Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY Published: 14 February 2008
Forensic experts continued searching a house in Kilburn this week
Murder charge after corpse’s head is recovered from canal
A 45-year-old man was charged with murder on Monday following a grim series of discoveries that began when a tramp rummaging for food found a headless corpse in Kilburn.
Yesterday (Wednesday), forensic experts were still searching the Kingsgate Road home of Mohamed Boudjenane, who was arrested in Alvaston, Derbyshire, on Thursday, along with a man and a woman who were later bailed.
Mr Boudjenane, 45, will appear at the Old Bailey in May charged with murder.
Although an initial post-mortem on the body found in Kilburn could not establish a cause of death, following the arrests police recovered a head from the Grand Union Canal, near Blomfield Road, Little Venice, on Saturday. A second post-mortem at St Pancras mortuary on Sunday gave the cause of death as a blow from a blunt instrument.
The victim has been identified as an Alger-ian national, Lakhdar Ouyahia, 43, from Kilburn.
It is still not known how long his trussed body lay in Kingsgate Place, an alley behind Kilburn High Road.
At a hearing at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Monday, a prosecution statement described how the body was discovered by a tramp early last Wednesday in a trolley used by a supermarket to move goods. “This member of the public looked inside, looking for food, and there was a blanket that was wrapped up in what is called gaffer tape,” it said. “He felt something inside and called police. They found the torso of a man inside the blanket. The man had been decapitated and there was no head.”
The gruesome find has shocked residents in Kingsgate Road. “I used to see him [Ouyahia] in the newsagent in Quex Road,” said resident Mavis Howarth yesterday. “He was very quiet, and seemed nice. It is horrible to think that he was just lying there.”