New evidence in the case of a man who has spent 23 years in prison for murder suggests he was framed by police.
Police knew the testimony of the main prosecution witness in the trial of Omar Benguit for the murder of South Korean student Jong-Ok Shin was directly contradicted by CCTV evidence, we have learned.
A total of 13 other witnesses used to support the prosecution case have now told the BBC the police pressured them to embellish their statements or lie in court.
Dorset Police did not directly address the suggestion that officers had framed Benguit, but said its investigation was “thorough, detailed and very complex”.
Jong-Ok Shin – known as Oki – was stabbed to death while she was walking home from a Bournemouth nightclub in 2002. Benguit, an addict with a history of drug and knife crime, was convicted at a third trial in 2005, after two previous juries failed to reach verdicts.
The BBC has investigated this case over nine years, previously reporting that some witnesses had said they gave false evidence after being pressured by police. But Panorama’s latest investigation reveals:
Phone records suggest Benguit had an alibi that discredited the evidence of the main witness and the police buried it
Police built their case around the testimony of a proven liar, even though they knew CCTV footage contradicted her story
Two additional witnesses say they lied in court after police pressured them
Four more people told the BBC that officers had tried to get them to give false evidence and they refused
The evidence of all the key prosecution witnesses has now been undermined or discredited
Witness testimony was crucial to the prosecution as there was no CCTV or forensic evidence linking Benguit to the crime.
After reviewing Panorama’s evidence, retired murder squad detective Brian Murphy called for the Independent Office for Police Conduct to investigate Dorset Police’s handling of the case.
The former detective chief inspector, who has been involved in more than 200 murder investigations, said in his view Benguit’s conviction was not safe. “This cries out for a review without a doubt,” he said.
Des Jenson, Benguit’s barrister, said that if police had coerced witnesses to lie, “it means that they have manufactured evidence, they’ve perverted the course of justice”.
The murder led to intense pressure on Dorset Police, because Bournemouth’s economy relies heavily on international students and the South Korean government wanted the murderer caught.
The police built their case against Omar Benguit around the testimony of a drug addict, who we are calling BB for legal reasons. She said she had been driving three people, including Benguit, on the night of the murder.
BB said she had stopped the car after passing Oki – and that all three men had gone to talk to her. They tried to persuade the student to come to a party and, when she refused, Benguit stabbed her, she said.
BB had a history of making false allegations and her account contradicted Oki’s dying testimony, that she had been stabbed by a single, masked attacker.
During the investigation, BB had also changed her story – initially accusing two other men, before naming Benguit in her third statement to the police.
Panorama has now discovered that police viewed CCTV footage during their investigation which discredited BB’s story.
In her third and final statement, she claimed she had stopped at a BP garage on Charminster Road in Bournemouth before picking up Benguit and the others.
But Panorama has found that when police checked CCTV cameras, they could not find any footage of BB or the men.
It was the same with her description of what happened after the murder. She claimed she had driven the three men to what was then a crack house a mile away to get cleaned up.
There was a CCTV camera across the road and police could see footage of addicts going in and out. But they did not find any evidence of BB, the three men or the car.
BB’s account was the only evidence placing Benguit at the murder scene, but her account was supported in court by witnesses who gave evidence about his actions before and after the murder. Most of them were also drug addicts.
Leanne is one of the witnesses who has previously admitted to lying in court. She was just 17 at the time and said she had been pressured into signing a false statement in the back of a police car.
