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Police officer charged with helping son accused of murdering teenage model who appeared in Hollyoaks

A policewoman appeared in court today charged with trying to help her son cover up the stabbing of a teenage model.

PC Melda Wilks, 49, was arrested following an investigation into her alleged involvement in the aftermath of the killing of glamour model Amy Leigh Barnes.

Her son Ricardo Morrison, 22, an amateur footballer, had already been arrested and charged with stabbing 19-year old Amy to death during a row at her home in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

Police detained Wilks over claims she helped dispose of forensic evidence linked to the killing when her son appeared before court for the first time last November.

She was subsequently bailed pending further inquiries and today appeared before Bolton magistrates charged with assisting an offender.

Dressed in a smart suit and looking calm and composed she spoke only to confirm her name address and date of birth and that she understood the charge.

Wilks - a community officer with West Midlands Police - was granted bail on condition that she surrenders her passport, reports to her police colleagues twice a week and does not apply for any travel documents.

She was further given a list of prosecution witnesses in the murder case and was ordered not to make contact with them.

Wilks will next appear alongside her son before a judge at Manchester Crown Court on February 20. A trial for Morrison has been fixed for April 22.

Miss Barnes, 19, had modelled for Cosmopolitan and Nuts magazines and had appeared in Channel 4 teen soap Hollyoaks.

Her friends included a number of Premier League footballers.

She was found stabbed at a house in Farnworth, Bolton, on the morning of November 8 last year.

The glamorous blonde - a former girlfriend of Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy and a close friend of West Bromwich Albion footballer Ishmael Miller - died hours later in hospital.

Other footballing friends on her Facebook page include Fraizer Campbell, on loan to Tottenham Hotspur, Phil Jagielka of Everton and Leroy Lita of Norwich City.

THE MAIL

A mothers love is unconditional.

Thats all i have to say on the matter!

Wouldn't like to be the judge or jury on this one ... it is so wrong that a police employee abused their position for personal interest ... but on the other hand wouldn't most of us for our kids(ok, I can think of some exceptions). Unfortunaly there will have to be significant punishment, the law is the law.