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Allan Chappelow |
Defence lawyer slams delay in murder retrial
A TOP lawyer has slammed the delays in his client’s second murder trial as “inexcusable”.
Barrister Geoffrey Robertson, QC, told the Old Bailey that financier Wang Yam, 47, was being “denied his basic rights under Magna Carta”.
Yam, of Denning Road, Hampstead, denies being the torturer and killer of pensioner Allan Chappelow, 86, who was attacked at his house in Downshire Hill, Hampstead, in June 2006. Last month, jurors were unable to agree on a verdict.
Yam denies ever being in the home of the millionaire recluse. Much of his trial, lasting several weeks, was held “in camera” with public and press excluded “for reasons of national and security”.
A shortage of High Court judges to preside over the most serious of cases was blamed, said Mr Robertson, for the hold-up in getting Yam before another jury.
The court authorities offered a slot next January but that was unacceptable because of the staleness of the case.
After being asked to intervene, Mr Justice Cooker made behind-the-scenes enquiries and announced that the case will be heard on October 13. He fixed a preliminary hearing to iron out any legal problems for July 25. Mr Robertson told the court that Yam, held in custody in “draconian conditions” in Belmarsh Prison, south-east London, “wants his trial as soon as possible”.
The QC said Yam volunteered to be extradited following his arrest in Switzerland in September 2006 and two trial dates in 2007 had to be vacated. “We would say that any suggestion of a delay until January is preposterous and a breach of this man’s human right. It is a terrible indictment of the malaise in the justice system in this country,” he added.
Yam has never seen his baby son and was desperate for his case to be finalised, said Mr Robertson. |
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