An off-duty police officer who joined a search party to find a young woman has recalled hearing “the most horrendous scream or shout I’ve ever heard in my life” when her body was found.

Dean Reynolds was helping to look for 20-year-old Keeley Bunker when he heard the screams of her uncle, who discovered her face-down in a brook concealed by branches, a court was told.

Ms Bunker had not returned home after attending a rap music concert at Birmingham’s 02 Institute, causing her family to become increasingly worried about her.

Wes Streete, 20, who was described in court as a “trusted” friend of Ms Bunker, is accused of raping and murdering her after the night out in September last year.

Prosecutors say he tried to conceal Ms Bunker’s body after leaving her in a brook in Wiggington Park, Tamworth.

The victim’s uncle, Jason Brown, had chanced upon Streete appearing to help with the search, Staffordshire Crown Court heard.

Streete pointed out where he claimed he had parted ways with Ms Bunker after the pair walked home together in the early hours of 19 September, the court was told.

Jurors heard he had said: “That’s where I left her – by that black car. Swear down.”

Mr Brown, who has a military background, said he had joined the search for his niece after getting home from work to hear she was missing.

He said there had been “alarm bells ringing” when Ms Bunker’s rucksack was discovered in the park, prompting him to get changed and grab a torch.

Along with a small group of searchers, including Mr Reynolds, he scoured either side of a metre-wide stream that runs out from a tunnel.

It was when he looked inside the tunnel that a red object caught his eye, Mr Brown told the court.

After looking at the object by shining his torch on it for what “felt like 10 minutes”, he said he could eventually see what he was staring at.

“There was hair,” he said. “Then I saw an arm with a bracelet on, that’s when I knew what was in front of me.”

Asked how he had reacted, Mr Brown told the court: “I just started shouting ‘No!’

“I thought ‘I’ve found Keeley’.”

Mr Reynolds recalled hearing Mr Brown’s shout of alarm in a statement read to the court, which said: “I then heard the most horrendous scream or shout I’ve ever heard in my life. It was Jason, Keeley’s uncle.

“I then heard him shout again what sounded like ‘I’ve found her’. I then immediately began running towards Jason’s location.”

Mr Brown then directed him to what he had found, and “the head and arms of a female” were visible in the water.

“I asked Jason to move away while I check the female for a pulse,” the officer said.

Mr Reynolds said rigor mortis had set in and, placing two fingers on the woman’s arm, he left them there 20 seconds but “felt no pulse”.

Prosecutors say Streete has changed his version of events at least four times between his arrest and the trial.

In a statement provided by Streete days before his trial, jurors were told he claimed he had consensual sex with Ms Bunker and he had “accidentally killed her” while holding her neck.

The 20-year-old, of no fixed address, is also accused of two other counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and a charge of sexual activity with a child, against three other victims, said to have happened in previous years.

He denies any wrongdoing and the trial continues.

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