Jury to retire to reach verdict in murder trial

Thursday 05 November 2020

A jury deciding if a 56-year-old construction worker killed his secret lover and left her body at a remote bay in St Ouen before abandoning her car on the beach near St. Aubin will retire this morning to reach their verdict.

Jamie Lee Warn denies murdering Zsuzsanna Besenyei in May 2018, as well as two counts of perverting the course of justice by lying to the police during the subsequent investigation.

Yesterday, the week-long trial neared its conclusion with the prosecution and defence summing up their arguments to the 12-person jury.

For the Crown, Advocate Simon Thomas ran through the chronology of the prosecution’s version of events, which, he said, was clearly evidenced by CCTV footage, text messages and the tracking of movements using phone mast data.

“Mr Warn killed Miss Besenyei in a cold and calculating manner; there was no panic,” he said. 

Pictured: Crown Advocate Simon Thomas told the Royal Court that Mr Warn killed Miss Besenyei in a “cold and calculating manner”.

“He was calm, collected and measured, which is a very important insight into his attitude. 

“If it was an accident or a mistake he would have sought medical attention. But this was a deliberate and calculated killing, and he then calmly set out to cover up what he had done.

“He did everything he could to enable him to get away with murder. He drove across the Island to Stinky Bay and then left her car at Le Haule. But his arrogance has been his undoing because he unwittingly left a trail of evidence that proves his fate.”

Advocate Thomas told the jury that CCTV footage and phone mast data could track Miss Besenyei driving in her Ford Fiesta from her home in Maufant at around 18:00 on Thursday 10 May 2018 to Mr Warn’s flat in First Tower. 

Text messages in the days leading up to date showed that she wanted money from Mr Warn but he did not have it to give to her, said the Advocate, arguing that this may have been a motive for murder.

Showing the jury CCTV footage taken from various locations around the Island, Advocate Thomas noted: “Miss Besenyei made her last phone call just after 17:00, and sent her last email from the defendant’s flat at 19:30. No one saw her alive from that time afterwards - there were no emails, no texts, just silence. 

“The fact is, there must have been foul play, both by what Mr Warn did and didn’t do. There was no call to emergency services; you don’t see him responding to a horrible accident. There are no signs of panic in his demeanour; instead, you see him walking purposely afterwards to a local shop to buy hand sanitiser.

“He was cool and unshaken. This is someone who described himself as her rock."

Advocate Thomas added that mast data proved that both Mr Warn and Miss Besenyei’s phones could be tracked together after she had been allegedly murdered on that Thursday evening. 

Messages sent after that time from Miss Besenyei’s phone were actually sent by Mr Warn to give the impression that she was still alive, the Advocate suggested.

He added that the person in CCTV footage driving Miss Besenyei’s car from First Tower Car Park on Friday 11 May and then returning a short time later, allegedly with her body in the boot, was Mr Warn.

And, he said, it was Mr Warn who was also caught on CCTV in Paris Lane in the early hours of Monday 14 May, having disposed of her body at Le Pulec (Stinky Bay) and then left her car, with the windows down, on the beach at Le Haule afterwards, before walking home to First Tower.

The figure in the footage had the same distinctive hoodie top and camouflaged rucksack, he added.

Pictured: Defence Advocate James Bell, who told the jury: “I suggest that there is a lack of evidence for you to be sure to convict Mr Warn of murder.”

For the defence, Advocate James Bell told the jury that the prosecution’s evidence was entirely circumstantial and they could not be sure that he had murdered her.

“The principal issues that you have to address are: did someone kill this lady? Was her death caused as a result of an accident or self defence? If someone killed her, did they intend to kill or cause serious injury? And can you be sure that this lady was murdered?

“In this case, the prosecution cannot say how Miss Besenyei died, so how can you be sure that there was intent to murder? 

“This man deserves a fair trial and when the evidence that you have heard is placed within the legal framework, it doesn’t mean you can be sure. 

“This is a case where the prosecution has presented no physical evidence of cause of death, no physical evidence of Miss Besenyei being assaulted immediately prior to her death, no physical evidence that she struggled against her attacker, no physical evidence of her presence in his flat, no physical evidence of a clean-up and no physical evidence that she had been placed in the back of her car, or that her car boot had been cleaned up afterwards. 

“Therefore, I suggest that there is a lack of evidence for you to be sure to convict Mr Warn of murder.”

This morning, Commissioner Sir William Bailhache, who is presiding over the trial, will sum up the legal basis on which the jury should make its decision, before it retires to reach a verdict.