****** was the owner of Hobnobs bar, located on Cranbrook Road, Ilford, which ran parallel to Perth Road, scene of the incident.

 

She has kept the truth of what happened on the day of the incident to herself for more than 16 years and still maintains a steadfast loyalty to the co-defendant. 

 

However, in 2013, while giving evidence, ***** unwittingly confirmed that she had intentionally withheld evidence.

 

Court transcript of Co-defendant (December 9, 2013):

 

Q: David Howker QC

If you had rung up and said to her: “Hello, ******. You don’t mind, do you, just seeing if you can find out from anybody what the state of Rob is?”, she wouldn’t know what you were talking about.

 

A: *****

No, I would have said: “Rob smashed me over the head." I would have said something like that, because that’s what happened.

 

Obviously this evidence from ***** confirms that, in fact, she DID know that he was involved in an altercation involving Robert Darby in 2005.

 

He went on to give details of how he asked her to assist him in finding out what was happening across the road at the scene of the incident, by asking her to send somebody from her bar over to the scene before he switched his phone off, so he couldn’t be tracked.

 

Q: Judge Hilliard:
Suppose you had left your phone on, what did you think might happen or what you might have made of that?

 

*****: I believed I could be tracked.

Howker: You could be what, sorry?

*****: I could be tracked.

Howker: By who?

*****: By the police.

 

DS Hassell, the first officer to speak with the the girlfriend, stated his impression of her in his S9 statement dated September 13, 2005.

 

He said: “I believe that caution should be used when considering the nature of ****** relationship with ***** and whether she has a contact number for him,”

 

****** declined to make a written statement to police. She said that the situation was nothing to do with her and that she felt she could not win because she did not want to make a statement that could be used against *****.

 

When speaking to police, she claimed that did not have a relationship with *****, that they were just good friends and had known each other for 13 years.

 

***** contradicted this when giving evidence, saying “that although they would not be seen out together as boyfriend and girlfriend, they had a sexual relationship which spanned years.”

 

On the morning of the incident his girlfriend called him at 11:47, several minutes before Darby was stabbed, to say that Robert was looking for him. He'd been in her bar the previous evening (Tuesday, August 23) making threats and demanding *****'s phone number, so that he could arrange to receive the money he'd been promised by *****.

 

Darby, having known ***** for many years, would have known that by harassing her, either directly or indirectly, ***** would be provoked into a response – a way of finally forcing him to cough up the cash Robert had expected from him. Instead, ***** attended a funeral on the Tuesday and ignored Darby’s repeated attempts to contact him, which simply inflamed an already volcanic situation.

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Two crucial phone calls

 

After seven years Jason Moore assisted the police in their enquiries and was able to tell them about two crucial phone calls that happened just before the incident:

 

1. Girlfriend calling ***** at 11:47

2. ***** calling Darby from a public phone box at 11:50:53

 

This is how Moore remembers it: "We were heading to the sports centre in the opposite direction when ***** got a phone call. Of all the calls in the phone log, this is one I remember clearly – as clear as a bell. He's on the handset talking to his girlfriend and I heard that she was telling him how Rob Darby had just been in her bar terrorising and hanging over a fence.

 

"***** then pulled over by the first public phone box we came to (in Cranbrook Road, near Faces nightclub). He did a U-turn, ran to the phone box and called Darby."

 

This 30-second call was timed at 11:50:53.

 

***** returned to his car and after Jason’s best efforts at placating him he would not calm down and ultimately drove to Perth Road. It was the girlfriends conversation with ***** that caused him to lose his temper and see red, which led to what happened next. The blue touchpaper was well and truly lit.

 

Giving evidence at trial, ***** naturally diluted the huge significance of the 11:47 call from his girlfriend. Having the benefit of taking the stand after Moore had already finished giving his evidence, he said: “****** rang me and just said – she rang me a lot – that Rob had been in a bar that night (the Tuesday) and he was asking for my number. I thought, ‘he’s even trying to drive me mad by going in the bar now'."

 

The girlfriend's failure to disclose these vital pieces of information to the police when asked to do so enabled ***** to hide his motive for stabbing Robert Darby. Had police investigated Jason’s claims regarding the phone call from the girlfriend to ***** at 11:47, the jury would have heard a completely different series of events . . . most importantly, the fact that Darby re-visited Hobnobs shortly before he was stabbed. The police knew this, as CCTV that emerged after the trial shows Darby on foot by Gants Hill roundabout heading in the direction of the bar.

 

The police's failure to investigate Jason’s claims in relation to this catalyst call meant ***** and his girlfriend were able to conspire against him, tricking judge and jury, Judge Hilliard was able to discredit Jason by telling the jury that he must have been lying.

 

He said that the violent meeting at The Valentine pub was pre-arranged, not a spur-of-the-moment outcome prompted by the girlfriends 11:47 call. The judge said that Jason lied about some of the content of her phone call and it was an aggravating factor in sentencing; that he couldn't give him the minimum 15-years. Instead, he sentenced him to a minimum of 18 years.

 

As ***** confirmed by reiterating Darby’s own word’s in court, Jason was NEVER going to a pre arranged meeting with Darby. Had the girlfriend told the truth, judge and jury would never have been able to reach this conclusion.

 

As a surprised Darby said to ***** when he and Moore arrived at the scene: “What the fuck are you doing with that cunt? (referring to Moore)” Clearly, there was no plan in place for Jason to meet Robert.

 

Quite reasonably, while overhearing *****’s earlier conversation with his girlfriend, Jason had (wrongly) assumed she was actually calling him from her bar, whereas she was in fact at home in Wanstead at the time.

 

Regretfully, Jason’s defence counsel didn’t get the opportunity to question her at the Old Bailey, despite being included on *****’s original witness list and ***** telling Howker: “You can ask her yourself.”

 

Guess what? Amazingly, she never appeared in court to give evidence in *****'s defence.

 

*****'s legal team played a tactical game in not calling her as a defence witness. She gave her FIRST statement to *****’s SOLICITOR, not the POLICE, just 14 days before the trial started.

 

Her statement was made four weeks after *****'S defence case statement which he made just SIX WEEKS before trial, after having seen all of Jason and the witnesses' evidence. They CONSPIRED to convict Jason for the murder ***** had committed. 

 

Tim Darby commented: “For ****** and ***** to claim that nothing of any significance was being discussed whilst these phone calls were taking place is a lie. The fact that my brother was stabbed during this rapid sequence of calls is evidence enough.”

 

Turning to indisputable cell site evidence and phone logs, police were obviously in possession of these facts and aware of the flurry of calls and texts between ****** and *****, in the crucial minutes either side of the stabbing.

 

The girlfriend, is deliberately perverting the course of justice.