Victim put through ‘living hell’ over false murder allegation
Wednesday 23rd February 2011, 11:29AM GMT.
A former Shropshire man’s life was turned into a “living hell” when he was wrongly identified as a suspect in the murder of Ludlow antiques dealer Trevor Bradley 16 years ago, a court heard.
Detectives wasted hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds were spent investigating the allegation that 38-year-old nightclub owner Matthew Weaver was the killer.
At Birmingham Crown Court yesterday 49-year-old Robert Paul Williams, of Alness Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, was jailed for a total of four years after admitting perverting the course of justice in October, 2009, and three offences of false representation in Manchester in September last year.
Judge Amjad Nawaz told Williams: “This was a vile offence because it made the life of Mr Weaver a living hell.
Mr Paul Dhami, prosecuting, said that detectives had spent 550 hours investigating Williams’s false allegation that had cost West Mercia Police about £11,000.
Mr Gareth James, for Williams, said his client had used his fantasy to obtain money and had persisted in his story about Mr Weaver even when it was exposed as untrue.
Last year 48-year-old Robin Stanislaw Ligus, of Monkmoor, Shrewsbury, was charged with killing 53-year-old Mr Bradley and two other Shropshire men, Brian Coles, 57, of Higher Heath, Whitchurch, and Bernard Czyzewska, 36, of Shrewsbury, between April and November, 1994.
He awaits trial.
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