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©The
Malay Mail (Used by permission)
By Haliza Hashim Doyle in London
THE Old Bailey heard yesterday that a Malaysian woman accused of murdering a
Chinese student and decapitating her head and chopping off her hands before
dumping the body in the South London Dock Marina told the investigating police
officer that she “slapped her and beat her” but “she died by mistake”.
Noor Azura Mohd Yusoff, 22, who was arrested in Birmingham
last July cried uncontrollably and blurted out these incriminating words while
in the police car taking her to the police station.
Azura and her ethnic Vietnamese boyfriend, Lon Gian, 26, both deny murdering
Chinese graduate student Xie Xing Xing, 23, at their home in New Cross, London.
The Belfast-born Lon also denies perverting the course of justice by disposing
of the body. Another man, Chanh Ngo, from Vietnam, may have participated in the
murder but he has since fled Britain.
Xie’s body was found in a laundry bag floating in the river on April 19 last
year.
Detective Constable James Robinson, continuing his testimony in court yesterday,
said that on July 27 last year he and his colleague Detective Sergeant Bisham
stopped a mini cab in which Azura was in and asked if she could step out as the
police needed to speak to her.
He said Azura gave him her personal details and told him that “I am a prostitue
... customer called (she was on the way to service a client) .... I am half
Malay, half Chinese.” Robinson told the court that he informed her they were
taking her to the police station on suspicion of murdering Xie.
He said while on the way to the police station Azura cried and in between sobs
murmured, “I want to tell you I haven’t slept for two months,” and other things.
“The guy and the girl came to my house on April 17. In the morning I was going
back to London that day. The girl was Chinese or Korean. They started fighting.
I came back in. I slapped her, I beat her up, by mistake she died,” she told
Robinson.
He said all the while, he was taking notes of what Azura was saying and asked
her to sign what she had said and she co-operated.
During cross-examination, defence counsel Peter Carter asked Robinson if he had
identified himself to Azura before arresting her.
Robinson: Yes, I did. I said we’re here to speak about a murder.
Carter: But you didn’t record the conversation. A person is entitled to know the
exact reason for arrest.
Robinson: I told her why she was being arrested. But I can’t remember the exact
words.
Robinson was asked if she had read the note he had written before signing it.
Robinson: No she didn't read it. It is not important to her.
Carter: How do you know? Did you ask Azura if your notes are right? Robinson: I
didn’t show her. I thought it is not important.
I wrote what she said.
Carter: Did you make a true and accurate record of what took place with Azura?
Robinson: Yes.
Carter: But you didn’t (tell her) that she had the right to a solicitor and the
right to make a phone call.
Robinson: It was difficult to hear what she was saying. It was difficult to
understand her so I recorded (wrote) as much as I could. Her words were not
grammatically correct and she was not articulate.
Carter: She was arrested for murder. She sat in a police car, handcuffed. She
was clearly upset. You only noted what she said in between her sobs.
Robinson: When she started talking, I told her that she was under caution. My
exact words were not recorded.
Carter: You asked her to sign the cautioned statement? But you didn’t read it
out to her. You have to make sure the person can read and understand what you
wrote.
You also need the notes to be endorsed by another officer.
Robinson: I explained to her what I wrote.
Carter: That’s not true.
You gave her a piece of paper and asked her to sign it. She was upset. She was
handcuffed while signing the notes.
Robinson was with Detective Sergeant Bisham when they arrested Azura.
When DS Bisham was questioned by Carter, he told the court that Azura was told
she was being arrested in connection with the murder of Xie but she was not told
the date of the murder.
DS Bisham told the court that he remembered that Azura was upset as they walked
into the police station in Wolverhampton.
The next day, July 28, 2007 Azura was transferred to a police station in Ilford,
London.
Sergeant Rennei who took her details and conducted a risk assessment on her told
the court that he asked Azura if she had ever inflicted harm on herself.
Azura told him that she had committed self mutilation by cutting her own wrists
and she struck herself on her head with some kind of statue.
He testified that she had also told him that she was not suffering from any
mental illness.
Sergeant Rennei said Azura struggled to read and speak English and he had asked
for an interpreter to come to the police station.
Statements from doctors who examined Azura while she was in police custody both
in Birmingham and London were also read out in court.
Azura told one doctor she suffers from poor sleep, has 40 cigarettes a day, had
been drinking alcohol for the last four years and had also consumed cocaine.
Another doctor recorded she told him she suffers from depression.
To another doctor she said she has no history of mutilation, no suicidal
thoughts but was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Malaysia.
All doctors who examined her, however, concluded that she was fit to be detained
and questioned.
The trial continues.
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Circular No 297/2008
