A person who has spent 23 years behind bars for homicide faces potential exoneration amid claims that police coerced witnesses into offering false testimony.
Case Overview
Omar Benguit acquired a life sentence in January 2005 following his third trial for the 2002 killing of South Korean language scholar Jong-Okay Shin, often called Oki, in Bournemouth, Dorset. Latest developments point out that 13 prosecution witnesses, a few of whom have been drug addicts, allege authorities pressured them to brighten statements or lie below oath.
Key Witness Discrepancies and CCTV Proof
A pivotal witness, recognized solely as BB, claimed she visited a storage earlier than accumulating Benguit and two different males, then drove to a crack den on the evening of the homicide. Investigators didn’t find supporting CCTV footage for this sequence.
Contradictorily, separate CCTV recordings seize an unidentified man, presumably Benguit, utilizing a telephone field at one other location that night, elevating doubts about his presence on the alleged crack den.
Attraction Historical past
Benguit’s preliminary attraction in July 2005 was dismissed by the Courtroom of Attraction. In Might 2010, his authorized staff approached the Prison Circumstances Assessment Fee (CCRC), resulting in a referral and a second attraction, which the court docket rejected in 2014.
A contemporary software to the CCRC awaits evaluate. A CCRC spokesperson said: “Mr Benguit first utilized to the CCRC in Might 2010. Following a evaluate, the CCRC referred the conviction in December 2012. The conviction was upheld by the Courtroom of Attraction in 2014. A second software has been acquired and a evaluate into this software is ongoing. It will be inappropriate for us to debate the case or make any additional remark whereas the applying is being reviewed.”
Dorset Police Response
Dorset Police maintains the investigation into Oki’s homicide was thorough and complicated. A spokesperson emphasised: “We submitted our proof to the Crown Prosecution Service, which thought of there to be ample proof to cost Omar Benguit with Oki’s homicide and proceeded with the prosecution. Omar Benguit was unanimously convicted in January 2005 by a jury at Winchester Crown Courtroom of the homicide of Jong-Okay Shin. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.”
The pressure famous each prior appeals have been dismissed and deferred additional considerations to the CCRC and courts: “This case has been by means of a sequence of evaluations and any matter surrounding considerations concerning this conviction is in the end a matter for the CCRC and the Courtroom of Attraction. Dorset Police would observe the course and instigate investigations if directed by the courts and accountable authorities. As at all times, our ideas are with Oki’s household and associates who stay devastated by their loss.”
