Angelika Jury Told 'Priest Was Involved', Glasgow Evening Times [Scotland], May 3, 2007

Angelika Jury Told 'Priest Was Involved'

Glasgow Evening Times [Scotland]
May 3, 2007

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1374444.0.angelika_jury_told_priest_was_involved.php

Jurors in the Angelika Kluk murder trial were today asked to find the courage to believe a priest was involved in her death.

Defence QC Donald Findlay was making his closing speech at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He reminded jurors of evidence about parish priest Father Gerry Nugent, who told the court he had had a sexual relationship with the 23-year-old Polish student.

Mr Findlay said Father Gerry, 63, and defence witness Matthew Spark-Egan - who had fantasies about his own violent exploits - seemed to know a lot about where and how Angelika's body was hidden, when they could not have learned it from any external source.

Before the trial the proposition would have seemed "insane", the lawyer said.

He added: "The fact is there is now clear evidence to entitle you to conclude a man with an obsession for murder and a parish priest in Glasgow were involved in the death of Angelika Kluk."

VICTIM: Angelika Kluk

Mr Findlay said he was not saying Father Gerry was the actual murderer.

And he appealed: "We are asking you to do justice to two people - Angelika Kluk and Peter Tobin.

"In these courts we do try to do justice, to the dead and to the living.

Father Gerry Nugent

"It is no justice for Angelika Kluk to convict somebody who should not be convicted."

Church handyman Tobin, 60, denies raping and murdering Angelika and hiding her body under the floor at St Patrick's Church in Anderston last September.

Mr Findlay also warned the jurors to avoid a "catastrophic miscarriage of justice" by trying to play at amateur detectives.

Peter Tobin arrives at the High Court

The lawyer said prosecutor Dorothy Bain's closing speech, asking the jury to convict Tobin, had been short and concise.

"The Crown chose to pick bits of evidence and present them to you," he said.

"The Crown are entitled to ignore vast swathes of evidence - as they did."

The QC told the jurors - eight woman and seven men - that Tobin had denied murdering Angelika by his plea of not guilty. After that he had nothing to prove.

Mr Findlay added: "You are not here as amateur detectives. You are here to look at the evidence presented to you."

He warned against convicting Tobin simply because somebody must have done it.

"To adopt that approach would be to bring about a catastrophic miscarriage of justice," he added.

The trial continues.