HOWZAT

"That night, the police had very little to work on but, as the investigation continued, it became clear that the two defendants were the two robbers. The police discovered that they were members of a team of robbers who stabbed two victims during the course of robberies three weeks before."

The jury was shown CCTV footage showing Mr Ali being robbed on a platform, allegedly at 11.07pm. At 11.08pm, the robbers were filmed running out of the station.

"Only 17 minutes later, Mr ap Rhys Pryce walked out of the same station and started his short walk home, carrying documents under his right arm."

Mr Horwell said the victim was stabbed in Bathurst Gardens, the road where he lived, and that gloves, papers and bloodstains discovered on the street showed that he had staggered towards his house after the attack.

The jury was shown photographs of gloves, a book and documents, some of which related to Mr ap Rhys Pryce's wedding, that were found along the road. Mr Horwell said the attack appeared to have begun outside number 56 Bathurst Gardens. By number 82, there was blood on a silver Audi car. At 86, there was blood on a tree and a glove on the pavement. The documents were on the paving stones.

Outside number 90, Mr ap Rhys Pryce collapsed and there were signs of his clothes being cut off by ambulance workers who had failed to save his life, said Mr Horwell. He was just yards away from the home he shared with his fiancée, Adele Eastman, at 122.

By the end of his ordeal, Mr ap Rhys Pryce appeared to have given in. Mr Horwell said the lawyer's last words before collapsing were: "That’s everything - you’ve got everything."

Mr Horwell said both defendants were implicated by evidence linking them to the crime scene. He said Mr Carty had sold Mr ap Rhys Pryce’s mobile phone the next morning for £30 to a grocer’s assistant in College Road, near the murder scene, and that he was photographed trying to use the dead man’s Oyster card at a station on the same day.

Mr Brown was found to have worn shoes with Mr ap Rhys Pryce’s blood on them.

The defendants were arrested six days after the murder and both gave false alibis, Mr Horwell said. Mr Brown later admitted robbing Mr ap Rhys Pryce but said it was his cousin, Mr Carty, who had stabbed him. "It should not have happened," Mr Brown is reported to have said.

Mr Carty and Mr Brown have both pleaded guilty to robbery of Mr Ali and to conspiracy to rob in December, but both deny charges of murder and of wounding the two victims with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The case continues.

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