Timeline

Early years

1959

 

Sami studies at Trinity College Dublin

1962

 

Sami returns to Egypt

1967

 

Sami awarded MA at American University of Cairo

1968

 

Sami leaves Egypt for London without telling his family. They have no idea where he has gone until he contacts them some years later.

1977

 

Sami studies at University of London

1988

 

Sami moves into 2 Prospect Close, Drayton Parslow, having fraudulently obtained a loan which he later reneges on.

1995

Feb

Sami cautioned for shoplifting, under his ‘Yacoub’ alias

2000

Dec

Sami gives fake national insurance details when opening a new bank account.

2001

Jan

Sami makes £23k from a scam, stealing the proceeds of sale of 101 Elstree Road, Hemel Hempstead, having purchased it using a fraudulently obtained loan in the name of his partner without her knowledge.

2004

Apr

Sami granted permission to fell lime trees behind garage on the basis that the roots are a “visible threat” to the foundations.

 

May

Sami gives insurer false plate number for his car

 

Sept

Having won a prestigious scholarship to board at Rugby School, Mark moves out of the family home for the first time.

2005

Nov

Sami sets up redirection service for mail addressed to ‘El-Kalyoubi’ alias to be forwarded to him from 42 The Square, Hemel Hempstead

 

Dec

Sami makes £43k from a scam, stealing the proceeds of sale of 42 The Square by forging a letter purporting to be from his partner.

2006

May

Mark moves into studio apartment in Winchester, where he works for IBM on a gap year. Sami registers a car there under his ‘El-Kalyoubi’ alias, using the property as a mailbox for his credit fraud.

2007

July

Sami begins to receive an allowance from the Council to hire his own private care and home help

 

 

Sami appears in Winchester County Court to fend off a debt claim against his El-Kalyoubi alias for £10k. He claims not to be Sami Alexander, and that he was simply “renting” garage space at the Alexander residence.

 

Aug

Mark moves back into the family home to care for Sami during his illness

 

Oct

Mark embarks upon a law degree at King’s College London

2008

May

Sami undergoes colostomy operation

 

Nov

Sami falls out with his sister and ignores her calls for months. “He used to disappear and stop writing to us from time to time, then return again saying he was busy or ill”

 

Dec

Mark introduces his girlfriend to Sami at the family home, where she stays for several nights.

2009

February

24

First entry in Sami’s diary for 2009, followed by sporadic entries.

March

9

Occupational Therapy close Sami’s file due to his lack of communication, failing to answer calls and letters

 

23

Sami prints off maps and directions to the Coptic church in London

May

26

Sami asks for a pay-in book “to get my carer to make regular cash credits into” a solicitors account.

June

18

Sami orders more bricks and building materials for the ongoing renovation work at the family home

July

4

Mark visits Paris with Sami to enrol at the Sorbonne University

 

12

Mark goes on holiday with his girlfriend for a fortnight

August

6

Mark receives disappointing exam results

 

7

Mark begins booking viewings for apartments in London, calling over 38 letting agents over the following weeks.

 

13

Sami refuses to allow district nurse into his home.

 

 

Mark attends his first viewings for potential apartments in London.

 

14

Mark views the flat he and his girlfriend will eventually move in to on Fleet Street, taking photos on the day.

 

17

Mark puts holding deposit down on Fleet Street apartment

 

18

Sami seeks quotes from deep-cleaning specialists to service all the carpets at the family home.

 

 

New evidence discovered in 2020 also shows Sami made 17 calls to 7 arborists and 11 calls to 6 builders over August, confirming Mark’s unsupported testimony that the autumnal building works were agreed that summer.

 

20

Sami fails to attend a hospital appointment

 

24

Calls are made from Sami’s phone to Mark’s letting agent, likely to be Sani himself clarifying the requirements of being a guarantor.

 

26

Mark pays £1000 rental deposit for Fleet Street apartment

 

27

Mark transfers £2500 to Sami for apartment rent, with a view to moving in on 1st September.

 

 

Sami is seen laying bricks and gardening.

 

30

Neighbours begin to notice Sami’s behaviour changing. He has been cancelling prior engagements. “Sami rang to say he wasn’t really up to having visitors and he would let us know when he wanted us to go back to visit”

 

31

Mark packs bags in anticipation of his girlfriend’s arrival

September

 

1

Mark’s girlfriend’s flight is delayed. Mark has to delay plans to move to London that day.

 

 

Sami searches for a lean-to greenhouse to purchase for the garage construction site.

 

4

A builder visits Sami at home to give him a quote. The house is under renovation, with numerous open and unfinished worksites.

 

 

Sami spends the Friday night on AOL adult chatrooms. He’s given his mobile number to a few women who are still texting him, but lies about his age. Is this one of his confidence tricks, and do they ever meet?

 

 

After frustrated searches of Sami’s computer and phone, police will admit at Mark’s trial that “further identities of others who may have been in contact with SA have not been established”

 

5

The prosecution allege Sami is killed on this day

 

 

Mark and Sami start the day by popping to the shops together, stopping at a building merchant, where Sami looks at fence posts.

 

 

Mark phones his letting agent. His girlfriend’s delayed flight lands tomorrow, so Mark arranges to pick up the keys to their new flat. He has been living out of the bags he packed all week, yet the prosecution will claim that his dad never knew he was leaving.

 

 

Mark heads to London having packed the car with his bags & some furniture.

 

 

Mark realises Sami has left his mobile in the glove compartment of the car from that morning. He uses it to call the letting agent on his way to London.

 

 

Mark stops by a friend’s place where he’d left some of his girlfriend’s luggage. His friend comes down to help Mark load it in the already packed car.

 

 

Mark returns home. The prosecution will claim he is perpetrating a murder, but 20 minutes after his arrival, Mark is actually on Skype catching up with friends and is logged in all night.

 

 

Mark calls his girlfriend for 20 minutes before going to sleep.

 

6

Mark sets off to Luton Airport to pick up his girlfriend in his car. Sami is still at home and Mark won’t be back until next Thursday.

 

 

Mark arrives in London with his girlfriend and they begin settling in to their new apartment. He had begun viewing flats in August, and signed the papers nearly 2 weeks ago.

 

7

Mark and his girlfriend go shopping together at IKEA in London. Sami’s phone is still in the car, but Mark doesn’t use it and the battery dies. He knows Sami uses a number of phones, including burner phones, so returning it won’t be urgent.

 

 

Police will reveal that “one of the numbers found on Sami’s mobile was traced to a Mr Burgess who apparently sold sim cards on and thought it was maybe one of those somebody had ended up using with Sami’s phone”

 

8

Previously undisclosed evidence shows Sami meeting with someone from People’s Voices (a local charity linked to the County Council) to go over his annual returns, four days after the prosecution will say he has been killed. The evidence comes to light a year after Mark’s trial.

 

9

Mark cancels an old GP appointment he and Sami had booked before the flat had been secured. Mark will later register himself at the university practice in London.

 

10

Sami’s home insurance expires. The renewal notice was sent a month ago. The prosecution will claim this is ‘out of character’, in order to demonstrate he was no longer alive, but new evidence shows Sami would allow his cover to lapse for periods before taking new policies out.

 

 

Mark submits a formal request to his university to switch from a degree with a year abroad, to a straight law degree.

 

 

Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras pick Mark up leaving London in his car & along his journey home. It is one of two routes out of the city to make the 50-mile trip back. The other is by train from Euston to Leighton Buzzard, followed by a 15 minute taxi ride.

 

 

This is Mark’s only return visit home in all of September. Before he left, Mark was on Skype every evening chatting to his girlfriend as they fell asleep. Now he’s in London. Has a murder really taken place & everything been left untouched? Or is Sami actually still alive?

 

 

Mark visits his dad for a few hours and picks up a few more things for the flat. They check online whether it will be possible to cancel his Eurostar ticket if his transfer request is accepted by the university, but no cancellation is made.

 

 

Mark is back in London, catching up with old school friends in a Nandos.

 

11

A builder turns up at the house but gets no answer, “I didn’t notice anything unusual”. The prosecution will claim this shows Sami wasn’t there, but new evidence withheld at trial demonstrates a pattern of ignoring calls, visits, or appointments when it suited him

 

 

A neighbour will tell police she “hears people in the garden right up to the end of September”, but Mark is in London all this time apart from one brief visit home.

 

14

Mark’s university accept his transfer request to stay in London. The prosecution will argue the murder occurred over a week ago because Mark had already decided to stay, but the decision was not his. Up until this moment, Mark may have had to study in Paris if his university reject his transfer. This is why he & Sami have made contingency plans. The motive that the Crown will devise that Mark unilaterally ‘decided’ to stay in the UK last week cannot be correct.

 

15

Mark agrees to extend a client retainer, committing him to extensive daily hours of web development and social media management for the next 3 months, on top of his demanding law studies. He’s assigned hot-desking space off Wardour Street, in London, which he uses every week.

 

 

Mark and his girlfriend go to see a show at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

 

18

Mark has been designing a website for a professional opera singer over the past fortnight, and officially launches it today.

 

 

The prosecution will claim that Sami’s body is now lying in the garage of 2 Prospect Close. Were this true, experts say “a foul odour” would have developed by now. Situated at the top of the cul-de-sac, neighbours and postmen walk past it every day, yet notice nothing

 

 

Would anyone really leave a body unattended for a month by a main road? The prosecution will insist upon this because the garage temperature means Sami could have died in Sept. Yet entomologists will reveal that flies found there don’t match those on the remains. Experts will also confirm that a temperature difference of just a few degrees would put their estimate as to date of death out by as much as 6 weeks. With Mark away, and no evidence a murder has taken place, the only sensible interpretation of events is that Sami is still alive

 

19

Mark turns up to a friend’s housewarming party in London

 

20

A neighbour (SP) walks into Sami’s open garden (fences and gates have yet to be installed) and notices his plants have been watered. Mark hasn’t been anywhere near the house in the last 10 days and there are no sprinklers.

 

 

Mark is visiting the Barbican with his girlfriend

 

 

Mark finds himself increasingly occupied with work in London. He’s only found time to visit home once this month, so tries to call his dad for a catch up. Sami doesn’t pick up.

 

 

Up to 4 cleaners have access to Sami’s home right now, but as he always files his returns under false identities, police will never formally identify or trace the people working for him. Officers involved appear to give up entirely once they have Mark in custody.

 

 

An investigative journalist manages to finally trace one of Sami’s former cleaners in 2020. She left his employ in August 2009, but confirms seeing “other people going in” to his home, while neighbours were “aware ‘care’ workers did go to the house on a weekly basis”. The jury will never be told this.

 

22

Sami ignores a call from an occupational therapist. Contact has been intermittent over the years. She even closed his file in March 2009 after frustrated efforts to make contact. The prosecution won’t tell the jury about this, but instead paint it as an ‘unusual’ event.

 

23

Elected as ‘Communications Officer’ to his university Law Society last year, Mark is co-hosting a drinks reception for new law students at the Knight’s Templar Pub tonight. He’ll be at the Freshers’ Fayre tomorrow helping new arrivals settle in.

 

25

One of Mark’s clients runs a classic and luxury sports car rental agency in King’s Cross. They are meeting to discuss updates to the website Mark designed for them, and a potential new venture.

 

26

Sami hasn’t been using his landline or the mobile Mark returned to him 2 weeks ago. He seems to have gone off-grid and is keeping a low profile. Could this be a sign that he has landed in trouble? Neighbours say: “he was perfectly capable of dropping off the radar when he wanted to”

 

27

Mark is developing updates to his university’s Law Society website tonight.

 

 

Recalling her years living with Sami, Mark’s mother “noticed worrying signs of behaviour. Sami put paper over the front door glass, obviously for privacy, but the real reason was debt collectors trying to settle all manner of trouble. Sami was up to his neck”

 

28

Mark is attending a charity function at Home House, Portman Square

 

29

Lectures begin at Mark’s university. It’s the final and most important year of his law degree and for the next few months he’ll be attending 5 lectures a week, plus 3 or 4 seminar groups.

 

 

A friend of Sami will reveal that: “he told me there was some other trouble about the house and some money, and he was asking me what he should do, but I just cannot remember the details. It seemed there was some sort of serious concern that was worrying him.”

October

 

1

The prosecution will highlight that Sami hasn’t been using his diary lately to bolster their claim that he died 4 weeks ago. What they won’t tell the jury is that most of the diary is empty anyway. Up to September, barely 80 days out of 243 (33%) have entries. The rest are blank.

 

2

Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras pick Mark up leaving London in his car. He’s returning home for the first time in 3 weeks.

 

 

Mark stops off at the bank on the way to make a £240 cash withdrawal from his dad’s account to give him by hand. Bank statements show Mark has been doing this for Sami for over a year after being granted Power of Attorney to help Sami manage his ‘Alexander’ alias.

 

 

Mark calls his dad a few minutes away from home to say he’s about to arrive, but Sami doesn’t pick up. Historic phone records show numerous drop calls between them throughout the year. Mark parks up on the front drive.

 

 

As part of ongoing renovations inside and outside the family home, Mark’s dad sends him on an errand to hire a carpet cleaner from the local merchant they visited together 4 weeks ago. The prosecution will milk this point, but they will also fail to highlight evidence that Sami had been ringing around deep-cleaning companies on 11 and 18 August, which would have corroborated Mark’s account that the hire was routine and irrelevant to the case.

 

 

Mark heads back to London. He senses something is up, but Sami has been reluctant to talk about it, eventually claiming there’s been a family tragedy. Mark will later realise Sami has fobbed him off to keep him out of whatever’s really going on. What was Sami hiding?

 

3

Mark is hosting his own housewarming party tonight with his girlfriend as they settle into their rented studio apartment. Nestled above Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub on Fleet Street, it is a 5-minute walk from the university, and the Maughan Library.

 

4

As the party winds down, Mark gives one of his guests a lift back to their London home.

 

5

After another day of seminars, Mark has arrived at Amika, where the venue has been booked out for a student party he is co-hosting. Mark has been helping to organise everything over the past few weeks as the student Law Society welcomes everyone back to the faculty

 

6

Sami hasn’t been talking to his neighbours. They will tell police “if he wanted to remain private and uncommunicative, he would do just that”. Another neighbour remarks: “there was no point in pursuing him if he didn’t want to be pursued”.

 

 

A neighbour who saw Sami over the summer says:

“I didn’t see Sami again after that day, but as he was a secretive and quite reclusive man I thought nothing of it, and as his car appeared to move every once in a while on his driveway I just assumed that he was in the house”

 

7

Mark registers with his university GP

 

8

Mark is attending a reception for law students at a leading City law firm.

 

 

A neighbour will explain at trial that “even if Sami was in the house, he wouldn’t necessarily answer the door or see anyone”. Another relates how Sami “would ignore me. This wasn’t due to any conflict and I never knew the reason, I believe that was just the way he was”

 

 

A Serious Case Review will reveal “there were a cluster of indications that things were not right regarding Sami. The NHS didn’t know much about him or his history. The fact that he had many names was not known. A member of the Panel observed: “he seemed not to exist”

 

10

Mark has been invited to a friend’s birthday party in Jrink, Dean Street

 

11 or 18

The neighbourhood watch co-ordinator (TM) is doing his rounds and sees Sami on his driveway. He says ‘good morning’ but Sami doesn’t respond. “I am 100% certain it was Sami”. This evidence is not disclosed at Mark’s trial, allowing the prosecution to
claim Sami died 5 weeks ago.

 

 

Mark is shopping 50 miles away, in Covent Garden

 

12

Mark is meeting a client at his office in Wardour Street

 

 

After lengthy contractor delays, Mark’s landline is finally connected at the London flat. He has been relying on a 3G connection for the past month

 

 

Automatic number plate recognition cameras pick Mark up making his way out of London to visit his dad

 

 

Sami has sent Mark on a local shopping errand. Mark tries calling him while he is out

 

 

A taxi arrives to take Mark to Leighton Buzzard train station. A neighbour stops to chat as he gets in with some luggage. “Hello Mark, you’re back. Is everything all right?”
She asks after Sami. “Yeah, everything’s fine, thanks”. Mark says he’ll pop over on Thursday.

 

13

Suspicious activity is reported by residents in Drayton Parslow, who police warn to “be on your guard”. A young white male is seen knocking on doors and climbing through windows

 

 

After another day of lectures, Mark unwinds at a dinner event at the Dover Street Arts Club

 

14

Mark is at a legal graduate recruitment event in Canary Wharf

 

15

Mark calls his dad after a lecture, before catching a train out of London to visit him. Little do they know that today will be the last time they ever see each other

 

 

Mark stops off at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in Leighton Buzzard, where he has spent the summer training as a volunteer Advisor. He stays for just over an hour before calling a taxi to drop him off at the family home

 

 

Mark visits family home. This is the last time he sees his father alive. We believe Sami was killed at some point during the next 30 days, while Mark was in London.

 

 

Mark pops over to the neighbours opposite to catch up as promised, but realises Sami has been completely blanking them and they have no idea that Mark is living in London

 

 

An old friend of Sami’s explains how he often blanked even those closest to him: “I attempted to contact him but unfortunately, it was his choice and request not to get in contact with him again. I am not aware of any reason for this and Sami did not inform me of any”

 

 

Having boasted widely about Mark studying in Paris, neighbours explain that “if Mark was not going to the Sorbonne, Sami would very much have found that humiliating to tell
people about”. Mark brings the neighbours up to speed and explains that Sami has been feeling a bit low

 

 

Neighbours recall: “Sami was very reserved, and a very private person. After a while he cut us dead. I’m not aware of the reason for this”.

 

 

Mark returns home again, but Sami is annoyed about the visit and feels like Mark has betrayed his privacy. Sami is clearly going through some problems of his own, hence him keeping such a low-profile, so perhaps he is just taking his frustrations out on Mark?

 

 

Forensic psychologists will explain that Sami was: “extremely suspicious and cautious and feared people knowing too much about their personal life, discouraging neighbours from taking interest in their affairs”.

 

 

To build a case against Mark, the prosecution is forced to argue that none of this happened, or rather that it did, but just not in October.

 

 

Mark takes a taxi back to the train station for London. He leaves feeling downhearted that Sami has lost his cool over something so trivial, but takes it in his stride, expecting it to blow over in time.

 

 

Mark arrives back at the London flat, but embarrassed by the situation, decides not to bring it up with his girlfriend: “Mark didn’t like talking about his dad, I think this is because I have a very informal relationship with my mum which is so different from his”.

 

16

Mark is meeting a client to go over their social media platform. A friend will later describe how Mark “created a Facebook app with almost a million users.” “He was a young professional: driven, busy, always working to a deadline. I never could get my head around how he managed to keep all the plates in the air”

 

17

Mark lets a couple of his friends from out of town stay with him at his London flat over the weekend.

 

18

We believe that Sami’s life is taken at some point this weekend. Despite the prosecutions claim that he died 5 weeks ago. The consultant pathologist finds it: “entirely plausible that the deceased could still have been alive in October”.

 

 

No blood was found at Sami’s house, no signs of a struggle, and no fire. We believe Sami knew his killers and leaves the house, perhaps in his car, to meet them, when something goes terribly wrong.

 

 

Police will find what they describe as a ‘toy gun’ at the burial site. Its significance, if any, is unknown and will be omitted at trial. Might one of Sami’s killers used it to threaten him?

 

 

Sami’s phone book contained a list of ‘enemies’ in it, and he was known for getting into scrapes. Marks’ Grandfather describes “how he could easily accumulate many enemies”.

 

 

Sami once confided in a friend about some of his troubles: “he said:” “if anything happened to him to make sure I looked after Mark, that he was alright.”

 

 

A neighbour recalls “one particular incidence when Sami was chased into Prospect Close by the occupants of another vehicle, which ended with Sami driving onto my lawn and
smashing a plant pot.”

 

 

Sami had been running from debt for years, he once told a neighbour “if someone knocks on the door then you don’t know me”. Might he have owed money to the wrong people?

 

19

Oblivious to his father’s tragic fate, Mark remains occupied with study, attending and meeting the University Law Society over lunch.

 

 

Mark goes to a recruitment event at another City Law firm.

 

20

It’s Mark’s birthday today. He has a flat party planned for Friday and hopes his dad will call, but Sami never does.

 

 

Mark has signed up to an interview skills workshop at a city law firm.

 

21

Mark takes a train to attend a Citizens Advice Bureau training course for the day in Dunstable.

 

 

Mark attends the launch of a graduate business plan competition hosted by his University at Chapters.

 

22

Neighbours recall Sami wasn’t afraid to use violence, “he was capable of turning it on very quickly”. Might he have been killed during an altercation?

 

 

“Once Sami came out of the house looking very angry and he had a dagger type knife in his hand. It was the glint of the sunlight on the blade that really scared me.”

 

23

Guests start arriving at Marks flat for his birthday party. They will all go to the HMV Forum in Kentish Town later tonight.

 

24

Mark gets around to settling a fine for missing the congestion charge last month. Made out to Sami, he flagged it with Mark a few weeks back. Mark takes responsibility for paying since he was the one driving.

 

 

Mark goes to a friend’s birthday party with his girlfriend.

 

25

Mark will make a number of trips home over the next 4 weeks but never finds Sami in.

 

 

Mark’s mum recalls “lots of gaps during my relationship with Sami. “He would leave me with Mark and go off to his mysterious ‘business’ meetings, wheeler-dealing, ducking and diving like a loveable rogue.”

 

 

One of Sami’s fraud victims will reveal after Mark’s trial how Sami took out credit cards in her name, forging her signature. “He landed me in all kinds of nightmare debt. I
had agencies chasing me. I was innocent and used as a vulnerable victim”

 

 

Police will reveal Sami “used a variety of profiles” to target young women. “Even if
he used his own name it would vary”. In a typical case: “he gave her his mobile but she realised he was much older than she’d been led to believe”

 

 

In 2011, new evidence of a historic allegation against Sami claims “he is basically a clever thief who has meticulously planned to make easy money out of a naive young girl and me”. In his historic allegation the victim’s step-father reveals: “knowing Sami’s violent nature, I was living in constant fear. His persistent demands to comply with his wishes made me ill. He even accosted me when I was shopping to sign forms”

 

 

Might Sami have gone too far or pulled off one con too many? Police will admit they are “not able to locate all subscribers” for texts with/from “various women Sami had been in contact with online”

 

26

Mark’s broadband is finally connected at the London flat. He will return spare equipment to the family home on his next visit there.

 

 

Mark begins developing an app for ordering fast-food and pre-booking restaurants, as part of a new startup he has joined.

 

29

Mark is delivering a talk in the British Library’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on a virtual reality conferencing solution he has designed.

 

 

Mark meets friends at 7 Upper St Martin’s Lane for a Halloween party.

 

30

Mark catches up with some old school friends over lunch.

 

31

Mark is invited to another flat party tonight

November

 

11

Mark renews his CRB clearance as part of his volunteer work for Street Law, a charity delivering talks in schools to encourage students to take up law.

 

13

Sami’s killers likely take his body with debris from the fire (like his watch, frozen at 1.50) to 2 Prospect Close around this time, under cover of darkness, stowing it temporarily in
the garage.

 

 

6 months after Mark’s trial, repossession agents will discover “one of the garage doors had been broken off its hinges”. Might Sami’s killers have forced entry into this outbuilding?

 

 

The forensic archaeologist will find “possible transportation of the body would have likely resulted in splinters” admitting at trial “the body may have been elsewhere for a period of time”

 

 

It is unclear whether construction work on a new site behind the garage in Prospect Close began before or after Sami’s death, but it will be here that his body is ultimately, tragically found.

 

 

The site where Sami’ body will be hidden is 1.2m deep, 1.3m wide, and 2.15m long, “with little evidence of weathering, wash, or windblown detritus, it was probably not open for a
long time before the mortar was poured” say Scenes of Crime Officers

 

 

A 2017 re-excavation of the site by Chartered Engineers and Geologists reveals that work would have been: “arduous and prolonged, especially as no suspicions were aroused, suggested a quiet, after-dark operation”

 

 

Experts estimate it would take a single person working non-stop for 7 hours a day, 6 full days to complete just the excavation and nothing else. Mark hasn’t been in the area for even half that since last seeing Sami.

 

 

Whether opportunistically or with foresight, Sami’s killers hide his body in the recently excavated root-barrier site behind the garage, within over a cubic metre of mortar stratified in 3 layers.

 

 

A chartered geologist will conclude each mortar layer requires at least 3 hours “to dry and harden sufficiently for the next to constitute a clear, different layer”. More time that Mark simply didn’t hav

e.

 

 

Experts will find the mortar “well compacted. The strength and consistency in mix proportions and quality suggest preparation by an experienced person”, expertise Mark
clearly lacks.

 

14

Mark is in London, waking up to find the Lord Mayor’s Parade passing by his flat. He takes pictures from his balcony.

 

 

Mark joins friends at Embankment to watch the Lord Mayor’s fireworks, oblivious to what devastation must surely be happening almost simultaneously at his childhood home.

 

 

Police note Sami’s “difficult behaviour extended to people who sold goods & undertook
work for him. He was described as ‘out for everything he could get”. Might Sami have refused to pay contractors for the costly root-barrier dig?

 

 

A neighbour tells police Sami was often heard or seen “arguing with tradesmen, who seemed to be regular visitors”. No one ever came forward to claim responsibility for
the professional dig. Might an altercation have turned foul?

 

17

Mark is making his way to the house by train, hoping his dad will be in this time, unaware he is already dead.

 

 

Finding no-one home, Mark takes a walk around the grounds & notices fresh building work. “There was nothing unusual looking about the site at all, I didn’t think to question
it” and why would you? How could anyone possibly imagine or even tell?

 

 

With the winter drawing in, Mark ponders whether to leave the site as it is and risk it lying unfinished for another season, or to take the initiative and fulfill his dad’s plans as they’d discussed in August.

 

 

Neighbours say Sami was “well known for starting jobs but never finishing”. Mark takes the fateful decision to order concrete to fill what he thinks is the unfinished root barrier.

 

 

Browser history shows Mark searching online for contractors. There were no prior searches. A local firm agrees to send a delivery truck on Thursday. They say Mark’s “concrete request wasn’t out of the ordinary at all”

 

 

New evidence discovered after Mark’s trial reveals Sami obtained planning permission to fell 2 lime trees in this area which he felt “pose a visible thread to the foundations of
the house and garage”

 

 

Sami had already completed 2 root-barriers at the house itself some years ago. The garage area was the third and final site of its kind, with plans set in motion over the summer.

 

 

The forensic archaeologist on scene with police will note: “the root system of a tree that had been cut down was immediately found to the east of the slab. Some of the roots had been cut”

 

 

Mark simply didn’t make enough trips or spend enough time at the family home to be responsible for his father’s murder and burial. The sheer scale of the crime requires several
people, with construction expertise, to perpetrate.

 

 

Large stockpiles of sand and cement were found at the house. If Mark was responsible he’d have used them, yet experts find no match. The mortar is “a completely different formulation, the sand coarser in terms of silica content”

 

 

Mark calls for a taxi to take him to the station and back to London, arriving in time for his afternoon lecture at university. He will be attending an interview skills workshop at a city law firm tonight.

 

19

Mark is in a 2-hour legal seminar at university this morning. Little does he realise that events today will have unforeseeable repercussions for years to come.

 

 

The concrete driver turns up an hour early, parking up in Prospect Close while Mark makes his way by train. Neighbours aren’t surprised “because of the amount of building works
that had gone on there over the years & some never getting finished”

 

 

Mark returns home to direct the concrete delivery.

 

 

Mark goes inside to change into his dirty work clothes. Police will find them unwashed. Had Mark been guilty there would be traces linking him to the burial, but there are none.

 

 

Mark asks the driver to reverse onto the front drive. A neighbour “got a bit annoyed because I couldn’t get out. I had to sit and wait. As I drove away I noticed Mark wave at us as if to say ‘Thanks for waiting’”

 

 

Neighbours didn’t see any building work prior to Mark’s visit yesterday. If he was guilty there would be no sense in him going beyond the clandestine layers of mortar and “exposing” himself like this. As Mark says:“I had nothing to hide”

 

 

Mark’s concrete order offers another big clue. It is a completely different material from the mortar his father has been hidden under. If he had been guilty then every layer would have been identical.

 

 

The driver starts unloading. “I remember thinking Mark was out of his depth. When I filled the first wheelbarrow for him he toppled over as though he’d never used one before. He clearly didn’t have a clue what he was doing”

 

 

Chartered engineers and geologists will reveal that, by comparison to the professionally laid mortar, Mark’s work “is less well compacted. The absence of shuttering suggests a non-specialist installation”

 

 

The truck driver leaves and Mark soon calls for a taxi to take him back. The awful tragedy of the whole situation won’t become apparent for several months.

 

 

The shock revelation will be hugely traumatising for Mark, who refuses to believe the body police find is his dad’s. It is only later, alone in a cell, when the post-mortem results
reach Mark via BBC News, that he realises the awful truth.

 

 

From the dock Mark explains: “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was like something out of a horror book. When I found out it was my father’s remains, I was half in doubt, half in grief”

 

 

Experts for the defence will visit the burial site before Mark’s trial intending “to drill core
samples through all the various layers. However, it was apparent the area had been completely excavated & broken up” by SOCO

 

 

The defence will instead travel to an LGC Forensics lab where samples from the site are kept, but there is no core drill, only loose rubble in brown paper bags.

 

 

MOLAS sampling procedures require “all samples to be double-bagged in strong polythene”. In paper, mortar reacts with oxygen. All hopes of dating the samples to establish when Sami was buried are dashed.

 

 

Mark meets up with friends attending the Bond Noel celebrations, where they will watch the Christmas lights being switched on in Bond Street later tonight.

 

 

A neighbour back in Drayton Parslow reports seeing someone driving Sami’s car. If Mark left by taxi and is now in London, who is in the car?

2010

January

11

Mark returns from overseas with his girlfriend to discover a water leak and a deserted 2 Prospect Close.

 

14

Mark gives plumber and renovators spare keys to the family home.

February

4

Sami is reported missing by the neighbours.

 

 

At this point, Mark still assumes his dad is away on business and up to his old tricks. As social service records reveal, Mark had grown up “to learn parrot fashion whatever scenario Sami is playing at any one time.”

 

 

In a new discovery, “life principles” written by Sami, urge Mark to “Guard the privacy of your life strictly. Never trust anyone in guarding secrets. Don’t volunteer any marginal information unless expressly desirable.”

 

 

In police interview Mark says: “I feel like I should have acted sooner, taken things more seriously, but knowing the history and his unpredictability I wasn’t surprised. It really didn’t occur to me that actually, this is unusual, and [it] should have”

 

 

On the stand Mark explains: “All of this time I’d just thought dad was being stubborn. It’s difficult to come to terms with the fact that when he needed me most, I wasn’t there. It’s impossible to find any closure”

 

5

Social services inform Mark for the first time that they do not know where his father is. Mark is arrested later that evening.

 

 

Never having been in custody before, Mark related the stress of it all at trial: “I was desperately trying to understand what was going on. I was struggling, swimming in speculation in the interviews & at the same time trying to be helpful”

 

10

Police Scenes of Crime Officers recover Sami’s body, but fail to store geological samples in polythene bags, making it impossible for the defence to test when the burial actually occurred.

 

 

When Sami’s remains are found, they are badly burnt. Experts will reveal that smoke & flames would be seen & smelt “from a great distance”, yet nothing like this is ever reported. Police find no evidence of any localised fire or soot damage. So where did it happen?

 

 

All indications point to the murder and destruction of the remains happening at a second, unknown location. Yet the jury will never hear this possibility, probably because all sources (including cell tower location data) rule Mark out of such a
scenario.

 

 

Officers “used Kastle Meyer reagent to speculatively search for blood between the floorboards. All tests were negative”.

April

27

Police prevent Mark attending his father’s funeral to allow prosecution witnesses to ‘pay their respects’. The family refuse to go without Mark.

May

28

Prosecution experts confirm Sami’s body was not dismembered, a fact that will be ignored by the prosecuting barrister to lend drama to his opening speech.

June

21

Mark is reunited with his estranged mother after more than 10 years.

 

22

The Court refuses to give Mark’s defence team more time to prepare their case, despite their request for an extension after Mark switches representation to a new team of lawyers.

 

29

Police commission Buckinghamshire County Council to conduct a Serious Case Review into Sami’s care, but fail to notify the defence. None of the evidence obtained in the course of that review is disclosed at Mark’s trial.

July

27

Mark’s trial begins.

 

 

A clearly distressed Mark tearfully but emphatically tells the trial judge: “I would never harm my father. I would never do that”

September

8

Mark is found guilty of murder by a majority (10 – 2) jury after more than 13 hours of deliberation. One of the jury members walks out in tears.

View the Daily Mirror Article from May 2020

Post-trial Years

2010

Mar

Mark is given bereavement counselling at his prison.

2011

June

Mark loses an early appeal on procedural technicalities. No fresh evidence was available to put before the Court at this point.

2012

Sept

Mark is exhibited at the Royal Festival Hall for the first of three occasions (including 2014 and 2015) whilst incarcerated, through the Koestler Trust

2013

Jan

Mark founds and Chairs his first Prisoner Council to enhance the representative democratic structure of the prison he is in, with a view to instilling prisoners with pro-social, democratic values. The Council actively involves prisoners in decisions that affect them and the environment that they live in, through effective and
meaningful consultation. As part of his role as Chair, Mark begins to conduct
regular conduct consultations with prisoners, hold focus groups, and engage
in advocacy work on their behalf. Mark will go on to found and Chair another
Council at his next prison in 2017.

 

July

Mark takes his Grade 8 Piano exam in prison.

2014

July

Mark is awarded the Diploma of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (DipABRSM) for Music Performance, following a baritone recital.

 

Sept

Mark’s first composition, ‘The Supplicant’s Song – written in prison – is premiered at his local Church in Leighton Buzzard

 

Oct

The Criminal Cases Review Commission opt not to refer Mark’s first application to the Court of Appeal, despite fresh evidence.

 

 

Mark is assessed as too ‘low risk’ for any of the offender behaviour programmes he is eligible for as part of his sentence plan. This leaves him with no way of demonstrating ‘reduced risk’ as a prisoner maintaining innocence.

2015

May

Mark’s article, ‘Innocence Projects – a way forward?’, is published on The Justice Gap

 

June

A documentary filmmaker seeks permission to interview Mark in prison about his case but is refused access by the Ministry of Justice.

2016

June

Innocence Projects – Green Shoots, Mark’s first academic publication in prison, appears in Criminal Law & Justice Weekly, 180(23): 411 – 415. Preparing this research involved him corresponding with law professors in more than 20 universities.

 

July

Mark is awarded the Patrick Pakenham Award for law by the Longford Trust.
He is the first ever recipient to be awarded the scholarship whilst still in prison.

2017

Nov

Mark graduates with a 2:1 – LL.B. (Hons) degree, having repeated his final year in prison. His marks are 20% higher on average than they had been prior to his incarceration.

2018

Apr

Mark submits a written response to the Government’s consultation paper on Reconsideration of Parole Board Systems: creating a new and open system’, (CM 9612) after holding focus groups in his prison

 

May

Mark meets his maternal half-sister for the first time

 

Jun

Mark acts as a Tour Guide on a special two-week visiting exhibition by the Anne Frank Trust, attended by Eva Schloss, the step-sister of Anne Frank.

 

Sep

Mark organises a charity event in his prison, raising almost £1000 for the Howard League for Penal Reform

 

Oct

The Crown Prosecution Service agree to partially reopen Mark’s case, and begin disclosing previously unseen exhibits to his defence team

 

Dec

Mark is published in the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, 27(2): 54 – 74, with a paper he has written A Phenomenology of Freedom: finding transcendence in captivity’

 

 

Terry Waite hosts an afternoon of ‘Words and Music’ at Mark’s prison, reading poetry from his new anthology ‘Out of the Silence’, interspersed with classic music from Mark on the piano and violin.

2019

July

Mark graduates with an LL.M. from UCL through the University of London, achieving a Merit.

 

Sep

Mark submits written evidence to the Westminster Commission on Miscarriages of Justice, which is later cited in their report ‘In the Interests of Justice

 

Nov

Mark contributes a short chapter ‘The case for decriminalisation’ to the book ‘Crime and Consequence

2020

Oct

Mark is elected an Associate of King’s College London

 

Nov

An investigative journalist applies for permission to interview Mark as part of a podcast series about his case, but is refused permission by the Ministry of Justice.

2021

May

Mark contributes a short chapter ‘Swimming against the tide’ to a book called ‘Writing Within Walls by the Arkbound Foundation

 

Apr

Khulisa UK introduce their new book, ‘Humane Justice’, with a Preface by Mark.

2022

Feb

Mark submits a written response to the Government’s ‘Prisons Strategy White Paper’, on behalf of the men at his prison.

 

Apr

The Secretary of State for Justice agrees to refer the question of reforms to the Court of Appeal ‘safety test’ to the Law Commission, following Mark’s letter writing campaign on the issue.

 

Aug

The Law Commission confirm that they are commencing a review into possible reforms to the Court of Appeal, following Mark’s campaign to raise awareness about shortcomings in the mechanism for hearing potential miscarriages of justice.

 

Oct

BBC Radio 4 visit Mark’s prison to do a piece on Liberty Choir, a charity that brings music into prisons. They record the session, while Mark is playing his violin.

2023

Jan

Mark is granted permission for Judicial Review on appeal by Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Bean, allowing him to challenge the Ministry of Justice’s refusal to grant him access to the assistance of an investigative journalist

July

Ministry of Justice grant permission for Mark to be interviewed by a journalist over the phone, following a landmark ruling from the High Court on 16 June 2023.

October

Mark submits written evidence to the Law Commission as its considers reforms to the Criminal Appeals process.

2024

March

Mark is awarded the LRSM (Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music) following an exam which involved him delivering a 45-minute art-song recital from memory.

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