A court has heard how the mother and girlfriend of two convicted murderers tried to help cover up their crime by helping them flee the scene and then lied to the police in the days afterwards. 

Georgia Potter, aged 51 of Meadowbank, Mylor Bridge, was found guilty of assisting an offender by a jury at Truro Crown Court today, who took less than two hours to reach their decision.

Brea Coggin, aged 23 of Avalon Close, Mylor Bridge, pleaded guilty to the same offence on the first day of the trial.

Both had faced the same indictment, that 'between May 3, 2020 and May 9, 2020, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, they facilitated transport to move Liam Bastow and Kane Coggin, and their clothing, away from a crime scene, and gave false statements to the police in relation to the movements Liam Bastow and Kane Coggin with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of Liam Bastow and Kane Coggin, persons who had committed the arrestable offence of murder, knowing or believing the said persons to be guilty of the offence or some other relevant offence'.

Potter is the mother of Kane Coggin, while her daughter Brea Coggin, Kane's sister, is the girlfriend of Liam Bastow.

Last December the two men were found guilty of the murder of Aaron Pill at his home in Tresawle Road, Falmouth on May 4, 2020.

During the trial of Potter this week, the court heard how Potter had driven her son and Bastow in to Falmouth that evening, dropping them off at Falmouth Marina before turning around and driving straight home again.

She told the court that she had driven them to Falmouth to buy some cannabis, as she did not want them to walk from Mylor on a dangerous road.

Just minutes after they left the car, Mr Pill was attacked by the two men, getting stabbed in the process and bleeding to death. Doorbell CCTV showed the attack to take place at 9.55pm.

At 9.58pm, Bastow made a call to Brea Coggin that lasted for one minutes and 17 seconds, and as soon as this finished Brea called her mother and they spoke for 17 seconds. Brea then called Bastow again, and they spoke for 34 seconds.

Brea then spoke to her mother again for 43 seconds, and Bastow again for seven seconds.

Potter had not been home for more than few minutes during this series of phones calls, but she then got back in her car and returned to Falmouth. On the way there she called Brea again and they spoke for just over three minutes.

Potter picked her son and Bastow up from the bus stop near Falmouth Police Station, just down the road from where the baseball cap Bastow was wearing that night was found by police, discarded in a lane behind the Dracaena Centre.

She drove a different route home - she claimed in order not to arouse suspicion because the men had bought cannabis and that she feared she would lose her job as a carer if it was found in her car.

After dropping Bastow back to Mylor Bridge, Potter and Kane Coggin returned to Falmouth again. Coggin was seen on CCTV jumping out of the car and running up Old Hill Crescent, with Potter driving in a loop before picking him back up.

Potter told the court this was for Kane to pick up his wallet that he had left behind, but the prosecution said they believed it was to pick up the clothes worn by the men during the murder.

The jury was told that the evidence in trial was the first time that Potter had given a forgotten wallet as the reason for the journey, simply telling police previously that the journey was "again innocent."

Police have never found the clothes the men were wearing that night, as shown in CCTV footage in Mr Pill's house, despite searching both their houses and around Falmouth.

However, two knives, one of which was identified as the murder weapon, were found inside a post box at Old Hill the following day.

Questioned by prosecutor Sally Daulton as to whether Potter noticed the men to be dressed in coats, caps and gloves, and whether she thought this was unusual on an evening in May, given that she herself had driven in just pyjamas and a cardigan, Potter repeatedly said she did not recall what they had been wearing, adding: "I did not pay any attention at all."

Potter said both men had sat in the back of the car on all the journeys, due to a Pot Noodle being spilled on the front passenger seat - and forensic evidence showed that there did appear to be stain on the seat that "could have come from a Pot Noodle."

The court also heard no traces of blood have ever been found in the car driven by Potter.

Throughout the trial she continued to reiterate that she had no knowledge on that night that either Kane Coggin or Bastow had been involved in a murder.

In two of three interviews with police after Potter was arrested, she said as part of a prepared statement, read via a solicitor, that after dropping the men off in Falmouth she had gone to fetch a relative's electric key to top up.

However, Potter admitted in court: "I did make a mistake on that one. It wasn't that day I picked up his key. That was just an oversight."

When cross examined by Ms Daulton, who said: "I would suggest you thought that up to throw the police off the scent of what was happening that night, and you later changed your story when you realised the timings didn't allow you," Potter replied: "I did no such thing."

Potter and Brea Coggin will be sentenced on a date yet to be fixed.