 Armstrong denied any involvement in the crime and claimed that "someone else must have put the body there".Shaun Anthony Armstrong was born on 30 June 1962 in Easington and had lived in the Country Durham and Cleveland area for most of his life, moving into a council-owned flat on Frederic Street in August 1993.He was unemployed, with a dependency on alcohol and prescription drugs, and had a string of previous convictions to his name.