R v OMAR BENGUIT
News update 17/7/24: This case is currently before the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Omar Benguit was arrested twenty two years ago on 22/8/02 and convicted after three trials of murdering a Korean student Jong Ok-Shin ("Oki") as she was walking home from a night out in Bournemouth at 2.50am on 12 July 2002. Her dying words were: "Someone came up from behind wearing a mask and stabbed me. I saw my own blood and he ran off." Link The case against Mr Benguit, who was convicted of murder on 31/1/2005, rested mainly on the evidence of the chief prosecution witness "BB", who said that she was driving three men in her car - Omar Benguit, Nicholas Gbadamosi and Delroy Woolry, when they asked her to stop so that they could speak to Oki. The men accosted her and she was then stabbed in the back three times and left lying on the pavement. She later died in hospital that same morning. BB then drove the men to a 'crack house', where Mr Benguit cleaned himself up. She then took Mr Gbadamosi and Mr Woolry to Iford bridge, where a bag of clothes allegedly worn by Mr Beguit in the attack were thrown into the river Stour. The three men later 'gang-raped' her using "red-handled" pliers in the act; and Mr Gbadamosi also raped her again separately before daybreak. It was common ground that despite the great number of items forensically examined including BB's car, no DNA could be linked to Mr Benguit or any of the alleged participants in the murder or any of the sexual offences. BB's evidence was however supported by a multitude of witnesses from fellow crack addicts and prostitutes, who recalled that Mr Benguit arrived at the crack house in an agitated state with blood on his clothing and that he possessed a knife which matched the murder weapon as described in the autopsy report. Moreover, a bag of clothes was retrieved by police from the river at Iford bridge, which an examiner said appeared to have been stained with blood and could have been thrown in at around the time of the murder. No DNA could be extracted from the clothing, but an acquaintance Beverly McNeilly was shown a photograph of the clothing by DC Mark Prince - a leading officer in the investigation - who was able to confirm in a signed statement that the clothing was "identical" to what Mr Benguit had been wearing . It should be noted that Mr Woolry - "the third man" - was arrested but not charged with any of the above offences and was deported by Dorset police on 5/9/02. Mr Benguit and Mr Gbadamosi were cleared of rape after two trials (16/7/03 and 5/4/04) but Mr Benguit was convicted of murder at a third trial on 31/1/05. Mr Benguit's only defence was that he was innocent, as he had nothing to do with the crime. He had no alibi and could only recall walking along Charminster Road on his way home from the town center, because the police had blocked off streets in the vicinity of the murder. He said in his police interview on 22/8/02: "If you see the police tapes, you should see me walking home at that time." ================================================ CCTV The images below show Mr Benguit attending a pub at 20.36 on the evening of 11/7/02 and a man exiting a car at 03.20 on 12/7/02 and waiting to make a call at a telephone box before walking away along Charminster Road. The most remarkable fact about the CCTV is not just that the person resembles Mr Benguit - it is that he has never been identified as anyone else. The police were able to identify the man standing in the telephone box and others nearby as Spanish students, but the man in question whose call was traced to "the 3rd man" Mr Woolry (whose diary contained the contact details of Mr Benguit) was not pursued. DC 694 Mark Prince of Dorset police accepted that the person resembled Mr Benguit, but misleadingly stated that he was wearing a baseball cap (statement dated 3/7/2003). The person however is bald-headed - as was Mr Benguit. These colour images were not available to Mr Benguit's defence team - only poor b/w photocopies had been provided.
Mr Benguit's application dated 5/3/21 is currently before the CCRC and seeks a review of other CCTV recordings made at locations along the route which Mr Benguit told the police he took while walking home from Bournemouth town center in the early hours of 12/7/02. [ Images courtesy of the BBC from The Man With No Alibi ] The three trials orchestrated by Dorset police and the CPS involved a huge amount of resources, but if Mr Benguit is innocent of murdering Jong-Ok Shin - as the above images show - then who was the perpetrator? And how did Dorset police manage to find a bus load of crack addicts to sign printed statements which formed a perfect case against him? Mrs Justice Hallett sentenced Mr Benguit to life imprisonment on 31/1/05 and told him:-
"This was a wicked crime...Poor Oki-Shin lies dead. Her family must mourn her terribly. From everything we have heard she was a lovely and kind girl. But for the courage of a number of your fellow addicts you would have walked free and you very nearly did. In my view on the evidence presented to this court you are a totally nasty piece of work and a very dangerous young man."
Detective Sergeant Kevin Connolly DS391 of Dorset police who was in charge of the police investigation assisted by DC 694 Mark Prince said: "I would like to welcome today's outcome on behalf of Oki's parents. Today's verdict represents the imprisonment of a very violent and dangerous offender - whose sexual desires drove him to murder Oki. Many witnesses from the drug world gave evidence, as they were appalled by Benguit's crimes and I would like to personally thank them. Omar Benguit has now been imprisoned which I hope assists Oki's family come to terms with their loss."
************************** DANILO RESTIVO
Danilo
Restivo settled in Bournemouth in March 2002 having moved there from Italy. His
presence was notified to Dorset police by a telex from the Italian police on 29th August
2002, warning that Restivo was a "grave danger to women" and
advising that "he should be investigated for the Oki murder". Dorset
police replied to say that they need not worry about Restivo, as they had apprehended
Benguit. On 12/11/02 Heather Barnett was brutally murdered in her own house opposite to where Restivo lived and a few streets away from where Oki had been slain, but this did not ring any alarm bells with the police, even though Restivo was at the scene of that crime offering sympathy to the victim's children. He was eventually convicted of murdering her nine years later on 29/6/11, when the body of Elisa Claps was discovered in a church alcove in Italy. Both Mrs Barnett and Ms Claps had been murdered and mutiliated in a similar manner - and each had a lock of hair in their hands. The
third and final trial of Omar Benguit took place in January 2005, while Danilo Restivo was
being kept under 24 hour surveillance and when he had already been cautioned on 12/5/04
for having in his possession a knife [picture]
identical in size and shape to the murder weapon used against Jong Ok-Shin and a balaclava (ie "mask"). A fresh clump of human hair [picture] was found at the very spot where Oki-Shin was stabbed outside 223 Malmesbury Park Road. The photograph of the clump of hair was found by chance by Mr Benguit's sister Amie while looking in a folder of crime scene photographs, after news of Danilo Restivo's hair fetish had become public knowledge following his conviction of the murder of Heather Barnett. Girls living in Bournemouth had also complained to the police about a man surreptitiously cutting their hair with scissors while using public transport; and in the Heather Barnett trial - as in the case of Elisa Claps - the presence of cut hair at the scene of the crime was considered to be the 'calling card' of Danilo Restivo. Elisa, Oki and Heather were all murdered on the 12th of the month.
On 30/6/11 DS Kevin Connolly of Dorset Police and the senior detective in the 'Oki' murder investigation said:-
“Dorset Police can confirm that during the initial investigation into Jong-Ok Shin’s murder, approximately 2,000 items were recovered, including many from the surrounding area – typical with the findings of any major crime investigation. This included an extremely small quantity of animal hair combined with uncut human hair which was located a distance away from the victim on Malmesbury Park Road. They were not found next to the victim or on the victim. They were not attributed to the victim or the incident in any way and, following examination, were excluded from the investigation."
A statement however taken by DC Mark Prince from a
purported local resident Donna Welstead just before Mr Benguit's appeal on 25/3/14
confirmed that she "immediately
remembered" hiring a mobile hair
dresser twelve years earlier in 2002 who may have dropped the clump of hair in the street
after leaving her home. Statement
CCTV image of a man apparently wearing dark glasses and carrying a satchel over his left shoulder walking along Charminster Road towards the murder scene at apparently 02.51 - three minutes past the time of the murder at 02.48. Originally it was not thought possible for this to be Danilo Restivo until it was discovered that the camera was running slow by 4m 17s and that the real time was 02.55 - seven minutes after the murder. It takes only five minutes to double-back from the murder scene to pass the telephone box. The forensic pathologist described the knife Oki was attacked with as “single-edged,14-15 cm long, tapering to the point”.
This exact type of knife was
found in Restivo's bag when he was arrested in a park while spying on women on 12/5/04. While police watched Danilo Restivo 24 hours a day as the suspect in the murder of Heather Barnett, DS Connolly, DI Jez Noyce, Det Supt Mark Cooper and DC Mark Prince were sitting in court on 31/1/05 listening to Judge Lady Hallett harrangue Benguit for being a "nasty piece of work". The Dorset police officers congratulated themselves following the third and final trial and thanked the local drug community for helping to capture a "a very violent and dangerous criminal".
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Danilo Restivo's knife | Danilo Restivo's balaclava | Clump of hair from crime scene |
An unconfirmed report suggests that an image of missing Korean student Erika Ansermin was found on Restivo's computer. Her body has yet to be found.
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