A Bolton man has been jailed after hiding the body of a Preston woman at his home for more than a year.

Victoria Cherry, 44, from Fulwood, had not been seen by her family in Fulwood for more than a year.

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Police launched a murder investigation after Cherry had been reported missing.

In January 2017 Greater Manchester Police searched the house of Andrew Reade of Toronto Street, Bolton, and discovered Victoria’s body.

Further enquiries found her body had been concealed in the house for more than a year. A post mortem concluded the cause of her death was unascertained and investigating the injuries she had sustained were hampered by the decomposition of her body.

Reade admitted he had hid Victoria’s body after her death and lied to her family and police about her whereabouts. He denied murder but did admit to taking Ms Cherry’s benefits for several months after her death.

Reade had told people he and Victoria had split up and she had moved to Blackburn.

But police discovered her employment support allowance was still being withdrawn in the Bolton area during the time Reade had claimed she moved away.

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He was jailed at Bolton Crown Court on Monday (5 June) for four years and four months after pleading guilty to preventing the burial of a body and perverting the course of justice.

What the family say

A statement from Victoria Cherry’s family said: We as a family are heartbroken. No matter what sentence Reade would have been given it will never bring Vicky back.

“He stopped us for 18 months being able to have her funeral from the day she died.

“No one was able to say goodbye to her properly as we couldn’t view her body and had to say goodbye to a coffin because she decomposed so much. They couldn’t even give us a lock of hair.

“Despite the sentence today we will never get over this and will live with this heartache for the rest of our lives.

“We would also like to thank Greater Manchester Police for their thorough and hard work throughout the investigation.”

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What police had to say

Detective Chief Inspector Terry Crompton of GMP’s Major Incident Team said: “Reade’s deliberately deceptive and misleading actions seriously obstructed the investigation into how Victoria died and cost us valuable opportunities to investigate.

“The strength and courage her family has shown throughout the investigation and the time in court is truly commendable.

“They have not only lost a daughter, mother, sister and friend, but been put through a tremendous amount of heartache and my only hope is that today closes that chapter in their lives so they are able to move forward while remembering the happy memories they created when Vicky was alive.”