Innocent men were arrested by police investigating murder of former Boston women due to van swap, court told
The two men were colleagues of the murder-accused.
Two innocent men were arrested by police investigating the murder of a former Lincolnshire woman because their colleague had been using a different van from usual on the weekend of the killing, a court was told.
The two men both worked with FedEx delivery driver Tanveer Singh, 31, who is on trial for the murder of Shara Millar, originally from Boston.
The body of Ms Millar, who was a sex worker, was found in Woodburn Road, Smethwick, shortly after 6am on August 11 last year by a member of the public arriving at a nearby industrial unit for work.
Singh had been out with others at The Indian Smokehouse the night before. From there he dropped a friend off then picked up Ms Millar in Babington Road, near the Handsworth/Smethwick border, before driving to the industrial estate in Woodburn Road where they arrived at around 1am.
He was driving a Mercedes Sprinter van that was usually driven by one of his colleagues, but Singh had been using it that weekend having agreed to take it for repairs at a shop near his home in West Bromwich, the trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court was told on Monday (May 11).
Prosecutor Rachel Brand KC told the jury it was accepted that Singh normally drove a different van but he and his colleague had swapped vehicles for the weekend of August 9 and 10.
As it happened the repairs couldn’t be done because parts were needed, but Singh kept the van over the weekend and returned it to his colleague on the afternoon of Monday, August 11 - hours after the prosecution alleges he murdered Ms Millar.
Then on Tuesday, August 12, when it was being driven by its usual driver, West Midlands Police stopped the Sprinter van and arrested him. Another colleague with whom the van was registered was also arrested, though both men were released after the situation was explained. The van was seized.
Later that day officers went to Singh’s home, confirmed he had been driving the van over the weekend and arrested him on suspicion of the murder of Shara Millar.
The jury was shown CCTV footage from businesses near where Ms Millar’s body was found, as well as from an area near Singh’s home in Leopard Lane.
Ms Brand said the footage from after the van arrived in Woodburn Road clearly showed Singh get out of the cab and walk round to the passenger side. The vehicle’s sliding door could also be heard on the footage, she said.
“It was obvious that the two of them got in the large rear compartment of the Mercedes Sprinter van,” she previously said.
”Within less than two minutes of them getting into the back of the van on the audio track of the footage, loud shouting can be heard.”
The prosecution alleges that by 1.32am Singh had murdered Ms Millar and left her body on the pavement, where she was discovered hours later.
A post-mortem examination found that Ms Millar, who was 41, had been strangled and her injuries included a number of neck fractures and bruises ‘consistent with blunt force trauma or impact with a hard surface’.
Singh claims Ms Millar agreed to let him strangle her but that he did not mean to kill her or cause her serious harm.
West Midlands Police CCTV coordinator Detective Constable Aaron Johnstone gave evidence for the prosecution yesterday confirming that Ms Millar’s body had not been interfered with between the time she was left in Woodburn Road and the discovery by a worker.
Ms Brand asked the officer: “The CCTV in Woodburn Road [...] were they all viewed all the way through from 1.31am until a little after 6am when the police arrive?”
“Yes, absolutely,” Mr Johnstone replied.
“Did anyone touch the body of Shara Millar?”
“No people, vehicles or animals interacted with her body while it was there.”
“Her body was left undisturbed from where the defendant had left it?”
“Yes.”
The jury also heard Singh arrived back at his home in Leopard Lane later that night, and was seen on CCTV the following morning in work clothes opening doors on the van and getting inside.
DC Johnstone was cross-examined by Gurdeep Garcha KC, who asked him to confirm that “banging sounds” heard on the footage from Leopard Lane, where Singh was in the van alone, were similar to those heard on the footage from Woodburn Road.
He agreed they were.
Singh denies murder. The trial continues.