Two Golborne men were today sentenced to 35 years imprisonment for the murder of 36 year old Rodney Marsh who was found battered to death in woodland near Alderley Edge, Cheshire, in February this year.
Two walkers discovered the body of Rodney Marsh, father of four from Golborne near Wigan, on the morning of 26th February. Marsh had suffered a brutal and sustained attack with a weapon(s) that left him with fatal injuries including a shattered skull.
A murder enquiry was launched by Cheshire Constabulary and it soon became apparent that Rodney Marsh regularly travelled to the Alderley Edge area in order to commit petty crime including theft of diesel and machinery from farms. He committed these acts with two of his friends, the defendants Darren Smith and Gareth Bishop. All three had been arrested by Police for theft of a trailer from a farm near Alderley Edge only weeks before the murder. On the night of his murder, Rodney Marsh and both defendants travelled to Alderley Edge on the pretext of committing a similar crime.
During the three week trial the Court heard how Marsh and Darren Smith had been good friends for over ten years. Unbeknown to Rodney Marsh, for many months Darren Smith had been involved in a relationship with Marsh’s partner Amanda Leech, which had begun when Marsh was in Prison. When Detectives began to piece together the background of Smith and Bishop, they identified over a thousand telephone contacts between Darren Smith and Amanda Leech in the month of February alone.
Bishop and Smith provided statements to the Police shortly after the murder, stating they had not seen Rodney Marsh for several days. It was the analysis of telephone call data and cell site analysis that identified Darren Smith and Gareth Bishop had been in Alderley Edge the night of Rodney Marsh’s murder. Telephone records show that the three men had met and travelled in convoy together to Alderley Edge. Police uncovered evidence that suggested an attempt had been made by Smith and Bishop to destroy their clothing worn on the night of the murder, and they had scrapped the Rover car they had used to travel to Alderley Edge.
Extensive forensic examination of the scene further linked Smith and Bishop to the murder scene. Marsh’s car, a distinctive Nissan Skyline was found abandoned near to the murder scene, also recovered was the victims woolly hat, splattered with blood and scorched where an attempt had been made to destroy it. When questioned by Detectives, both men offered ‘no comment’ to all questions put to them. Upon being released from custody pending further investigation, Smith and Bishop fled the North West, accompanied by Amanda Leach who joined the two men and headed for Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Barely a week had passed since the murder of her partner Rodney Marsh, which had been committed on Amanda Leech’s birthday.
Smith and Bishop were traced to Scarborough and again arrested and again interviewed by Detectives. On this occasion however, whilst Bishop continued to offer no comment to all questions that were posed to him, Darren Smith provided a string of lies, stating that the three men had indeed travelled to Alderley Edge together that night. He professed that Marsh had been attacked by a fourth unknown man that had in turn threatened Smith and Bishop with a gun, causing them to flee the scene. He continued to insist that he had played no part in the murder of Rodney Marsh.
During the trial the Prosecution were able to prove that the alleged presence of a fourth man was part of the web of deceit and false alibis concocted by Darren Smith, as was Smiths’ intimations that Rodney Marsh was heavily involved in money laundering and organised crime, and as such was a target for criminals. At no point during his interviews with Police did Darren Smith admit to his love affair with Amanda Leech. He refuted all claims that they were involved in a relationship, despite over 1,400 telephone calls and messages between the pair during the four week period leading up to Rodney Marsh’s murder, a number of love letters discovered in Amanda Leech’s house, one of which notably states ‘I love you - haven’t I proved it to you in the most ultimate way possible of my love for you’. The Prosecution maintained that the “ultimate proof” in question was the murder of Rodney Marsh.
On Monday 2nd November, a jury at Chester Crown Court found Darren Smith and Gareth Bishop guilty of the murder of Rodney Marsh. Darren Smith was handed an 18 year prison sentence, and Bishop 17 years.
Passing sentence, Judge King commented that the murder of Rodney Marsh involved ‘significant planning and premeditation that involved the use of weapons and shod feet”. He further commented that the murder was a ‘sustained and ferocious attack on Rodney Marsh who they had lured to Alderley Edge on the pretext of committing petty crime”
Rodney Marsh's family issued a statement thanking the Crown Prosecution Service and Witness Care for their support during this difficult time. They paid tribute to Rodney who they described as "part of a large loving family, with a free spirit who will always be missed and never forgotten."
