Co-accused is ‘deranged’, court hears
A killer on trial for the murder of a mum who was burned alive in her abandoned car has told jurors his ‘deranged’ co-accused committed the crime.
Stephen Unwin and William McFall, who are both already convicted murderers and met while serving life sentences, are accused of killing Quyen Nguyen after keeping her captive at a house for four hours, where she was raped and forced to hand over bank details.
Unwin has told jurors he left McFall, known as John, alone with the victim at his home while he went to the shop for cigarettes and that she looked “dead” when he got back.
But on his first day in the witness box, McFall has told jurors at Newcastle Crown Court it was Unwin who carried out the killing last August .
McFall said Unwin “laughed” when he single handedly carried out the attack and added: “It was a joke to him.”
McFall told jurors what happened at the house that night was a ‘living nightmare’ which started when Miss Nguyen arrived for a business meeting with Unwin.
He said he saw his former cellmate drag Miss Nguyen to the floor, where a pillow case and plastic bag were put over her head and where Unwin said he was going to have sex with her.
McFall said he begged Unwin to stop the attack but added: “I couldn’t stop him. There was no reasoning with him whatsoever.”
He told jurors: “I heard her say ‘help me’ a few times and said ‘please let her go’, I said ‘enough is enough, man’.”
The 51-year-old said Unwin was naked, ‘deranged’ and laughed during the attack and added: “It was a joke to him.”
He told jurors: “He smothered her and left her lifeless on the floor, where I believed she was dead.”
Miss Nguyen and her car were dumped and set on fire at a dirt track, while she was still ‘just alive’.
Jurors at Newcastle Crown Court have heard both men initially denied any involvement in Miss Nguyen’s death but now blame each other for her killing.
They have heard Miss Nguyen’s body was found in her Audi A4 which was dumped and set on fire on a dirt track near Sunderland.
The 28-year-old nail salon worker may have been still alive when the blaze was started and could only be identified through dental records.
Unwin, 40, of St Oswald’s Terrace, Houghton, and McFall, 51, of Waterloo Road, Blackpool, both deny rape and murder.
The trial continues
“It was a joke to him” WILLIAMM C FALL