Man accused of Waugh murder 'scared to contact police'

A man accused of murdering a millionaire, who was originally from Durham, to steal her money has described how he felt sick as he forced her body into a bag.

Rakesh Bhayani, 41, told jurors at the Old Bailey that he went to Carole Waugh's flat with co-defendant Nicholas Kutner, 48, to remove her corpse and store it in a car.

He explained that he did not contact police because he was involved in a fraud with Ms Waugh and Kutner, and feared he would be linked to her murder.

Prosecutors have previously told the trial that "the evidence strongly suggests" Ms Waugh was stabbed in the neck in her flat in Marylebone, central London, on April 16 last year.

But Bhayani, giving evidence from the witness box, claimed he only found out she was dead seven days later.

He told the jury that Kutner broke the news to him at a branch of Caffe Nero on Edgware Road, near Ms Waugh's flat.

Bhayani said: "He was in a very bad physical way and he said 'we're in deep s**t'.

"I said: 'Well what's happened?'

"I'm thinking something has gone wrong with the fraud, and he said: 'Carole's dead."'

Bhayani explained that he initially believed Kutner was joking, but then realised he was telling the truth.

"He was telling me that Carole is dead in her flat and it just seemed like the world had stopped really at that moment," he said.

Bhayani said he went with Kutner to her flat the following day to put the body into a bag which was carried into a car.

He saw her body under her bed but did not notice any injuries, he told the jury.

"I'm in a panic. I've never really seen a dead body before in my life," he said.

"I didn't really want to do this."

He went on: "He (Kutner) held her legs out and tried to put her in the bag.

"I was nearly physically sick at that moment. Just the smell, what I was seeing. I couldn't really deal with it."

He added: "She wouldn't fit so I opened the bag wider."

Bhayani claimed he did not contact the police because of the fraud.

"My finger prints are all over the fraud," he said. "When Nicholas Kutner tells me that Carole Waugh is dead, I'm thinking if I phone the police - or why hadn't Nick phoned the police already - that they are going to come to me.

"I've done the fraud. I stayed the night on the 15th with Carole.

"To me, the police would have come, arrested me and they would not have looked past me at that point.

"So I was really scared at the situation. I didn't want to go into Carole Waugh's flat and move her body. It's a horrible, horrible, horrible thing to do."

The car was initially stored in a central London car park before being left in a rented garage in New Malden, south London.

Ms Waugh's body was discovered there in August last year.

Bhayani, of Chamberlayne Avenue, Wembley, north-west London, denies murder but admits perverting the course of justice by concealing the death and also conspiracy to defraud.

Kutner, of Leighton Road, Kentish Town, north-west London, denies murder and perverting the course of justice by concealing the death, but admits conspiracy to defraud.

A third defendant, Elie Khoury, 40, of Spring Street, Paddington, central London, denies conspiracy to defraud.

The case continues.