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Murder victim Allan Chappelow |
Solved: how this man’s killer was caught by his mobile phone
Failed businessman found guilty after retrial l Credit card error put police on his trail / Judge warns Chinese dissident to expect life in prison l Special report by Dan Carrier
WANG Yam’s wallet was empty, but he wanted to treat his girlfriend Hui Dong to a slap-up meal.
They had recently discovered they were to be parents, and although the stress of an impending eviction for non-payment of rent was a strain, Yam had told Hui Dong that things were about to improve.
The couple sat down at a table for two in the Curry Paradise restaurant in South End Green, and ordered dinner on June 13. But the decision to eat out that night was to lead to Yam’s arrest for murder.
Yam, 47, a Chinese political dissident and bankrupt businessman was found guilty at the Old Bailey on Friday of battering to death Allan Chappelow, a frail Hampstead pensioner, in May 2006, so he could steal his identity and fleece his bank accounts.
Detectives later revealed to the New Journal their first breakthrough came as a result of that June night in 2006 when waiters presented Yam with a bill for £33.
“He tried to use a Sainsbury’s credit card to foot the bill,” Detective Sergeant Rob Burrows said. “But the card had been stopped.”
Yam told waiters he’d call the bank – and using his own mobile phone, dialled a customer help-line to demand an answer.
But the card had been blocked for a simple reason: it didn’t belong to Yam. It was Mr Chappelow’s.
Detectives trawled phone records relating to Mr Chappelow’s accounts, and discovered the phone call made by Yam from the curry house.
“It was the first time we had a link between Yam and the victim,” the detective revealed. “We now knew who we were looking for.”
Officers discovered Mr Chappelow, bludgeoned to death, at his home in Downshire Hill on June 14.
The following day, Yam saw police at his 86-year-old victim’s home around the corner from his Denning Road flat. He packed a bag and got a train to Brussels. From there he headed to the Swiss resort of Zug and holed up in a flat above a Chinese restaurant.
Mr Chappelow had returned from a trip to see his cousin in the United States in May 2006 to find his post had been stolen.
He had often worried about his post being tampered with and had asked his next door neighbour, Lady Pamela Listowel, to ensure letters that were delivered while he was away were pushed right through the letter box.
After Mr Chappelow reported the break-in, crime prevention officer WPC Theresa Watson stopped by.
She got no answer – which according to his friends was not surprising, as he didn’t answer the door to anyone.
She left a note, asking Mr Chappelow to contact her, but it is probable he was already dead.
Police were first alerted something was amiss in the second week of June by Mr Chappelow’s banks: there had been a series of attempts to transfer large sums of money and phone operators were suspicious of a man calling up and saying he was Allan Chappelow.
Mr Chappelow had failed to reply to a letter from HSBC to come in and discuss the unusual transactions. Bank staff called police and they went to the home.
But again, they got no answer. Two constables eventually forced their way through overgrown bushes to get to Mr Chappelow’s property.
Windows were barred and the back was door bricked up. They returned later and used a battering ram to get in. Inside, they were faced with a scene of squalor. Officers recalled the buzzing of flies in the hallway and a strong smell of decay.
Prosecuting QC Mark Ellison said: “It was obvious that it was in such a chaotic mess it would be impossible to do a proper search.”
Mr Chappelow’s decaying body was found lying face down, concealed under hundreds of old newspapers. Blood was splattered across the walls and floor. He had been repeatedly beaten over the head.
Detectives Pete Devlin, Robert Burrows and Gerry Pickering, led by Chief Inspector Peter Lansdown from the Metropolitan Police’s murder squad, set up an inquiry called Operation Barnsdale.
Police doctors said the victim’s body had candle wax dropped on it – they believe he was tortured before he died. His scruffy woollen jumper had been set alight.
Officers knew they were looking for someone manipulating Mr Chappelow’s accounts. He had a savings account that held £52,000, and a Sainsbury’s bank account with a further £4,000. He also had deposits with HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Wang Yam had arrived in London in September
1992 fearing for his life. He had escaped from Beijing following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Chinese authorities identified him as a player in the democracy movement and had pressured him to betray students and colleagues.
Yam came from a prestigious political family: the grandson of leading Communist Ren Bi-Shi, a major general in the Red Army who was a confidante of Chairman Mao. Married, he had been appointed a professor at Beijing University andhad seemingly had a comfortable life ahead of him.
But after crushing the protests, Chinese authorities tracked down the ring-leaders and Yam was due to be arrested and sent for “Reform Through Labour” at a work camp, tantamount to a life sentence in a Gulag.
Professor Philip Baker, a QC who taught Chinese law at Bloomsbury’s School of Oriental and African Studies, met Yam at a hostel after he arrived in London. He told the court Yam’s case for asylum was watertight: “Ten days after applying it was granted. That is extremely quick.”
But Yam’s dream of starting a new life turned sour. A string of business ventures failed, leaving him bankrupt and facing debts of £1.1 million.
Yam had alreadybeen cautioned for involvement in mortgage scams. He split from his Chinese wife in 2005 and in the spring of 2006 he and his new girlfriend had been told they were to be evicted from their flat in Denning Road because of rent arrears.
Nevertheless, Yam still dressed in an Armani suit and wore a Rolex watch, visiting estate agents in Hampstead under the name John Wong. He posed as a successful TV executive who wanted to buy a large home in the NW3 area and made a series of offers on multi-million pound homes.
Over two trials, which cost an estimated
£4m, jurors heard Yam claim he had been framed by Asian gangsters who had killed Mr Chappelow and stolen his identity. He claimed he had been threatened by them.
From the moment Swiss officers arrested him in September 2006, Yam denied setting foot in Mr Chapellow’s house. He told officers he always planned to move to Switzerland to start a new life and escape his financial woes.
No forensic evidence had been gathered in the victim’s home or in Yam’s flat to link him to the scene. He denied six charges, ranging from murder and theft, to burglary and handling stolen goods.
The prosecution case, led by QC Mark Ellison, revealed extensive circumstantial evidence.
Yam had set up an email address in a Kentish Town internet café under Mr Chappelow’s name and used it to get at accounts. Voice specialists listened to transcripts of phones calls made to banks by a man claiming to be the victim. They said it was highly probable the voice was Yam’s.
Overall, 130 people
gave evidence, 60 of them in person: postman Nicholas Sullman told detectives he had been approached by a “Chinese-looking man wearing Eric Morecombe style glasses” one morning who had asked him if he’d delivered Mr Chappelow’s post.
On Friday, after 22 hours of deliberation, a second jury voted nine to one that Wang Yam, 47, was a killer.
As Mr Justice Ouseley told him he faced a mandatory life sentence, Yam staggered, and gripped the bars in front of him.
He escaped a prison in China for misdemeanours he did not commit – but the cells awaited him in his adopted land for a crime he did.
He will be sentenced next Thursday. |
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