THE ex-girlfriend of a murderer has been spared jail after burning evidence which linked him to the crime.

Kayleigh Hardiman burned a blue Puma tracksuit belonging to her then boyfriend Tyrell Thompson when he called her from prison.

Thompson, 24, of Kingston Road, London, was jailed for life in December for his “frenzied” murder of Lee Chapman in Cromer Road, Southend in March last year.

Thompson stabbed the 26-year-old before fleeing the area, and was later arrested on April 7.

Echo: Victim - Lee Chapman Victim - Lee Chapman

Victim Lee Chapman

Whilst in prison, he phoned his pregnant girlfriend Hardiman at her home address in Old Hospital Close, London at 6.55pm.

During that call, Thompson told the 26-year-old that unless police have the tracksuit - which he wore at the time of the murder - and a certain mobile phone, “there’s no way they can connect it to me. You follow me?”

That evening firefighters found her and a friend in the garden with a fire which contained a bag of what looked like charred clothing, later deduced to be the tracksuit.

Thompson then called Hardiman again and she said it was “done”.

Hardiman appeared at Basildon Crown Court on Friday via video link where she admitted perverting the course of justice.

Mitigating, Nicholas Cotter said Hardiman was now on her own raising her three-month-old son and was “thoroughly” remorseful, and had been trying to contact prisons about mother and baby wards over fears of a prison term.

Judge Samantha Leigh said: “You got picked up and carried away with what was going on. I am sure you did not necessarily know the full impact of what was going on.”

Hardiman was given a suspended prison term and 60 days rehabilitation.