Unsolved: The Man with No Alibi.

BBC 1 Scotland, 10.45. BBC iPlayer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p060xfr6/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-1-the-night-of

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0618hs2/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-2-no-smoke-without-fire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p061bm2d/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-3-the-truth-and-other-lies

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p061bmtv/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-4-hot-shoe-shuffle

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p061bnlf/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-5-a-fetish-for-murder

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p061bpct/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-6-beyond-reasonable-doubt

The Man With No Alibi is Omar Benguit. He was tried three times for the murder of Korean language student Jong-Ok on the 12th of July 2002, in Bournemouth. She was walking home from a nightclub after dropping off some friends. Around three a.m. she was stabbed three times in the back. She later died from her wounds.

It seemed to the police a motiveless attack. There was no murder weapon found. No DNA or forensic evidence linking anyone with the crime. It was a case they struggled to solve. After about a month, they made a breakthrough.

A key witness emerged, called ‘BB’ to protect her identity.  She said she’d been with Omar that night. She’d picked him up in her car with two other men. Like them she was a junkie. They were going to a well-known crack house to score drugs. She said that they passed Jong-Ok in her car and Omar said she’d ‘a nice arse’.  She’d stopped the car and the men got out. Later they come running back, shouting, ‘go-go-go’. She drove away. Omar changed out of a bloody-T shirt and her passengers dropped the murder weapon in the River Star. BB claimed that Omar committed murder and the three men in the car raped her.

Sixteen years after being locked up Omar still claims his innocence and he was fitted up for the crime by the police. Only in the third trial after two hung juries did the Crown get its conviction. Reporter Bronagh Munro investigates.

The first person she interviews is Omar’s sister, a successful businesswoman, who lives in a gated community in the South of England. She is an absolute doozy. Worth watching for her dramatic performance alone.

Great TV. Do I think the police coerced vulnerable drug addicts into appearing as witnesses for the Crown? Absolutely.

Do I think Omar’s family tried to buy witnesses and provide Omar with an alibi for that night? Absolutely.

Do I think the key prosecution witness, BB, is creditable?  Well, that’s the easiest one of all. She appeared on the Jeremy Kyle show to talk about the murder.

Now that is murder. Pity we can’t lock Jeremy Kyle up for life for his crimes against common humanity. I’d go a Crown witness at his trial.