Filipino bride admits to Runcorn preacher's murder

Dec 12 2007

Minister David Brash (320)

The Filipino bride of a Cheshire clergyman has confessed to his murder, police said.

David Brash, a Baptist minister from Warrington, was found partially burned in a swamp on Saturday after being reported missing by his wife, Annalyn Bataller Brash.

Local police chief Jaime Milla said Bataller broke down under interrogation after reporting the 62-year-old missing earlier this month.

Mr Milla said the 22-year-old had admitted hiring two accomplices to kill Mr Brash, whom she married in October last year, and led police to the swamp in Mindanao where his body was found.

Mr Brash, a father of two adult sons from his first marriage to Veronica, 61, was reported missing on November 29, less than a month after he moved to the Philippines to be with his new wife.

Bataller was charged with murder along with two men, her husband’s driver - and her lover, according to police - Renante Puerto Prado, 22, and Noah Martinez Noja, 30. She is said to have complained that she and her young son were “mistreated” by Mr Brash.

Senior Inspector Reynante Ngoho Sibayton, a station commander in Butuan City, told the news website mindanao.com: “In the way the crime was committed and the remains buried, it would have been impossible to locate the missing British national without the wife’s assistance who personally accompanied the cops.”

Mr Brash ran the Runcorn Independent Baptist Church in Cheshire for 12 years and began visiting the Philippines for preaching visits in 2000.

Stuart Hart, secretary of Runcorn Independent Baptist Church, said: “It was God who called him to the Philippines, to spread the word. He was a very effective preacher and his loss is not just a loss to those who knew him in the UK but also those who would have learned so much from him in the Philippines.”

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “We are aware of reports about David Brash but we cannot confirm any details.”