I’ve just got away with the perfect murder – ‘what accused told sister’
THE sister of the man accused of killing restaurant worker Surjit Singh Chhokar yesterday told a court he claimed to have ‘got away with the perfect murder’.
Margaret Chisholm, 57, said her brother Ronnie Coulter made the claim after being cleared of killing the 32-year-old waiter.
She was giving evidence at the trial of Coulter, 48, who denies murdering Mr Chhokar in Overtown, Lanarkshire, on November 4, 1998, by stabbing him.
At the High Court in Glasgow, she told prosecutor Alex Prentice, QC, that hours after her brother was cleared of murdering Mr Chhokar in 1999 he came to her home in Overtown.
Mr Prentice asked her: ‘Why was he there?’
Mrs Chisholm replied: ‘Because he’d just been found not guilty.’
The prosecutor then asked: ‘What did he say?’
She replied: ‘He said, “I’ve just got away with the perfect murder”.’
Mr Prentice also asked her about a visit she made to her brother in Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison while he was on remand on the original murder charge.
He asked if she had asked him anything and Mrs Chisholm replied: ‘If he done it. If it was him that done Chhokar.’ Mr Prentice said: ‘Did he answer?’ She replied: ‘He said, “Mmhmm”. He never said aye or nah.’
The court has heard that Coulter, his nephew Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery went to Mr Chhokar’s home in Overtown around 11.30pm to speak to him about a Giro cheque which had allegedly been stolen from him.
Coulter was tried for the murder in 1999 and cleared. The other two were tried in 2000 and cleared.
Mr Prentice later showed Mrs Chisholm a transcript from her son’s murder trial, in which she said her brother told her he had stabbed Chhokar.
He then asked: ‘Did you tell the truth on oath when you gave evidence in that trial?’ She answered: ‘Yes.’ Mrs Chisholm told the court Coulter phoned her from prison while he was on remand and asked her to search for a tammy with a knife wrapped inside it on the old railway line between Overtown and Gowkthrapple.
She said: ‘I went with my daughter Rona and my son Andrew, but with no intentions of finding them.’
Under cross-examination by defence QC Donald Findlay, Mrs Chisholm denied that she was making up lies about her brother to help her son.
Mr Findlay asked her why she had not phoned the police when Coulter allegedly mentioned the knife in the tammy.
Mrs Chisholm replied: ‘It would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack.’
The QC said: ‘One explanation might be that you were terrified in case it was Andrew’s DNA or fingerprints on it.’ She replied: ‘No.’ Mr Findlay said: ‘Your evidence has been a pack of lies from beginning to end.
Mrs Chisholm said: ‘I’m not a liar. I’m not lying in court.’
Mr Findlay suggested: ‘You would be anxious to do all you could to protect your boy.’
Mrs Chisholm replied: ‘No, if he had killed him I’d be standing in this box saying that my son did it.’
The QC said: ‘This is just a concoction of lies to get Andrew off at Ronnie’s expense.’ She replied: ‘No.’ Coulter has lodged a special defence to the murder charge, blaming Andrew Coulter and David Montgomery.
Both men have given evidence in which they denied having anything to do with the murder of Mr Chhokar.
The case continues.