British police were aware that key evidence used to convict Omar Benguit of murder was inaccurate, the BBC reported Monday.
In July 2002 in Bournemouth, United Kingdom, 26-year-old South Korean exchange student Jong-Ok Shin was stabbed and killed by an unknown assailant, whom witnesses identified as Moroccan-born Omar Benguit. No cameras were present at the scene of the attack, making witnesses a key factor in the prosecution. In Benguit’s 2003 murder trial, the jury wasn’t able to reach a verdict, leading to a retrial, which also ended in a hung jury.
In 2005, a third trial at Winchester Crown Court resulted in a conviction, and the presiding judge, Mrs Justice Heather Hallett, sentenced Benguit to life imprisonment with a minimum of 20 years. During and after the trial, the prosecution faced criticism for building its case on unreliable witnesses, even when they proved contradictory.
In the course of its investigation into the trial, the BBC’s current affairs documentary program Panorama revealed that the police knew that CCTV footage contradicted the prosecution’s main witness’s testimony.
The main witness, identified only as “BB,” testified that she had been driving Benguit and two other men when he jumped out of the car and stabbed Shin. Initially, BB accused two other men of carrying out the killing, only identifying Benguit in a third statement to police.
In that same statement, BB claimed that she had stopped at a gas station before picking up the three men. However, Panorama reported that upon reviewing security camera footage, police couldn’t find any sign of this supposed stop, despite a clear view of the area.
The case was referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which found that more than 100 CCTV tapes from the original investigation were missing. The commission also identified footage of a man resembling Benguit in a phone booth shortly after the stabbing, raising questions about the prosecution’s claim that he had gone to a crackhouse immediately after the attack.
Witnesses tell BBC that police encouraged them to lie on testimony
Additionally, 13 prosecution witnesses told the BBC that police encouraged them to exaggerate or even lie in their testimony. Four witnesses said they refused to give false evidence when asked to by officers.
One witness interviewed by the BBC, aged only 17 at the time of the trial, said she was pressured into signing a false statement.
"I was a kid, and I was thrown in the back of a car,” she said.
“I was petrified. There was already a statement written out."
"And then when they start asking me questions, they start crossing things out, putting other things in. It's like they started with a template or something. This statement was their words, 95% of it."
Multiple drug addicts denied seeing Benguit after the stabbing but changed their testimonies when re-interviewed months later, with one of them telling the BBC that she lied.
Another drug addict said that police threatened to charge him with crimes he had been accused of as a punishment for not lying in court.
"They had me bang to rights on jobs, you know what I mean?" he told the BBC. "And I never got charged for any of it. I felt as though the police pressurised me into saying something that wasn't true."
In response to these reports, Dorset Police said its investigation was “thorough, detailed and very complex,” and that concerns regarding the conviction are matters for the CCRC and the Court of Appeal.
Benguit, who has served 23 years, is currently eligible for parole on the condition that he admits guilt, something he told the BBC that he can’t do.
"I'd rather die in prison saying I didn't do it than get released now saying that I did do it. It's not going to happen. I'm an innocent man. Why should I lie just to get out?" he said.