home.

In the Summer house in the back garden were two yellow plastic string bags of the same kind taken from Mr Campbell by his killer.

Both were within another bag that contained a quantity of cannabis and items related to the use of cannabis.

The Oyster card that was registered to Mrs Armstrong-Challinor and used to travel from Teddington to Clapham Junction was in one of the yellow bags.