Britain: Crooked dickless Tracy alters evidence

An attempted coverup for incompetence and negligence

A senior detective ordered a junior colleague to change police records that had failed to include a murdered Muslim woman’s repeated claims that her father was trying to kill her, a jury was told. Detective Inspector Caroline Goode told Police Constable Angela Cornes to delete parts of her statement that suggested Banaz Mahmod was being melodramatic by claiming that her father and uncle wanted her dead because she had brought shame on her Kurdish family, it was claimed.

Three weeks after the report was written, Ms Mahmod, 20, disappeared. Her body was found three months later, crammed into a suitcase and buried in a garden more than 100 miles from her South London home. The shoelace used to choke her was still tied around her neck.

Details of the alleged attempt to doctor police statements can now be reported after The Times successfully applied to lift an order banning publication of the evidence, which was heard at the Old Bailey on Tuesday. Judge Peter Barker, QC, the Common Serjeant of London, who is presiding over the murder trial, lifted reporting restrictions yesterday.

On New Year’s Eve 2005, Police Constable Cornes was called to a cafe in Wimbledon after Ms Mahmod was discovered covered in blood and pleading for help. She said that despite Ms Mahmod claiming that her father had plied her with brandy and then tried to kill her, the officer did not record on her crime report the attempted murder allegations, adding that she had even considered arresting Ms Mahmod after she said that she had smashed a window to escape from her father.

The prosecution claims that her father, Mahmod Mahmod, 52, and her uncle, Ari Mahmod, 50, went on to murder Ms Mahmod in an “honour killing” because she had ended an arranged marriage and fallen in love with another man whom the family did not like.

Called to give evidence for the defence, she said that she did not believe Ms Mahmod’s murder claims, thought she was drunk and was trying to get her boyfriend to visit her at St George’s Hospital, South London, where she was being treated for cuts. The officer said that after Ms Mahmod went missing, Mrs Goode, of the Metropolitan Police homicide and serious crime directorate, took over the case. She said she had felt uncomfortable when Mrs Goode told her to remove large parts of the record she had made after the New Year’s Eve incident.

She claimed Mrs Goode had wanted her to remove the section which branded Ms Mahmod as calculating and melodramatic. The officer said: “I was told to leave paragraphs out. I thought she just wanted Banaz to be seen in a different light. I felt quite intimidated being in the office with a detective inspector and I didn’t feel I could challenge what she was asking me to do. I just felt I was breaking the law.”

Victor Temple, QC, asked the officer: “Did you make any record that there was an allegation by her boyfriend that her father was trying to kill her?” Ms Cornes replied: “No.” Asked why this was not included in her report, she said that she and her inspector decided just to deal with the criminal damage matter rather than with the attempted murder.

Mr Temple said: “I am certain you came to the conclusion that she was just a young, drunk woman. With hindsight would you have made a different decision in assessing that situation that day?” Ms Cornes replied: “In assessing the situation, maybe.”

Mr Mahmod and Ari Mahmod, both from Mitcham, South London, deny murder. Ari Mahmod and an associate, Darbaz Maref-Rasull, from, Hounslow, West London, deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mohamad Hama, from West Norwood, South London, has pleaded guilty to the murder.

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