Court hears of 'threats' from 21/7 detectives

[TonyGosling]

21/7 police deny making 'threats'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6379453.stm

Two detectives who escorted one of the 21 July case defendants from Birmingham to London have denied threatening or intimidating him during that journey.

DC David Hillier and DC Alistair Woods picked up Yassin Omar, 26, after he had been arrested at gunpoint by officers from the West Midlands police.

They denied a defence contention they had said his alleged role in the bomb plot would see him assaulted in prison.

Mr Omar and five other men have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder.

Mr Omar, Hussein Osman, Ramzi Mohammed, Adel Yahya, Muktar Ibrahim and Manfo Asiedu also deny conspiracy to cause explosions on the London transport network on 21 July 2005.

DC Hillier, DC Woods and a third officer collected Mr Omar on the morning of 27 July 2005 and took him in handcuffs back to Paddington Green police station in London by car.

High speed

CCTV images have been shown at Woolwich Crown Court which are said to show Mr Omar - who allegedly tried to set off a bomb on a Victoria line train - apparently fleeing London in a Muslim veil.

On Monday, the jury heard Mr Omar had been arrested by armed officers in Birmingham after he was stunned with a Taser gun.

He had been wearing a rucksack which they initially thought contained explosives.

Peter Carter, QC, counsel for Mr Omar, said to DC Hillier: "You thought you were dealing with a man who was prepared to kill police officers."

The officer replied: "I thought I was dealing with a man who had attempted to kill a lot of people, not just police officers."

Mr Carter said: "On the journey down you were threatening Mr Omar, weren't you? You were telling him what others were going to do to him at the police station.

"You told him that because of what he had done there would be other prisoners who would beat him up... You told him they'd want to rape him."

DC Hiller denied the claim.

The barrister added: "Mr Woods would slow down and you said unless he told you what you wanted to know, you'd hurt him."

But DC Hillier replied: "Hardly, we were travelling at high speed with another police car and there was absolutely no slowing down."

Mr Carter's suggestion the officer had wrongly attributed certain comments to Mr Omar was also rejected.

It is alleged the detonator on the devices worked but the main charge failed to explode in each case on 21 July.

Referring to notes made at the time, DC Hillier said that during the journey to London Mr Omar told him he had been on the train but "did not know" the bomb was going to go off.

Mr Carter suggested that the officer's notes were wrong and Mr Omar had actually said: "I knew it was going to go off and I didn't want to hurt anyone...

"You asked him why he wanted to hurt anybody and he said 'Nobody had ever done anything to me and I never wanted to hurt anyone'."

DC Hillier told the court the defendant signed his notes but could only make a cross on the page because he was wearing handcuffs.

But this was disputed by Mr Carter who contended that his client had not signed the page.

DC Woods agreed with his colleague's recollections and said Mr Omar had signed the notes "with difficulty."

The trial continues.