Camden New Journal - News: Murder accused 'left country in a huryy'

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Camden New Journal - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 20 March 2008

Allan Chappelow

Murder accused ‘left country in a hurry’

ON the day that detectives found the decaying body of Hampstead pensioner Allan Chappelow, the man accused of his murder travelled to Brussels on a Eurostar train – and then asked a friend to clear his flat of all his possessions, the Old Bailey has heard.
Mark Ellison QC spent Monday and Tuesday summing up the prosecution case in the six-week murder trial.
Accused Wang Yam, 46, denies six charges of murder, fraud and theft. He has claimed in court he was a bit player used by a gang of fraudsters behind Mr Chappelow’s violent death some time between May and June in 2006.
Mr Ellison told the jury that not only did the accused leave the country “in a hurry” but an email address, which police believe was part of a fraudulent attempt to drain the victim’s bank accounts, was then accessed in Brussels on the day Mr Yam arrived in Belgium.
Mr Ellison said: “On June 15, Wang Yam left the country in a hurry. He threw away financial records that day and then asked his friend, a Dr Jenny Zhou, to lend his pregnant girlfriend money. He had yet to find her somewhere to live.
“Then he asked Jenny to get rid of the furniture in his flat in Denning Road. Was this a coincidence – or was it a clear example that Wang Yam knew the game was up?”
He added that Mr Yam’s home, just two streets from the Downshire Hill address where 86-year-old Mr Chappelow had been attacked, had had a police cordon put around it on the morning Mr Yam bought a one-way ticket to Europe.
Defence QC Geoffrey Robertson’s closing remarks were heard behind closed doors. Much of Mr Yam’s evidence has been given in secret as the Crown has deemed it too sensitive to be heard in open court.
Witnesses appearing this week – in the final sessions before jurors deliberate – included QC Philip Baker, a leading tax lawyer who had helped Mr Yam while working as a volunteer at the Refugee Council.
Mr Baker explained that Mr Yam was the grandson of a leading Chinese Communist, Ren Bi-Shi, a founding member of the Communist state and a confidant of Mao.
Mr Baker told the court: “This is similar to being the grandson of Winston Churchill.”
The court heard a recording of a conversation alleged to be between Mr Yam and a bank worker at HSBC, where Mr Chappelow had an account.
The trial continues.

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