Camden News: Wang Yam | Old Bailey | Appeal | Allan Chappelow

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Camden News - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 26 February 2009

Man who murdered OAP set to appeal

A CON MAN dubbed “cruel and cowardly” when he was jailed for the murder of a Hampstead recluse is to appeal against his 20-year sentence.
The Old Bailey heard how penniless Chinese political refugee Wang Yam, 47, was in the process of stealing victim Allan Chappelow’s “wealth and identity” when he was caught red-handed by the pensioner in the hallway of his Downshire Hill home in May, 2006.
Yam bludgeoned the frail 86-year-old eccentric to death.
Bachelor Mr Chappelow, who had worked as a photographer and written two books on Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, was left under a huge pile of old newspapers and rubbish weighing half a ton in a back room. His badly decomposed body was not found until mid-June, 2006.
Yam, bankrupt with debts of more than £1million, lived in a flat in nearby Denning Road with his pregnant girlfriend.
He was behind with his rent and due to be evicted. He had been claiming housing benefit from Camden Council and was receiving jobseeker’s allowance.
Yam was a political activist who had taken part in the Tiananmen Square protests. Last month he was found guilty by a jury and told he must serve a minimum 20 years of a life sentence.

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