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  Murder Accused 'Knew about Church Trapdoor'

Glasgow Evening Times [Scotland]
April 10, 2007

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1318122.0.murder_accused_knew_about_church_trapdoor.php

The man accused of murdering Polish student Angelika Kluk knew about the church floor hatch where her body was found, a court heard today.

Marie Devine, 64, told the High Court in Edinburgh she was one of a group of women who helped priest Father Gerry Nugent in St Patrick's Church, Anderston, Glasgow.

She described how she cleaned the church and prepared snacks for the congregation after mass.

Mrs Devine, a lollipop lady of St Vincent Terrace, Anderston, told how a tea urn had been stolen last July from a room off the main church, spilling water on a carpet.

She said the urn had been filled with buckets of water from the kitchen some distance away.

After the theft, there was discussion about whether water could be piped into the room where the urn had been kept.

Mrs Devine said one Saturday she was in the church and Denis Curran, organiser of a voluntary group called Loaves and Fishes, was inspecting the hatch in the floor, near the confessional.

She said a man she knew as Pat McLaughlin was standing beside Mr Curran.

In court, Mrs Devine pointed to Peter Tobin, a handyman at the church, as the man she knew as Pat McLaughlin.

Earlier the trial heard the body of Angelika, 23, was found under the hatch last September.

Tobin, 60, is charged with murdering Angelika between September 24 and September 29 in St Patrick's Church, or elsewhere.

He is accused of gagging her with cloth and tape, tying her hands, raping her, battering her with a piece of wood or something similar, and repeatedly striking her with a knife.

He allegedly hid her body under the church floor in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.

In a special defence read to the jury, Tobin admits having sex with Angelika with her consent.

A further charge - which Tobin also denies - alleges he told Glasgow police his name was Patrick McLaughlin, gave a false date of birth and address, and he gave another false name to staff at a London hospital.

Tobin also denies a breach of the peace by threatening Russian student Rebecca Dordi at St Patrick's Church.

The trial continues.

 
 

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