{"id":123895,"date":"2021-05-05T22:07:40","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T22:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=123895"},"modified":"2021-05-05T22:07:40","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T22:07:40","slug":"man-jailed-for-murder-hopes-new-cctv-proves-he-didnt-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/man-jailed-for-murder-hopes-new-cctv-proves-he-didnt-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Man jailed for murder hopes new CCTV proves he didn't do it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Korean student Jong-Ok Shin, 26, known as Oki, was stabbed to death in 2002\u00a0<\/p>\n
A man jailed for nearly 20 years for a murder he says he did not commit hopes that new CCTV footage discovered by a BBC investigation will give him an alibi and clear his name.<\/p>\n
South Korean student Jong-Ok Shin, 26, known as Oki, was stabbed to death in the street while walking home from a night out in Bournemouth in 2002.<\/p>\n
Omar Benguit, 48, a heroin addict and petty crook, was tried three times for the killing and finally convicted in 2005 after a key prosecution witness, a prostitute and heroin addict known as BB, claimed that she had witnessed the murder.<\/p>\n
She told police and the jury that following the murder at 2.50am she went with Benguit to a crack house in St Clements Road, Bournemouth.<\/p>\n
Now, BBC reporter Bronagh Munro has discovered CCTV images which cast serious doubt on the vital evidence \u2013 and Benguit\u2019s conviction \u2013 appearing to show him more than a mile away from where the witness claimed, less than half an hour after the murder.<\/p>\n
The series of CCTV images from the night first show Benguit at the Richmond Arms pub in Charminster \u2013 he was caught on camera at 8.36pm \u2013 before moving to the Slam bar, in Bournemouth town centre, pictured at 22.28pm, which all accords with the prosecution timeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Now, BBC reporter Bronagh Munro has discovered CCTV images which cast serious doubt on the vital evidence \u2013 and Benguit\u2019s conviction \u2013 appearing to show him more than a mile away from where the witness claimed, less than half an hour after the murder<\/p>\n
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Omar Benguit (pictured), 48, a heroin addict and petty crook, was tried three times for the killing and finally convicted in 2005 after a key prosecution witness, a prostitute and heroin addict known as BB, claimed that she had witnessed the murder<\/p>\n
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Munro believes that the police have always known about the footage which might clear him. \u2018What\u2019s shocking is that the police knew about the crucial CCTV images back in 2002 but Omar wasn\u2019t shown them,\u2019 she said. Pictured, Benguit at the Richmond arms and Slam Bar<\/p>\n
But at 3.16am, he was filmed walking past a phone box in the Charminster Road on his way home, not in the crack house getting cleaned up following the horrific murder, as BB suggested.<\/p>\n
\u2018If this man is Omar, it changes everything,\u2019 said Munro. \u2018It\u2019s impossible for Omar to be both on the street by the phone box and in the crack house.\u2019<\/p>\n
Benguit\u2019s lawyer Des Jenson, who yesterday joined his sister Amie Benguit in applying to the Criminal Cases Review Commission for a third appeal, is convinced there has been a \u2018grave miscarriage of justice\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018I think this is the key to the whole case,\u2019 he told the programme. This is a still that I have never seen, that bears a strong resemblance to Omar.<\/p>\n
BB gave police three different accounts of the night \u2013 in her final statement she claimed that she had given Benguit a lift to the murder scene and then onto a crack house. She stands by her evidence.<\/p>\n
\u2018According to the evidence given by BB at trial at this time Omar was in a crack house with her. If he is shown to be walking down Charminster Road at this time it completely undermines the evidence that she has given,\u2019 said Munro.<\/p>\n
\u2018When I first picked up this case, my initial impression was that this is a miscarriage of justice and everything I\u2019ve read since then, everyone I\u2019ve spoken to, everything I\u2019ve seen has only further convinced me that my initial impression was the right one.\u2019<\/p>\n
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Ok Sin is pictured, left, in CCTV footage of her before her death and, right, the appeal launched to find information surrounding the murder\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The investigation into the murder of Oki Shin was complex as 13 of the witnesses were addicts. She was able to tell police before her death she was brutally stabbed in the back with a six-inch knife by a man in a mask. Pictured, Oki Shin’s clothes at the murder scene\u00a0<\/p>\n
Munro believes that the police have always known about the footage which might clear him. \u2018What\u2019s shocking is that the police knew about the crucial CCTV images back in 2002 but Omar wasn\u2019t shown them,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018I found a statement from the police officer who conducted all Omar\u2019s interviews. He says he knows what Omar looks like because of this. He\u2019s the same officer who identifies him in other CCTV images that night.<\/p>\n
In his statement he talks about the man that I found at 3.15am beside the phone box and he says: \u2018This man resembles the appearance of Omar Benguit. So it\u2019s not just me that thinks this man could be Omar Benguit. The police thought it could too.\u2019<\/p>\n
The investigation into the murder of Oki Shin was complex as 13 of the witnesses were addicts. She was able to tell police before her death she was brutally stabbed in the back with a six-inch knife by a man in a mask.<\/p>\n
In the programme Unsolved: An Alibi for Omar, Munro tracked down 12 witnesses, all of whom claimed that they were pressurised by police into making false statements. Five admitted lying in court.<\/p>\n
Munro believes police should focus a new investigation into convicted double murderer Danilo Restivo, known as the \u2018hair fetishist\u2019, who lived just three streets away from the murder scene in Bournemouth at the time.<\/p>\n
He was jailed for life in 2011 for the horrific murder of his neighbour Heather Barnett, after he bludgeoned her with a hammer, cut her throat and mutilated her body, leaving a clump of someone else\u2019s hair in her hand.<\/p>\n
Months later he was convicted in his absence of a similar ritualistic slaughter of a 16-year-old girl in his home town of Potenza, in Italy, in 1994.<\/p>\n
Intriguingly, both murders occurred on the 12th of the month — as did Oki\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Restivo\u2019s girlfriend, now wife, Fiamma Marsango, had given him an alibi for the night of Oki\u2019s murder, claiming she was a light sleeper and was certain he was in bed at the time of her death.<\/p>\n
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BBC journalist Bronagh Munro says police should further investigate double murderer Danilo Restivo (left) who lived in Bournemouth at the time of the murder Benguit (right) was jailed for<\/p>\n
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The knife that was found in Restivo’s bag when he was arrested in a park while spying on women matched the type that pathologists believed killed Oki<\/p>\n
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Restivo was jailed for life in 2011 for the horrific murder of his neighbour Heather Barnett (pictured) after he bludgeoned her with a hammer, cut her throat and mutilated her body<\/p>\n
But Munro tracked down a friend of Marsango who cast doubt on the alibi, claiming that the couple slept in different rooms.<\/p>\n
The woman, who did not want to be identified, went to police after she heard the couple talking about the murder but, she claimed, the officers weren\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n
\u2018Restivo was saying she was killed with a kitchen knife, a chef\u2019s knife,\u2019 she said, \u2018but the thing I thought is: \u2018How does he know? How does he know that she was killed with whatever because it had never been said then how she was killed.<\/p>\n
\u2018They (the police) didn\u2019t want to know. They said: “He\u2019s the right one Benguit.” That was it. They were adamant that he was the one that did it.<\/p>\n
\u2018He (Restivo) used to disappear a lot and Fiamma used to wonder where he was. He used to go missing for quite a long time and she always said: \u2018I don\u2019t know where he goes but he goes missing.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018She told me he was sleeping downstairs. They didn\u2019t sleep in the same bedroom room. Her room was upstairs. His was downstairs by the door.\u2019<\/p>\n
Munro believes that Restivo\u2019s questionable alibi casts even more doubt on Benguit\u2019s conviction. \u2018There\u2019s a victim whose dying words were ignored, a double murderer who wasn\u2019t investigated properly, five prosecution witnesses who admit lying in court and CCTV footage that could give Omar Benguit an alibi,\u2019 she added. \u2018But he\u2019s now spent almost 20 years in prison for murder.\u2019<\/p>\n
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Speaking in a BBC documentary, Omar Benguit said he’d rather die in jail saying he didn’t do the crime than be free<\/p>\n
Dorset Police refused to be interviewed but released a statement saying that the investigation into Oki\u2019s murder was \u2018thorough, detailed and very complex\u2019. There was sufficient evidence to charge Omar Benguit, they said, and he was unanimously convicted.<\/p>\n
The police said they would \u2018instigate investigations if directed by the courts and responsible authorities\u2019 and that \u2018our thoughts are with Oki\u2019s family and friends who remain devastated by their loss\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n