Camden New Journal - News: Tearful accused denies killing OAP

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Camden New Journal - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 13 March 2008

Allan Chappelow

Tearful accused denies killing OAP

Man on trial over death of 86-year-old describes how he fled Chinese home

THE man accused of killing pensioner Allan Chappelow broke down in the dock on Friday as he denied murder.
Wang Yam, 46, of Denning Road, Hampstead, is accused of murdering the reclusive 86-year-old in the summer of 2006 at his run-down Downshire Hill address. Mr Yam told the Old Bailey jury that he denies the charge and five other counts relating to bank fraud and theft.
Mr Yam, a financial trader and computer expert who declared himself bankrupt with debts of £1.1 million in 2005, told the court he did not steal Mr Chappelow’s post, nor batter him to death and conceal his body under piles of rubbish in the tumble-down home of the wealthy pensioner.
As he took the stand for the first time to be questioned by prosecution QC Mark Ellison, Mr Yam, originally from China, burst into tears as he described to the nine men and three women of the jury his life in his homeland before fleeing to Britain in 1992.
He said he was an associate professor at Beijing University with a masters degree in physics – but left his home after becoming involved in the pro-democracy movement.
He described how he sought political asylum in Hong Kong and then moved to Britain after being harassed by Chinese authorities. He had been asked by government agents to reveal information about students and teachers at his university who were involved in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1992.
Mr Yam also refuted evidence given by a Hampstead postman who had told detectives he had been approached by a “Chinese-looking man wearing Eric Morecombe-style glasses” who had quizzed him in South End Green over Mr Chappelow’s post.
“It wasn’t me,” he told the court.
The court went into secret session on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with reporters and an interpreter who had joined Mr Yam in the dock each day ordered to leave as sensitive evidence was put to Mr Yam. It is the first time in legal history the Crown has ordered parts of a murder trial to be heard in secret.
The case continues.

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