Migrant ‘murdered couple he thought were millionaires’
AN Albanian asylum seeker with gambling debts murdered an elderly couple he believed were millionaires, a court heard yesterday.
Ali Qazimaj allegedly targeted Peter and Sylvia Stuart because he thought they had access to large sums.
He went on the run abroad after using 69-year-old Mrs Stuart’s bank card to take money from a cash machine, a jury was told.
The body of Mr Stuart, 75, was discovered yards from the couple’s isolated house in Weybread, near Eye in Suffolk.
His wife’s body has never been found, although the prosecution said it would be ‘remarkable if she had simply vanished without a trace’.
Karim Khalil QC, prosecuting, said there was ‘powerful circumstantial evidence’ and forensic evidence against the defendant, as well as his ‘sudden disappearance’.
‘ We say that all of this evidence demonstrates that Ali Qazimaj was the person who murdered Mr and Mrs Stuart,’ he added.
Concerns were raised about the Stuarts’ whereabouts in late May last year when they failed to attend their regular line dancing class.
Police eventually discovered Mr Stuart’s body on June 3. He had ‘multiple’ stab wounds and was ‘ concealed’ under a tarpaulin in a ditch.
Ipswich Crown Court heard Qazimaj had a reputation for spending up to £1,000 a day on gambling machines at bookmakers’ premises.
He was said to have borrowed £700 from a colleague at a recycling firm in early May but had paid back only £400. He had also asked his boss for a £900 advance on his £1,200-a-month salary, which was declined.
Phone records and car number plate recognition cameras placed Qazimaj near the Stuarts’ home in the following weeks, ‘ sometimes in the cover of darkness, sometimes during the day’.
They also suggested the 43year- old, who lived in Tilbury, Essex, was in the vicinity of cash machines where attempts were made to withdraw money from Mrs Stuart’s account after she disappeared. Only £300 was taken because of the daily limit on the Barclaycard. Poor lighting and the angle of cameras meant it was not possible to identify who used the ATMs.
The jury heard Qazimaj knew of the Stuarts because he had acted as carer for the father and stepmother of their son-in-law, Steven Paxman.
Mr Paxman’s father, Sidney, who lives in Essex, had given Qazimaj ‘the best part of £10,000 over the years’, Mr Khalil said. He added: ‘Sidney would say he had told Ali Qazimaj about the Stuarts, describing them as millionaires.’
Qazimaj allegedly told Mr Paxman senior that he had ‘carried out a contract killing’ in Serbia and mentioned that Tilbury Marshes ‘would be a good place to dispose of a body’.
The court heard Mr Stuart, a retired Tate & Lyle sugar factory worker, had bought two adjoining properties in Weybread. One was for him and his wife, a retired insurance clerk, and the other was for their daughter, Christy, and her husband.
At the time of their deaths, the Stuarts were owed £40,000 by Mr and Mrs Paxman, who had sold their property and moved to Leicestershire.
The Stuarts were last seen on May 29, visiting a food hall near their home. They were reported missing by their daughter. When police went to their home they found a half-prepared meal in the kitchen but no sign of a struggle.
Qazimaj was later arrested at a hostel for asylum seekers in Luxembourg and extradited to the UK. Immediately prior to leaving he had tried to ‘ sell, rather hurriedly’, possessions at the flat where he lived.
The court heard he arrived in Essex in 1999, claiming he had left Kosovo two months earlier. He was given leave to remain the following year and granted British citizenship in 2005.
The jury was told he sometimes went by the name Marco Costa, ‘particularly in relation to his gambling habits’ at betting shops. However, he claims to be neither Qazimaj or Costa and says his name is Vital Dapi.
‘We say that he is simply lying when he says he is not Ali Qazimaj,’ said Mr Khalil, who said fingerprints and DNA evidence linked him to the deaths.
Qazimaj denies murdering Mr and Mrs Stuart between May 29 and June 3 last year.
The case continues.
‘Carried out a contract killing’