UK UK - Sarah Wellgreen, 46, Kent, 9 Oct 2018 #2 *B. Lacomba guilty*

[Alyce]

I didn't remember that testimony (bolded). - does it not say what *time* that light came on??
I'm not sure what this means (underlined) - car returns to Bazes Shaw just 2 minutes later?? Oh, after a same-vehicle being caught all those times on CCTV, then 2 minutes later, there was a flash of light in car park 2.. did B park at carpark#2 when he returned?? And I thought the cams didn't catch carpark#2?

Deug, it's not 2 minutes later, it's Car Park 2

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

12:57

Discrepancy between evidence given and police interviews

Ben Lacomba (Image: Facebook)

On Lacomba not asking questions about Sarah to officers, the prosecution added:

“The defendant didn’t seem remotely concerned about Sarah and that is how he has behaved throughout with the officers who came to the address,” says Ms Morgan.

On October 14, Mr Lacomba leaves at 9.36pm and is not seen for nearly two and a half hours.

“What was he doing and where was he in between those times? He says he was just sitting in his car thinking. Was he revisiting Sarahs’ grave? Was this a final tidy up before going to dispose of items up in Greenhithe? That was about more than the phones.”

Ms Morgan questions the topics that he failed to mention during police interviews but then relied on as evidence when giving his defence from the witness box.

“He didn’t dare open his mouth, to do so would risk unravelling everything he had been trying to piece together.”

He was not even surprised on October 16 when he was arrested for Sarah Wellgreen’s murder. That is extraordinary when you think about it.”

“The net was closing in on him and his attempts to divert attention away from himself had failed.

“He knew all of the answers because he killed her and then he disposed of her body.

That is why we invite you to conclude that the defendant murdered Sarah Jane Wellgreen.”

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

12:59

Prosecution's closing statement complete

The court has now paused for lunch

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

Live updates as Sarah Wellgreen's ex-partner goes on trial accused of her murder


14:37

Defence: 'Can the prosecution prove to you that Sarah is definitely dead?'
Rebecca Trowler, defending, begins:

“Ultimately what I ask of you is a lot less than the prosecution ask you to do in this case. They are asking you to convict a 39-year-old man with no criminal convictions, not even cautions, of the carefully planned murder, they say, of the murder of the mother of his children.

That is a very big ask.

“Can the prosecution prove to you that Sarah Wellgreen is definitely dead or are you left with a nagging feeling that something is not right?

“In one sense it’s absolutely clear that they can’t.

“The evidence that the prosecution have called on this topic has not been evidence that proves she is dead, so much as evidence of enquiries that have failed to establish if she is alive.

“It’s far harder to prove a negative such as she is not alive.”

Ms Trowler uses the analogy of picking up an apple and displaying it to the jury to show how easy it is to prove there is one in the court precincts, but how hard it would be to prove there is an orange in the court precincts.

“I don’t know whether she is alive or not but perhaps you don’t either. Perhaps you will conclude that she may be.

“Even if the prosecution have satisfied so that you are sure that she is dead, they non the less have a mountain to climb to prove that she died at the hands of the defendant and not in some other way.

“Their case relies entirely on the working assumption that Sarah Wellgreen died at 22 Bazes Shaw and her body, they say, was removed by car.

“The prosecution claim “Ben Lacomba, the Dartford cabbie, deceived the full resources of the Kent Police,” says Ms Trowler.

Ms Trowler continues by questioning the suggestion that mum Marilyn helped to “sterilise a murder scene” to the extent that “apart from a small case of menstrual blood, no blood was found on any items seized.”

“Is it possible that what happened to Sarah Wellgreen happened away from 22 Bazes Shaw altogether?

“’That will help me buy some drinks when I go out tonight”, Sarah Wellgreen said to Susan Birchall, the daughter of one of her last clients, on October 9.”

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

( The Lunch breaks have been so long in this case Im suprised there's an apple, orange ,or any Foodstuff at all, left within a 2mile radius of the Court Precinct tbh)

 

[Delisa]

What's all this stuff they are saying Kent live have missed some stuff about mummy and that's the first I read about SW saying she was going out that night to a client

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

15:00

Defence: 'Sarah may have decided to move on again'

Sarah Wellgreen and boyfriend Neil James (Image: Facebook)


The defence continues with her closing statements:

“Is it possible that the police in centering their search for Sarah Wellgreen, first on 22 Bazes Shaw and then on Plaxdale Green Road, were barking up the wrong tree?” asks Ms Trowler.

“If all you conclude at the end of your discussions is he (Lacomba) is a suspect, or the most likely suspect, then you must not convict him.

“Ben Lacomba stood in that witness box for just over two days and answered all questions asked of him.

“Yet when he could have given those answers in October and December last year when interviewed by police, he accepted his solicitor’s advice not to say anything.

“I do ask you to consider if you or a member of your family found yourself arrested and questioned in relation to an allegation of murder with so much potentially at stake, would you have the confidence to go against the solicitor appointed to you?”

Ms Trowler says Sarah had “experience of travel”, “previously lived abroad, in Spain, for a relationship”, “owned property abroad as investment” and “had a number of relationships”.


Ms Trowler runs through Sarah’s different relationships:

“She had two actual marriages - Symonds and Donaldson - and in between those had children with David Burdett.

“She then became partners with Lacomba and had children with him.

“Subsequently she had three boyfriends.

She moves in with Lacomba again before getting back with Neil James but there are “five men she is known to have contact with at different times between June and October” on dating apps.

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

What's all this stuff they are saying Kent live have missed some stuff about mummy and that's the first I read about SW saying she was going out that night to a client

( yup. Just reiterates how reliant we ate on Kentlives editorial choices in their summary)

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

DBM. DUPLICATE

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

15:06

'Did Sarah leave this life behind?'


The defence continues to speak about Sarah’s relationship history

“She was seeing Anthony Garnham and Joe Eleini,” at this time.who she had met on Tinder.

“There were secrets and many relationships,” says Ms Trowler.

“We don’t know who else she may have been in contact with on her other phones or what she may have used them for.

Ms Trowler asks if “this life was a life she left behind” by turning right out of 22 Bazes Shaw up to Church Road to a vehicle waiting to take her away, avoiding detection of CCTV.

“You may conclude there’s a real possibility that she’s alive and if so, your verdict will of course be not guilty.”

“The prosecution have invited you to discount this (suicide) as a possibility,” but Ms Trowler counters this with her “medical history of depression and of attempts to end her life”.

Sarah had told Lacomba and her friend that the new job was paying £45,000 but an agreed fact is that the salary was in fact £27,000 so Ms Trowler questions whether there was a “disappointment” that she had not received as much as expected.

“She is someone who has taken drastic action in an attempt to take her own life before when those around her had no idea that she was suicidal.”

 

[Alyce]

snipped from SVS post above

Sarah had told Lacomba and her friend that the new job was paying £45,000 but an agreed fact is that the salary was in fact £27,000 so Ms Trowler questions whether there was a “disappointment” that she had not received as much as expected.

It could have been £27k basic, plus the company car, plus commissions on sales - which could have brought the figure up to £45K or thereabouts. Or even a medical insurance package which would increase the basic.

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

15:22

Defence: 'Each aspect of evidence has been forced into a theory'

“If the prosecution got it right, it must mean that Ben Lacomba - all 5 ft 6 of him - had the luck of the Gods managing to carry a 13 stone woman while at the same time managing to duck under the fence at the back of 23 Bazes Shaw.

He walked down those pathways to a wide open car park with a body, carried or dragged, and not been seen or heard by anyone in those houses.

“He must have managed to bury her body so well that after a year of searching by specialist search teams made up of so many specialist search officers - 115 a day with the assistance of boats, drones and sniffer dogs - and the fire service, what extraordinary luck Mr Lacomba must have had at every stage if he did kill Sarah Welgreen and dispose of her body that night in the way that is alleged.

“Each aspect of the evidence has been forced into what at the end is no more than a theory.”

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

15:23

Court has paused

The court is having a short break

 

[GimmeAclueBlue]

Another break?? Christ...

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

15:47


Defence: 'Soil on the shovel was tested'

The defence is now speaking about the items found in Lacomba’s shed.

One of which was a shovel, described by the prosecution to be “grave digging.”


Ms Trowler said:

“How many householders with a garden have spades and shovels and rags in the shed. Should the question be how many don’t? Not many. It was easily spotted (the “grave digging shovel”) along with other DIY items in the garden shed.

“Not marked by any intense use to dig a grave but looking relatively unused.An ordinary item as a smoking gun. The soil on that shovel was tested and was found to be 84% similar to the soil found in the common ground at Bazes Shaw.

“An old T-shirt cast by the prosecution in this trial as being clothing removed from Sarah Wellgreen’s body found in the shed but not hidden. “Another ordinary item cast as an incriminating find without any real justification for it.

“It’s not as if the t shirt had any sign of blood or decomposing body.

“Vegetation debris on it was concluded that it came from the silver birch tree standing tall at the back of 22 Bazes Shaw.

“The prosecution opened its case to you on the basis that Lacomba parked in car park 2 which was not his “normal car park”.

“You must have thought when you heard that how very suspicious.

But Ms Trowler says her cross examination showed “it was nothing new” and he had been parking there infrequently in the weeks previous.

This has been presented as a “sinister activity” and the fact he washed his taxi “was nothing more than what you would expect him to do that morning but it has been spun by the prosecution.”

 

[GimmeAclueBlue]

15:47


Defence: 'Soil on the shovel was tested'

The defence is now speaking about the items found in Lacomba’s shed.

One of which was a shovel, described by the prosecution to be “grave digging.”


Ms Trowler said:

“How many householders with a garden have spades and shovels and rags in the shed. Should the question be how many don’t? Not many. It was easily spotted (the “grave digging shovel”) along with other DIY items in the garden shed.

“Not marked by any intense use to dig a grave but looking relatively unused.An ordinary item as a smoking gun. The soil on that shovel was tested and was found to be 84% similar to the soil found in the common ground at Bazes Shaw.

“An old T-shirt cast by the prosecution in this trial as being clothing removed from Sarah Wellgreen’s body found in the shed but not hidden. “Another ordinary item cast as an incriminating find without any real justification for it.

“It’s not as if the t shirt had any sign of blood or decomposing body.

“Vegetation debris on it was concluded that it came from the silver birch tree standing tall at the back of 22 Bazes Shaw.

“The prosecution opened its case to you on the basis that Lacomba parked in car park 2 which was not his “normal car park”.

“You must have thought when you heard that how very suspicious.

But Ms Trowler says her cross examination showed “it was nothing new” and he had been parking there infrequently in the weeks previous.

This has been presented as a “sinister activity” and the fact he washed his taxi “was nothing more than what you would expect him to do that morning but it has been spun by the prosecution.”

Ooo she good! Makes it all clear its cicumstantial but does not add in the bits the are not so its the last thing the jury remember!

Does anyone know who the kids are with? I hope its not ML. Surely as she is INVOLVED they would be with sw fam

 

[mrazda71]

The defence is right ... a lot of these things CAN be explained away or put down to coincidence BUT ... ALL of them? Together?

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

16:06

Lacomba dumped phones because he was 'worried about deleted material'

She questions the prosecution’s emphasis on the alleged dirt on his vehicle, his missing brown shoes which are present when he is pictured in custody on October 16, the belief that Lacomba had her iPhone 4 and the fact Lacomba had visited Mr Ellis at 23 Bazes Shaw to see the coverage of CCTV cameras.

On the 999 call:

“What man would not give as much information as he possibly could to the police to report the mother of his children missing. You’re being invited to hold that against him. He was being encouraged to think of anything that might be a cause for concern.

On throwing phones into the Thames:

“Yes he threw his two phones into the Thames on October 14.

“He was worried about deleted material.

“He told you he thought the draft messages would make him a suspect. You know he was worried about deleted material because that’s why he didn’t tick the box on the consent form. “

She calls the claim that he dumped phones to hide the location of Sarah’s buried body as “unjustifiable” as a mobile phone’s location history can be shown by the billing data through tracing telephone masts.

“If there was evidence that that phone moved away from 22 Bazes shaw that night, you can bet you would have been presented with it.”

On the car captured on CCTV leaving and returning to New Ash Green:

The CCTV footage which allegedly shows Lacomba's car driving to and from New Ash Green in the early hours of October 10, 2018
“There was support that the vehicle was a Vauxhall Zafira” but “there’s no evidence of the colour of that Vauxhall Zafira” and “there were 122 Vauxhall Zafira’s registered in the three postcodes around New Ash Green”.

“Who knows how many of those 122 Vauxhall Zafira’s that car could have been. And more over, 10 were registered in the very same year as Mr Lacomba’s car.”

 

[Alyce]

Ms Trowler said:
“How many householders with a garden have spades and shovels and rags in the shed

I dont know many householders that have spades and shovels ( plural ) for a rather small patch of grass out front of a property, which only needs a lawn mower on it.

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

16:25

Defence: 'This case is riddled with uncertainty'

“The chain of evidence that the prosecution has laid out is flawed.



Back to whether she left 22 Bazes Shaw on her own accord:

“If you come to the conclusion that Sarah Wellgreen may have been killed that night, you may also want to consider who Sarah was going out with for a drink.

“You have to ask did she walk out with her iPhone because that is the one thing she would need if she was meeting up with someone from a dating app.

“If something terrible happened to her having met up with someone that we don’t know about, that would also explain why there is no trace of a killing at 22 Bazes Shaw, why Mr Lacomba was not seen or heard by any residents carrying a body through a housing estate and why her body has never been found.

“This case is riddled with uncertainty. If she is dead, and if so, how she came to be.

“You may think that Susan Birchell’s evidence leaves those questions of if and how wide open.

“Mr Lacomba on the other hand on October 16 was plainly thinking that Sarah might be coming back.

“Why else would he be at Dartford County Court getting an interim order.”

Lacomba was arrested outside Dartford County Court on October 16, 2018 (Image: Google)