Woman ‘confessed’ to murdering her abusive stepfather
A woman took humiliating photos of her stepfather before she murdered him with her boyfriend and disposed of his body in a ‘remote location’, a court heard.
Frank McKeever, 63, ‘vanished off the face of the earth’ after visiting Surie Suksiri, 31, at her home in north London on 28 August 2021.
Surie Suksiri, 31, had forced him to film a 47 second video confessing to abusing her when she was six, saying: ‘I deserve to be punished’, the Old Bailey heard.
Suksiri and her partner Juned Sheikh, 48, both deny murdering Mr McKeever.
They also deny preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body on or around 3 September 2021.
Mr McKeever had visited Suksiri at her home in Highbury Grange at around 6.45pm, the court heard.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones told the jury: ’At 8.01pm Suksiri sent a photograph to Asiya Shiekh, Juned Shiekh’s sister. It was a photograph of Frank McKeever’s bottom.
‘The photograph was taken at 7.42pm.
‘Frank McKeever had been their less than an hour and the defendants were taking and then sending a photograph of Mr McKeever’s exposed buttocks.
‘So something pretty extraordinary had happened already in the flat that night.’
A second image of Mr McKeever kneeling and curled up with his buttocks exposed and pants pulled down was also sent.
The confession video was then sent.
Jurors were shown the video where Mr McKeever said: ‘I Frank McKeever did these things to Surie Suksiri… I abused her when she was only six years old.
‘This obviously has affected her for the rest of her life and I deserve to be punished for it.’
Suksiri called Ms Sheikh before and after the confession video was sent.
At 10.36pm she sent Ms Sheikh a photograph of Mr McKeever’s two rings.
Mr McKeever was married for many years to Suksiri’s mother, Anne-Marie Ruchavest. She had four children and Suksiri was the youngest.
Ms Ruchavest died after a long illness on 8 May 2021.
Mr Emlyn Jones said: ‘While she had been alive, it seems that Frank did not have much of an independent life.
‘It does not seem as if he had other friends, if any, he had largely lost touch with his family and it may be fair to say that during their marriage, his wife Anne-Marie had been rather controlling and his life was rather small.
‘In the latter stages of her life, he was her carer and really only left the house to collect groceries or her medication.
‘However following her death, Mr McKeever began to use his Transport for London Freedom card to get out and about a bit more.
‘He also re-established contact with his brother and his sister, and that is something about which both he and they were very pleased.
‘Frank’s brother Dominic, who lives in the Midlands, travelled to London to meet up with Frank – the first time they had seen each other since their own mother’s funeral six or seven years before that.
‘The meet-up was a great success- they were both pleased to have re-established contact. Dominic thought Frank seemed “positive and cheerful”.
‘After the meeting, they remained in contact via email and telephone – until, that is, the end of August 2021, when suddenly, Frank stopped responding.
‘After Anne-Marie Ruchavest’s death something of a friendship seems to have been struck up between Frank and Ms Suksiri.
‘Ms Suksiri was at that time pregnant. Given the loss of her mother, it seems that Frank McKeever began to take on a parental role towards her, for example attending ante-natal appointments with her during her pregnancy.’
Mr McKeever and Anne-Marie Ruchavest lived together in a large four bedroom townhouse in Islington owned by Islington council.
After her death he was required to arrange a house swap to another council property which didn’t exceed his needs as a single man.
Mr McKeever arranged a swap with a couple called Jade Nicholson and John Green, the court heard.
But on 13 August 2021 he emailed the council saying he no longer wished to swap with them and wanted to swap with Lenward Dillon and his partner Asiya Sheikh, who was Shiekh’s sister.
Mr McKeever told a neighbour on 22 August he was ‘torn’ and thinking about ‘family loyalty’.
He changed his mind again and emailed the council back, the court heard.
Mr McKeever had been due to attend an appointment to sign the paperwork on 2 September 2021.
‘The fact he missed his house swap appointment was unexpected and out of character,’ Mr Emlyn Jones said.
Ms Nicholson and Mr Green tried to call him repeatedly.
Mr Green called Suksiri and she said she didn’t know where his stepdad was, the court heard.
The couple reported the disappearance to the police on 9 September 2021
An officer called Suksiri and she said she had not seen Mr McKeever since the 25th or 26th August.
She said: ‘I don’t know much about Frank, we have not spoken for a long time, probably more than 20 years, he was married to my mum but we did not speak, until recently.
‘I don’t know much about him.’
Sheikh, of Camberwell, southeast London, and Suksiri, of Islington, north London, deny murder and preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body.
The trial continues.
The court heard Suksiri confessed to an undercover police officer, telling her: ‘I battered the f**k out of him.’
On 2 September 2021 Suksiri took three of Frank McKeever’s rings to H and T Pawnbrokers on Seven Sisters Road in north London and sold them for £200.
One had belonged to her mother, the court heard.
On Sunday 19 September police spoke to the couple when Suksiri activated an alarm at her home.
‘Miss Suksiri was obviously upset. She told Sheikh, in the presence of police and on camera, that she would not forgive him and that he would not see his son,’said Mr Emlyn Jones.
Sheikh replied: ‘Frank, remember, remember, just remember’ and ‘Daedo, remember Daedo’.
Suksiri later told police ‘Daedo’ was short for ‘Frank the paedo’.
Sheikh can also be heard on camera saying to Suksiri: ‘f*cking murderer… you’re a f*cking murderer.’
‘You evil f*cking person, I’m going to tell about Daedo, watch, everything.’
Mr Emlyn Jones said: ’The prosecution suggest it is clear that he was trying to dissuade Miss Suksiri from making an allegation to the police about him, by threatening to tell the police something about Frank McKeever.’
He added: ‘He was threatening to tell the police about Frank McKeever – and calling Suksiri a murderer.
‘The prosecution suggest that this tells you that Frank McKeever had been murdered, and that they both knew about it.’
On 25 September Suksiri was spoken to police in relation to the missing person investigation for Mr McKeever.
She told officers she had been abused as a child and that McKeever had ‘ruined her life.’
Suksiri said the video was made to get McKeever to confess to what he had done, and that she intended it to be a bargaining chip.
Mr Emlyn Jones explained: ‘She said she had effectively reached an agreement with Frank that she would not pass the confession video on to the police on the condition that Frank McKeever stay out of her life.’
She denied any knowledge of her stepfather’s whereabouts, and said that McKeever ‘might have gone to Newcastle because, she said, he had family up there.’
On 28 September Suksiri was arrested on suspicion of murder and made ‘no comment.’
Sheikh was arrested on suspicion and also made no comment.
Suksiri became friends with an undercover officer known as ‘Nat’ who she met at the police station.
The officer claimed to be involved in criminal activity and offered Suksiri work.
Mr Emlyn Jones added: ‘She told Miss Suksiri that she might be able to offer her a little low-level work, for cash in hand – taking possession of property for Lee [another undercover officer], to keep it safe for a few days, in return for a few quid.’
‘Miss Suksiri began to open up to Nat, and talk with great candour about herself, her love life, her personal history and so on.
‘She also went on to tell Nat all about what had really happened to Frank McKeever.’
The jury was shown the transcript of a phone call between the two women in which Suksiri said “M did happen.”
Mr Emlyn Jones said: ‘The prosecution suggest that “M” is shorthand for murder.’
‘She added: “he was a paedo, who got what he deserved.”‘
The court was also played a recording of a Whatsapp call between the two women, in which Suksiri could be heard telling ‘Nat’ that McKeever abused her as a child, and that he had told her he had hurt one of her daughters.
She then said she “battered the f**k out of [McKeever]” and that “He deserves…he deserves it.
‘And they can’t find him. I know where he is.’
The following day, 19 October 2022, “Nat” visited Suksiri at her home address and made another recording of their conversation, which was played to the court.
In it Suksiri can be heard telling Nat that she had made the video of Mr McKeever’s confession, before saying: ‘I fly kicked him, I battered the f**k out of him. I slit him, right?’
She explained that they also put McKeever’s body into a bath of bleach for three days before wrapping it in a duvet and putting it in the boot of a car they had bought for £350.
Suksiri said they then drove the body to a location 80 miles away, where they dumped it and covered with branches.
She also said they disposed of the evidence in a bin where it would be crushed, adding: ‘There’s no evidence. All the evidence is f**king gone, right?’
Mr Emlyn Jones said: ‘The prosecution suggest that those recordings are a clear and unambiguous confession to murder, a murder she committed together with her then boyfriend, Juned Sheikh.’
Suksiri now claims she was lying when she confessed.
‘Consider why someone would confess to a murder, not knowing they were being recorded, not knowing they were talking to a police officer, but instead speaking to someone they though they could trust,’said Mr Emlyn Jones.
‘Why would Surie Suksiri confess to the murder of Frank McKeever unless what she was saying was the truth?
‘And why would you say that Juned Sheikh committed the offences with her, unless that was true too?’
Mr Emlyn Jones added that there was also evidence on the couple’s phones that on 2 September they had been searching for cheap cars, and that they had called the number of one seller multiple times.
This coincides, he said, with the sale of Mr McKeevor’s rings for £200 on the same day.
The trial continues.
