On the second day of the prosecutor's opening statement, details of the final months of Aimee Pike’s life were told to the jury, including how her former partner allegedly carefully plotted her murder.

Rowan Sutton, 31, of West Charleton Court, is standing trial at Plymouth Crown Court charged with murdering 22-year-old Ms Pike on April 23, 2025 - a charge he denies.

Sutton is also charged with intentionally touching Ms Pike without consent.

James Daws KC outlined how Sutton spent months "obsessively" tracking, controlling and secretly filming Ms Pike before launching what the prosecution alleged was a lethal attack and attempting to pass it off as a suicide.

Mr Daws then guided the jury through what he described as a chronology of the relationship from 2023 until Ms Pike's death, relying on witnesses, text messages, phone records and video evidence.

The prosecution said colleagues, family members and friends would describe a relationship that had become increasingly “controlling” and “toxic” after Ms Pike ended their five-year relationship in March 2025 and began making plans to move to Bristol with their three-and-a-half-year-old son.

Jurors heard that in August 2023, Ms Pike telephoned a colleague saying she was "running through fields" near Bowcombe Bridge after Sutton allegedly chased her in his Land Rover.

Mr Daws said the colleague would later tell police Ms Pike sounded "scared", was "obviously running" and "out of breath" and had urged her to hide while offering to collect her.

Jurors were then told the following year Sutton secretly filmed Ms Pike while she showered by concealing his phone inside a carrier bag, disguised within a pile of towels.

Mr Daws said Sutton could later be heard saying: "I'm just going to close the window," before retrieving the hidden phone, having spent several minutes preparing the recording.

The prosecution then referred to an incident in June 2024, when Ms Pike sought refuge at a friend's house after allegedly being forced from Sutton's vehicle following an argument in Salcombe while their son was inside.

Jurors heard Sutton later arrived at the friend’s family property shouting for her to come home, allegedly telling her: "If I can't have you, no one will have you."

The court was then shown dashcam footage from June 13, 2024, which Mr Daws described as "absolutely terrifying".

In the recording, Ms Pike repeatedly pleads: "Let me get out”.

Throughout the audio played in court, Ms Pike is screaming the words “let me out” as Sutton continued driving his Land Rover.

At one point, Sutton tells Ms Pike, “You’re going to lose everyone”, to which she responds, “No, I won’t, because I just want to get away from you.”

After several minutes, Ms Pike swerves the vehicle near a passing point to slow the Land Rover down and safely escape.

The prosecution allege Sutton then “rammed” through a gate while pursuing Ms Pike after she exited the vehicle before telephoning her father and claiming she had "lost the plot again".

According to the prosecution, Ms Pike's plans for a life away from Sutton accelerated during early 2025.

Mr Daws said she applied to Bristol's HomeChoice housing scheme in March, sought legal advice over arrangements for their son and confided in friends about moving away to start afresh.

Mr Daws added that Ms Pike had begun filling in a UCAS application for a university course.

Jurors heard Ms Pike also told her sister the relationship had ended and shared messages in which Sutton allegedly threatened to do "everything in his power" to prevent her obtaining custody of their son.

On March 21, 2025, Ms Pike reportedly sent photographs of red marks on her neck to a friend, saying Sutton had caused them.

The prosecution allege Sutton simultaneously began telling others he feared he would one day "find Aimee's body", while also sending repeated unwanted sexual messages after the pair had begun sleeping in separate bedrooms.

Mr Daws said Sutton's behaviour became increasingly obsessive during April.

The jury heard that on April 1 he filmed Ms Pike while she appeared to be asleep on the sofa before recording intimate close-up footage of her naked and of her vagina without her knowledge.

Days later, prosecutors allege Sutton texted Ms Pike saying he had enjoyed “going down” on her, to which she replied that she had been "asleep" and "out of it", telling him to stop.

The prosecution says this forms the basis of the sexual charge before the court.

In the days before Ms Pike's death, Sutton had also ordered a spy camera disguised as a wall clock from Amazon and installed it in his caravan near Loddiswell where Ms Pike frequently stayed to "get away from him".

Sutton encouraged Ms Pike to sleep in the caravan, saying she should “have fun with herself”, before adding that she would have to “keep the light on” because he “wanted the electricity to drain".

Mr Daws told the court that Sutton fabricated a lie about the technology of a solar energy system to ensure the hidden camera could capture her on the bed in full light.

Sutton then allegedly bought an SD card reader from a local shop on April 22 after initially asking Ms Pike's father if he had a card reader to lend.

The prosecution allege the purpose of the card reader was specifically to view the covert footage, which showed Ms Pike sleeping in the caravan.

On April 22, while Sutton was viewing the secret recordings on his laptop, Ms Pike was in Dartmouth on a date with a man she had recently met.

The court heard she sent voice notes to her best friend describing it as the "best date she had ever been on", sharing her excitement for the future and her plans to secure custody of her son.

Mr Daws suggested to the jury that, if Ms Pike truly had been suicidal, why would she be making these plans?

According to the man Ms Pike went on a date with, she disclosed that she had something "really important" to do the following morning concerning the custody of her child.

Later that evening, Sutton drove Ms Pike to the caravan.

At 10.07pm, after Sutton left the caravan location, Ms Pike made a 29-minute phone call to her previous date discussing plans to spend the summer together.

Prosecutors said this was the last time he heard from her.

Upon returning to his flat, the jury heard Sutton spent two and a half hours setting up what the prosecution described as a "deliberate fabric of lies".

At 10.37pm Sutton took a photograph of himself holding Ms Pike's prescribed painkiller, amitriptyline.

A damaged packet was later found on her body, though toxicology reports confirmed she had not ingested any.

The prosecution allege Sutton then sent a lengthy text message to his own phone from a saved alias, pretending to be a friend warning him that Ms Pike was being “unfaithful” and “using sex toys”.

At 12.22am, a screenshot of a draft suicide note was taken on a tablet.

Mr Daws said the wording almost perfectly matched the "dying declaration" Sutton later claimed to police were Ms Pike’s final words at the roadside.

At 12.47am, seconds after a local streetlight switched off, CCTV captured Sutton leaving his flat through a gap in a hedge carrying his young son.

Mr Daws suggested he did so to avoid the known areas covered by cameras.

The prosecution alleges Sutton then drove his Land Rover to the caravan, via roads without CCTV, where he then ran Ms Pike down and placed her bleeding body into the back of the vehicle.

Mr Daws told the jury professional forensic examiners found Ms Pike's blood "all over the back, and inside the back" of Sutton's Land Rover, indicating she had been moved after she was already bleeding.

"That is how we know he moved Aimee after he struck her," Mr Daws said.

Forensic scientists also recovered fibres from Ms Pike's dressing gown embedded in a patch of rust on the Land Rover's front bar, while her blood was later found throughout the boot - over layers of dirt - and alongside her missing dressing gown cord.

Following Sutton’s arrest, police conducted several interviews with the defendant.

During these interviews, prepared statements were presented by his defence.

One of these statements claims Ms Pike suffered from severe nosebleeds and periods, and posed these as explanations for why her blood could be present in the vehicles.

Sutton also referenced a previous altercation Ms Pike had in Kingsbridge on April 6, which he took her to A&E for, to address additional accusations of why Ms Pike’s blood was on his car.

The defendant added that Ms Pike had been given a medical blanket, an item which was later found stashed in a hedge near the crime scene that had Ms Pike’s blood and hair on.

Addressing Sutton's police interviews, in which he asserted Ms Pike's blood came from nosebleeds, period blood or an earlier altercation, Mr Daws said expert evidence refuted each explanation.

According to the prosecution, experts confirmed the blood in the boot was fresh, contained no menstrual markers and came from significant trauma.

The Jury was also shown footage of Ms Pike and Sutton leaving A&E at 8:07am on April 6 with no blanket in tow.

The court later heard forensic pathologist Dr Russell Delaney concluded Ms Pike died from catastrophic internal bleeding caused by severe chest and abdominal injuries, alongside skull fractures and brain trauma.

The prosecution says her injuries were consistent with a "high-energy impact" with a road, rather than being run over by the van as Sutton claimed.

Botanical evidence, the prosecution allege, further undermined Sutton's account.

Plant experts found high concentrations of a specific moss on the back of Ms Pike's clothes matching the ground behind a low roadside wall on Embankment Road.

Mr Daws said botanist Mark Spencer concluded with "some confidence" that Ms Pike had been placed against the far side of the wall, probably on her left side, before Sutton staged a fake hit-and-run.

Analysis of the van showed no impact marks, whilst CCTV from a nearby garage taken shortly after the alleged collision showed the vehicle completely undamaged.

The court also heard details of Sutton's account.

He told police he had "a feeling" Ms Pike was in distress and decided to drive to the caravan.

In interview, Sutton said: "I know my partner, and I know my gut" as an explanation for why he went there, but later reportedly could not recall which route he had taken.

The trial at Plymouth Crown Court continues.