Tabak 'could have let Joanna Yeates go if he wanted to but decided to kill her' - Daily Mail

• Strangulation 'is a method of killing that takes time and it isn't done in the spur of the moment' says prosecutor in closing speech
• QC calls on jurors not to be taken in by 'intelligent' defendant labelling him 'dishonest, deceitful and a liar'
• Defence said court should reject the assertion that her death was 'planned, premeditated and sexually motivated' 
  

By James White

Last updated at 6:14 PM on 25th October 2011

Vincent Tabak could have let Joanna Yeates live if he had wanted to, a court heard today.

Instead he held her by the throat until she fell limp in his hands, jurors at Bristol Crown Court were told.

In a closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Nigel Lickley QC said the 33-year-old could have just walked away.

Closing speeches: Jurors will hear the final prosecution and defence cases in the murder trial of Vincent Tabak, right, who has already admitted killing Joanna Yeates inside her flat

He insisted that when Tabak went to Miss Yeates's flat in Clifton, Bristol, he had sex on his mind.

Mr Lickley told jurors that, once inside her home, there was a struggle - denied by Tabak - as Miss Yeates fought for her life.

'To accept it, it means he had to overcome her, he had to be stronger and maintain his purpose to ensure she did not escape,' Mr Lickley said.

'He knew what he was doing. He was in control and he knew she would die and he held her neck long enough, and coupled with a smothering second hand, to be sure that she would.

'It goes to his intent and his intention to kill or cause really serious bodily harm.'

Family: Joanna Yeates, mother Teresa, father David, left, boyfriend Greg Reardon, second left, and brother Chris arrive at court today

Killer: A prison van carrying defendant Tabak arrives at Bristol Crown Court today

Mr Lickley went on: 'He knew she was struggling and fighting, he knew she was in pain, he knew she was frightened, he knew she couldn't breathe.

'Instead of letting go and releasing his grip and letting her live, he carried on and on and on until she went dead in his hands, her life extinguished.'

During Mr Lickley's speech, Tabak did not look up from the dock, instead staring at the floor and keeping his head in his hands.

Miss Yeates's parents, David and Teresa, her brother David and boyfriend Greg Reardon sat quietly in the front row of the public gallery, as they have done throughout the trial. On occasions Mrs Yeates looked tearful.

Vincent Tabak, 33, denies Miss Yeates's murder but has admitted her manslaughter.

During the trial at Bristol Crown Court the Dutch engineer described his actions as 'horrendous' as he showed jurors with his own hand how he strangled his next-door neighbour.

Tabak said he had been attracted to 25-year-old Miss Yeates and 'made a pass at her' when she invited him in to her flat in Clifton, Bristol.

The prosecution maintain Tabak's assault was sexually motivated - an accusation rejected by the defence.

Mr Lickley said today that Tabak had intended to kill the landscape architect or cause her really serious harm because he gripped her throat for long enough and hard enough to end her life.

'Twenty seconds is long time,' Mr Lickley said.

Girlfriend: Tabak pictured with his girlfriend Tanja Morson at Stonehenge

'Whatever, in fact, the period of time was - it might have been less, it might have been more, perhaps 15 seconds, 20 seconds or 30 seconds - but it is a long time when you have your hands around the throat of another person.

'It is when someone has their hands around your throat and they are squeezing and squeezing to such an extent that you cannot breathe.

'Vincent Tabak knows how long he held her throat, you may think.

'Every second means a continued determination to kill. It is not a few seconds but a significant period of time.

'It is long enough and hard enough, a sustained, continuous period of pressure of sufficient force to cause the body to react as it does.

'It is a long time to imagine the holding of a neck, the sounds, the fight, the fear in the eyes of the victim - all directed at Vincent Tabak.

'Because he was facing Joanna Yeates all until the person goes limp.

'It is a long time to hold anyone forcefully, yet alone around the neck.

'It takes no time to realise what consequences are from what the person holding your neck is intent on doing.'

Mr Lickley said strangulation was not something done on the 'spur of the moment'.

'There is no use of a weapon, a knife or a blunt instrument but a hand,' he told jurors.

'It brings a unique connection between the attacker and the victim. The two people are joined in the moments leading up to death.

'The hand of the attacker feeling the neck of his victim.

'The other hand smothering her mouth - the distance perhaps the length of Vincent Tabak's arm.

'It is a method of killing that takes time and it isn't done in the spur of the moment.

'It is not instantaneous, unlike the insertion of a knife.

'It is protracted and it is persistent and it requires quite deliberate acts and a determination to carry on and carry on despite the reaction and the actions of the victim.

'It involves a deliberate choice to rule out the decision to stop and release the grip.

'You carry on until the person presumably in your hand, after the person has stopped, you let them fall to the ground.'

Together: Joanna Yeates and her boyfriend Greg Reardon. Miss Yeates' father David and Mr Reardon watched intently earlier in the trial as Tabak told a jury he had not been sexually aroused as he killed her

Mr Lickley described Tabak as 'shrewd' and accused him of making 'careful decisions'.

'Vincent Tabak is very clever, he is intelligent,' he told jurors.

'There is another side to Vincent Tabak. He is dishonest, deceitful and he is a liar.'

Mr Lickley also accused Tabak of making up his recollections of the night of December 17 last year to match his account.

He told jurors that when Tabak gave evidence, he answered 'Can't remember' to more than 80 questions from him.

Jurors have been told Miss Yeates suffered 43 separate injuries when she was attacked.

Defence QC William Clegg closed his case yesterday and addressed the jury today after prosecutor Mr Lickley had spoken.

He said he was not going to excuse the defendant's actions and appealed to the jury to reach a verdict based on the evidence alone.

'I am not going to ask you to excuse his conduct after the killing, there can be no excuse,' Mr Clegg said.

'If either of us set out to win a popularity contest, I would lose and rightly so.

Mr Clegg called Tabak's behaviour 'dreadful' and added: 'But it does not alter what was in his mind at the time it happened.

'There is only one thing that I can ask and that is a verdict based on the evidence heard in this court, nothing more, nothing less.'

Mr Clegg said jurors should reject the prosecution assertion that Miss Yeates's death was 'planned, premeditated and sexually motivated' as the evidence did not support it.

He said the prosecution case could not explain how Tabak had got inside Miss Yeates's flat and suggested the defendant's evidence of being invited in was correct.

Mr Clegg said prosecution claims that Tabak had picked up Miss Yeates's cat and taken it back to her flat were not supported by the evidence.

'That goes a long way to destroy the suggestion that this killing was planned,' Mr Clegg said.

The barrister also asked the jury to accept Tabak's view that Miss Yeates's death happened after 9.35pm and not shortly after she arrived home at 8.45pm.

He said the witness reports of screams coming from Canynge Road were more likely to be students celebrating the end of term than Miss Yeates's desperate fight for life.

'These noises had nothing to do with this case at all. They are certainly a red herring,' he said.

Mr Clegg said the attack on Miss Yeates was very short and the jury should not hold it against Tabak that he could not recall every detail when giving evidence.

'I am going to invite you to conclude this was a very short, fast-moving incident which would have been over in less than 30 seconds,' Mr Clegg said.

'That is what this case is about - whether or not Vincent Tabak had formed an intention to kill or cause serious harm to Joanna Yeates.

'There was a few seconds of madness.

'We would invite you to say the fact he cannot provide a second-by-second account in what happened in that fast-moving, dynamic situation is really not surprising. Could you really expect it of anyone?'

Mr Clegg concluded: 'We invite you to reject the prosecution's suggestion this was planned, to reject their suggestion it was premeditated, to reject their suggestion it was sexually motivated, and to reject their suggestion she was killed at about 8.40pm.

'We invite you to come to the conclusion that the evidence points to it being unplanned, unpremeditated, without sexual motivation and with death occurring after 9.35pm.'

The trial was adjourned until tomorrow when the judge, Mr Justice Field, will begin summing up.

Landscape architect Miss Yeates was last alive on the evening of December 17 last year.

She was reported missing two days later when her boyfriend Greg Reardon returned to their ground floor flat in Canynge Road, Clifton, Bristol, after a weekend away.

Police launched a massive hunt for the university graduate but her body was found by dog walkers on Christmas morning in a country lane in Failand, North Somerset - just three miles from her home.

The net closed in on Tabak and he was arrested on January 20 when police matched his DNA to samples found on Miss Yeates's body and clothing.

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