UNDERTAKER Thomas Fuller “pointed the finger squarely” at Adam Whelehan following Natalie Jarvis’ death in Swanley Village, a court heard this morning.

Fuller, 23, of Oakley Drive, Eltham, was in the boot of a car when his friend Adam Whelehan stabbed Miss Jarvis to death.

Whelehan, also 23, of Roseberry Gardens, Sidcup, has admitted killing Miss Jarvis but claims it was in “lawful self defence” and denies murder.

The prosecution alleges Whelehan murdered his girlfriend Miss Jarvis, who he had been seeing for several months, because he "wanted out of the relationship and the only way out he could see was to kill her.”

During the trial, Maidstone Crown Court has heard how Whelehan picked up Miss Jarvis from her home at about 10.30pm on October 3 last year.

He drove to a country lane car park in Swanley Village before getting out with Miss Jarvis at about 10.50pm and "by the time he returned to the car, then driven by Fuller, she lay dead".

Miss Jarvis, aged 23, was found dead on the ground in Swanley Village Road after suffering more than 20 stab wounds.

The prosecution also alleges Fuller was the “getaway driver.”

Today Jonathan Higgs QC, defending Fuller, urged the jury not to judge his client for being an undertaker.

Mr Higgs told jurors: “Somebody who deals with death in that way might make macabre jokes.

“But the other side of the coin is that people who do that work are more respectful.”

He continued: “Please be careful that when you hear about someone being an undertaker it doesn’t prejudice you.

“That would be monstrously unfair.”

Mr Higgs also claimed the evidence against Fuller is entirely circumstantial.

He said: “There is actually no direct evidence at all about his intention.

“At Button Street, he does absolutely nothing.

“He moves the car and drives off afterwards but he actually does absolutely nothing.”

He continued to explain Fuller could not have created a “mental alibi” while in the boot of Whelehan’s car via BlackBerry messages to his friend Bridie McCann, as the prosecution alleges.

Fuller sent messages to Miss McCann saying he was scared and “It’s all got out of hand, I’m going to get done for this.”

Mr Higgs said: “The first stage is Bridie McCann decided to message him. How is he to know that she was going to text him? He is not, obviously.

“Nobody could set that up.”

Mr Higgs explained: “You are talking about someone who is a brother or like a brother (to Whelehan) who has got in the boot for some reason and is panicking.

“That’s what those messages are.”

The defence counsel said because Whelehan and Fuller were like brothers and had known each other for a long time Fuller would not seek to blame Whelehan for what happened unless he was telling the truth.

He said: “Why did he tell the police that Adam told him he had thrown her phone away. How does that help him or for that matter, his brother?

“Why does he say his brother told him to lie?

“That his brother told him to get rid of the car? To get rid of his phone? And why doesn’t he do these things?”

Mr Higgs said some witnesses in the case deleted messages off their phones but Fuller had not. Instead he had got rid of any references to Whelehan.

Mr Higgs concludes: “He doesn’t set up a defence for Adam at all.

“What he does is give an account again and again and again to anyone who will listen - not just to sympathetic ears like his girlfriend’s and mother’s - and to the police.

“He has pointed the finger squarely at his brother.”

Whelehan and Fuller deny murder.

The trial continues.