EastEnders actress 'beaten to death and dismembered after row over flooded sink'


Former EastEnders actress Gemma McCluskie was killed and dismembered by her brother who scattered her body parts in the Regent’s Canal, the Old Bailey heard today.

Skunk cannabis addict Tony McCluskie attacked his sister in a blazing row over an overflowing sink in the flat they shared in Shoreditch, the jury was told.

He then stuffed her torso into a suitcase and took a minicab to the canal. Her arms and legs were found separately and her head turned up six months later, the jury was told.

The court heard that after he had killed her McCluskie sent a “breezy” text message to his dead sister’s mobile phone which he signed “Love ya, xx”.

He then told police they should look into an ex-boyfriend of his sister whom he claimed had owed her money. Gemma was 17 when she won a part in the BBC soap opera playing Kerry Skinner, the niece of Ethel Skinner.

McCluskie, 35, admits killing her and has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, but denies murder.

A post mortem revealed that there had been a struggle and Ms McCluskie had been hit over the head with a blunt instrument. Crispin Aylett, QC, prosecuting, told the court that she was 29 when she was killed.

She had tired of her brother’s drug use and told a friend: “He’s permanently stoned. He puts a spliff in his mouth first thing in the morning and doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

In January last year their mother Pauline was taken to hospital for a brain tumour to be removed and contracted the MRSA.

In her absence tensions rose between the siblings and Ms McCluskie told her brother to leave the flat. She was last seen when CCTV caught her car being parked outside the flat on March 1 last year.

The following morning McCluskie sent the text to his sister’s phone telling her he had been to the hospital and their mother was doing well.

On March 5 around 100 of her friends held a meeting in a Shoreditch pub and began a leaflet campaign appealing for help in finding her.

The following day a woman navigating her barge on the canal found a suitcase which sprang open to reveal the torso. Mr Aylett told the jury: “This, I am afraid, is a case that calls for strong stomachs — you will have to brace yourself.”

Ms McCluskie was identified by a small bow tattoo on her body. At her flat police discovered her blood in the bathroom and a blood-stained knife in the kitchen. McCluskie’s mobile phone showed he had rung a minicab firm on the evening of March 2. The driver recalled a man who struggled to get his heavy suitcase into the car boot and asked to be taken to the canal.

Mr Aylett said: “When Gemma first disappeared, McCluskie had seemed keen to help the police with their investigation.

“At that stage they had no reason to suspect him of being involved.  In fact he was leading the police on a wild goose chase that was entirely of his own devising.”

Ms McCluskie who was just 4ft 11ins, had seen her acting career “fizzle out” after she left EastEnders and had been working as a barmaid in Shoreditch pubs.

But she had a huge number of friends and even her brother described her as “bubbly, outgoing, very confident”.

The case continues.