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Another Miscarriage of Justice in the Making Police Witness said she expected free holiday By Stewart Tendler, Crime Correspondent , The Times Thursday February 07 2002 The key witness in the Damilola Taylor murder trial claimed she was being given a free holiday in Spain by the police an Old Bailey jury heard yesterday. They watched as a video recording of the girl, who is now 14, showed her boasting to a teacher: "I am going to Spain for free." When the teacher asked her: "So howcome you are going to Spain for free?" the girl told her: "Cos the police are paying for it." The teacher, who was looking after the child as a responsible adult during police interviews, joked back: "Are they? Well excuse me, I want to go somewhere." The exchange came during lengthy police interviews a month after the child contacted police with information about the murder of Damilola, who was ten, in November 2000. In one section of the interviews the jury also heard the girl say: "I don't get none of this money until I'm 18." The court has been told that a �50,000 reward was put up by the Daily Mail after Damilola was ambushed on the North Peckham Estate in South London by a gang trying to rob him. Mark Dennis, for the prosecution, has told the jury it will have to decide how much the reward had helped or motivated the girl to come forward. Damilola, from Nigeria, was left to bleed to death on a stairwell after being stabbed in the leg with a broken bottle. Two brothers aged 16, a 17-year-old youth and a 14-year-old boy deny charges of murder, manslaughter and assault with intent to rob. The prosecution says that the girl, who was 13 at the time of the attack, was the only witness. She has told the court that she lied in her initial recorded interviews with officers. She said she covered up the fact that she had witnessed the killing because she thought she would get into trouble for not helping Damilola or calling police. But she told the court she later told the truth and described how she hid while the boys surrounded Damilola. When the trial opened Mr Dennis said that the girl had been consistent throughout in identifying the four defendants as the attackers. The case continues |