Devastated mum of Leeds horror wheelie-bin victim Terri Jordan tells court: 'Our wounds will never heal'
The mum of a woman whose body was stored in a wheelie bin then callously dumped outside an Asda store says her family will never recover from her gruesome death.
The badly-decomposed remains of Theresa “Terri” Jordan were found in bushes at the Harehills supermarket in June 2022.
Mark Metcalfe was found guilty of her manslaughter after a trial at Leeds Crown Court in September and jailed today for 17 years.
He was cleared of murder, but found to have been responsible for her death. The 32-year-old’s body was so badly decomposed a cause of death could not be ascertained.
Due to the his persistent denials, 40-year-old Metcalfe has never disclosed any details surrounding the tragic death of Terri.
In a victim impact statement from Terri’s mother, Geraldine Jordan, read to the court, she said: “The loss of my daughter has profoundly altered every aspect of my life and the lives of my family.
“The senseless act of violence has devastated us all. Her absence leaves a void non-one can fill. This crime has not just stolen one life, but left an indelible mark on all of us.
“It has shattered our family and left us with wounds that will never truly heal. She was a piece of my soul and losing her feels like a part of me has been ripped away.
“The emptiness in my heart is immeasurable. I will carry this with me for the rest of my life.
“She had her faults but she was a human being. I still do not know what happened to Terri and how she died. That has also been taken away from me.”
Metcalfe had been seen on CCTV pushing the wheelie bin from his home on Compton Crescent to the Asda on Kimberley Road in the middle of the night on June 23, 2023, before tipping her remains into the undergrowth.
It came after his neighbours had complained about a smell from the bin, but had little idea the horrors of what lay within.
Examination by crime scene investigators and forensic scientists of the address in Compton Crescent showed both Metcalfe and Terri’s blood in the living room and her hair found at the bottom of the stairs.
It was established that Terri and a friend had been at Metcalfe’s home on June 11 taking crack cocaine and drinking heavily.
The two women left after a fallout with Metcalfe, but Terri returned a short time later and was attacked and killed.
She was stripped of her clothing and placed in the wheelie bin outside the address until questions about the pungent smell forced him to move it almost two weeks later.
Senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Guy Shackleton said: “Terri’s family are understandably still struggling to come to terms with her being so cruelly taken from them in such awful circumstances.
“Metcalfe’s denials, both in police interviews and at his trial, have meant that her family still don’t have the answers they need about why he killed her, but we hope it will provide at least some degree of comfort to them to know he has now been criminally held to account for the pain he has caused.
“The circumstances of Terri’s death and the discovery of her body presented us with some significant investigative challenges, but we remained determined to bring the investigation to a successful conclusion on behalf of her family and we carried out extensive and painstaking enquiries over nearly two years to achieve that aim.”