Vincent Tabak ‘joked with friends about police search for Joanna Yeates’s killer’

Court hears Tabak told friends that whoever murdered Yeates must be a ‘detached, crazy person’ to carry on acting normally The man accused of the murder of landscape architect Joanna Yeates joked about the police search for the culprit at a dinner party and offered a theory about the sort of character who would commit such a crime, his trial has heard. Vincent Tabak discussed the case with friends over a vegetable curry and said he believed that whoever murdered Yeates must have been a “totally detached, crazy person”, the jury was told. Tabak, a 33-year-old engineer, from the Netherlands, joked at the party that police had opened a drawer in his flat to see if there was a body there, it was claimed. Bristol crown court also heard that Tabak had been planning to marry his girlfriend, Tanja Morson, and start a family. Tabak has admitted the manslaughter of 25-year-old Yeates but denies murder. The prosecution claims he strangled her to death at her flat in Clifton, Bristol, on 17 December 2010, before putting her body into his car and dumping it on the verge of Longwood Lane, Failand. The jury was told about a dinner party that Tabak and Morson attended on 15 January. In a written statement one of the guests, Sarah Maddock, described how the conversation turned to Yeates. She said Tabak had said that whoever killed Yeates had to be a “totally detached, crazy person” to be able to “carry on acting normally after something like that”. Maddock described Tabak as perfectly normal at the dinner party and said he held his girlfriend’s hand under the table. She also revealed that Morson had told her of their plans to marry and start a family. Andrew Lillie, an engineer who hosted the party, said Tabak and Morson were recounting how police had searched their flat after Yeates went missing. His statement, read to the court, said: “Vincent just made a small remark about how police opened a drawer so they could look for a body. This was said in a light-hearted way.” The court also heard that Tabak drank champagne at a party the night after the alleged murder. He attended a friend’s birthday at a bar on Bristol harbourside but seemed “unwilling to talk” and “short”, according to Linda Marland, a witness. Jurors also heard more about the night Yeates was allegedly murdered . She had spent the early part of the evening with work colleagues at the Ram pub in Bristol. One colleague, Elisabeth Chandler, an office manager, said Yeates was dreading the weekend because her boyfriend, Greg Reardon, was away. Other colleagues described how Yeates told them she was going to spend the weekend baking bread and cakes. After leaving the pub, the prosecution says, she walked home and within a few minutes was attacked by Tabak. Florian Lehman told the court that he and his wife, Zoe, heard two screams as they walked up the path of a house opposite Yeates’s flat on their way to a party. He said: “We were through the gate and we were in the middle of the footpath between the gate and the entrance. That’s when I heard two screams. They were quite loud. They seemed to me to come from quite a distance. “The first scream was just for a moment, a scream and then a little pause, maybe just two seconds, and a second scream which was a lot shorter. The first one was louder. The first was longer.” Zoe Lehman said she also heard screams and a thud. “I heard a loud scream and turned around to have a look. The first one was loud, then there was a gap of about two seconds, then the second one was slightly less loud – a bit stifled. Then afterwards there was what sounded like furniture falling over, a thud.” Harry Walker, who lived behind Yeates’s flat, said he heard a scream at about 8.30pm. He told jurors: “I would say it was definitely a human noise. It was definitely not an animal. At the time I thought it must have been students out in the road as it was the end of term.” The trial continues. Joanna Yeates Crime Bristol Steven Morris guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.