Lawyer cleared of murder case cover-up

A solicitor  has been cleared by a jury of advising her boyfriend after he killed a gym boss and fled the country.

Justin Bello, 38, was found with his foot sticking out of a suitcase on 25 November 2019 in Wembley, northwest London.

Stasious Scott, 34, is said to have battered and choked Mr Bello to death but he is no longer in the country.

Lawyer Suzanne John, 40, the mother of Scott’s two children, was accused of helping cover the killer’s tracks as he took a flight from Gatwick to Jamaica where he remains to this day.

But John was acquitted by the jury of plotting to pervert the course of justice after a two month trial at the Old Bailey.

Cornell Burrell, 36, had been accused of murdering Mr Bello and perverting the course of justice but he was cleared of the charges by the jury today.

Members of Mr Bello’s family gasped and cried in court as the jury delivered their unanimous verdicts.

Scott’s father Oliver Scott, 53, along with Cecilia Bruce-Annon, 50, and Christopher Hatton, 44, denied but were convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Scott’s half-brother Paris Bell-McKay, 28, was cleared of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Judge Sarah Munro, KC, remanded Burrell in custody until tomorrow when he will return for sentence for cannabis possession, which he earlier admitted.

Following her acquittal John’s barrister applied for the solicitor to be refunded £550 in travel costs.

Judge Munro adjourned sentence against Oliver Scott, Bruce-Annon and Hatton until 3 February.

She thanked the jury and said of Stasious Scott: ‘He is in Jamaica. One day, who knows, he might be brought back to stand trial.’

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones, KC, earlier said: ‘At about 8.15 on the morning of Monday 25 November 2019, three refuse collectors were doing their rounds collecting and emptying bins in Brent.

‘When they turned into Lovett Way, on the St. Raphael’s estate in Wembley, one of them entered a large bin shed to pull the rubbish bins out into the open so they could be lifted and tipped into the back of their dustcart.

‘On the ground in the bin shed, behind the bin, was a black zip up suitcase.

‘Sticking out of it were someone’s feet.

‘As he looked more closely, it dawned on him that he was looking at a dead body.

‘Sure enough, when he was joined by one of his colleagues, and when they opened up the suitcase to look more closely, their worst fears were confirmed.’

Police investigations found that Mr Bello had been killed two days earlier inside Scott’s flat in Stockwell, southwest London.

‘The prosecution case is that Mr Bello was murdered by Stasious Scott and the only other person with him at his home that night when Mr Bello met his death.’

Mr Emlyn Jones had claimed that Burrell was in the flat with Scott at the time of the killing.

Scott had worked with family and friends to dispose of Mr Bello’s clothes and mobile phones, as well as their own phones, the court heard.

They cleaned up the flat where the murder had taken place and got rid of the body.

‘Justin Bello had not been stabbed – but he had been overpowered, had suffered blunt force trauma to his head, face and back – and he had been choked, by significant compression of the neck, causing fractures to both sides of his larynx,’ said the prosecutor.

‘The only trace of Mr Bello in the flat where he was killed was a stain of his blood on a rug which had been rolled up and propped against a wall.’

Mr Emlyn Jones had claimed John’s profession ‘will have given her an insight into the method of police investigations which is likely to have been very valuable to Scott and Burrell as they set about trying to cover their tracks.’

Burrell maintained he was not present when Mr Bello was killed, and was not involved in any cover up.

John insisted she was not involved in covering up the murder and said any phone contact between her and Scott was not for the purpose of advising or helping him.

Burrell, of Wanborough Drive, Wandsworth, southwest London, denied and was cleared of murder and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Scott, of Nelson Road, Hornsey, north London, Hatton, of no fixed address, and Bruce-Annan, of Dunnock Drive, Stanmore, west London, all denied but were convicted of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

John, of Wolseley Road, Mitcham Junction and Bell-McKay, of Gloucester Road, South Kensington, southwest London, denied and were cleared of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.