History > 2006 > UK > Violence (III)

'Our devastation':

second tragedy hits family of baby

savaged by rottweilers

· Dead child's grandfather stabbed and partner killed
· Attacks within hours of each other, but not linked

Tuesday September 26, 2006
Guardian
Helen Carter and Martin Wainwright

The family of a five-month-old baby savaged to death by two rottweilers suffered a second tragedy just hours later when the partner of the baby's grandfather was killed, it emerged yesterday.

The stabbing happened barely two miles away and less than 11 hours after the guard dogs mauled to death baby Cadey-Lee Deacon at the living quarters of a pub in Leicester. Yesterday shattered relatives struggling to come to terms with the dreadful attack on the baby said her grandfather, John Brightwell, 50, was now in hospital after he was stabbed and his 47-year-old partner, Debra Larn, was killed in the early hours of Sunday.

Last night more details of the terrible events of the weekend emerged in a statement from Cadey-Lee's mother, Amy Deacon, and her partner, Lee Burchell, who owned the two dogs.

"Words cannot express our devastation at what has happened," they said. "We just cannot believe that Cadey-Lee is gone. She was such a beautiful little girl. We loved her so much and we just can't accept that something like this could have happened. How do you come to terms with such a tragedy?"

The couple said they had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of grief and support from the local community, who had placed flowers and teddy bears outside the Rocket pub, which they were looking after for the landlords. "People have been incredible. We would just like to say thank you to all those people. Your love and support is a comfort to us during this time."

Leicestershire police said Ms Deacon and Mr Burchell had been moving furniture in the living quarters when a fire escape door was accidentally left open which allowed the rottweilers, named Bruno and Bess, into the rooms from an adjoining flat roof.

Chief Superintendent Steve Pitts said: "The dogs then made their way to the bedroom in which baby Cadey-Lee was sleeping. By the time Amy, Lee and the relatives who were helping them move realised what had happened, the dogs had attacked. It is a terrible tragedy that has affected everyone who lives locally."

He added that the two investigations were entirely separate. "There is, however, a familial link in that Cadey-Lee's natural father is the son of the 50-year-old man injured in that attack, in which a 47-year-old woman died."

Mr Brightwell was said to be in a stable condition in hospital. His son Ryan, the estranged father of Cadey-Lee, was said to be devastated by the deaths of his relatives. One local said: "It's Ryan everyone feels sorry for - he has lost two members of his family in a day."

The landlady of the Rocket, Lesley Glaze, and her husband, Wayne, had left Ms Deacon and Mr Burchell in charge while they were on holiday. Locals said the baby had been in the living quarters when at least one dog pounced on her and dragged her outside on to the terrace.

Friends of the baby's father said he had been inconsolable even before his father and partner were stabbed. Michael Hubble, 17, said: "My mum spoke to him on Saturday. He was crying and really upset. I know he went to the hospital to see the baby."

The attack raised concerns about dangerous dogs. Amy Grimbley, who lives near the Rocket, said the dogs had been used as security for the pub and were kept outside. "The dogs are known to have been vicious - they are guard dogs," she said. "They stay on the roof during the day and whenever you walk past, you get the feeling they could just jump down and attack you."

The attack prompted calls for a change in dangerous dogs legislation. Ryan O'Meara, editor of K9 magazine, said: "This is not a breed issue, this is an owner issue. I think what we need is not legislation on different dogs, but legislation on dog owners. I would like to see something like the theory test for driving. To be able to own a dog, you would have to show you are committed and know about dogs."

The dogs that attacked Cadey-Lee have been destroyed. No one can be prosecuted over the incident as they did not attack on public property.

Last night a 26-year-old man was charged with murder and grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to the death of Ms Larn and the stabbing of Mr Brightwell. He will appear in court today.

    'Our devastation': second tragedy hits family of baby savaged by rottweilers, G, 26.9.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1881072,00.html

Customs cracks £5billion VAT fraud

Thursday September 21, 2006
Guardian
Ashley Seager and Ian Cobain



Customs officers have dealt a devastating blow to criminals defrauding the British taxpayer of billions of pounds every year after discovering that they all channelled their funds through the same small Caribbean bank.

In a joint Anglo-Dutch operation that included raids in London, the Netherlands and south Wales, First Curaçao International Bank (FCIB) was shut down after it was found that every individual arrested and charged with so-called carousel fraud in the last two years had an account there.

Investigators now suspect that around 2,500 other British citizens banking at FCIB are involved in carousel fraud, a crime that is estimated to be costing taxpayers at least £5bn a year.

"We think the carousel fraud industry has been holed below the waterline," said a British government source, echoing comments by the chancellor, Gordon Brown, who said at the IMF conference in Singapore at the weekend that the government was getting to grips with the problem.

Last night prosecutors in the Netherlands were hoping to question the bank's founder and owner, John Deuss, a Dutch oil trader. A colourful figure who has lived in Bermuda for many years, Mr Deuss, 64, was once caught breaking sanctions to help keep apartheid-era South Africa supplied with oil, and was accused of swindling the Soviet Union out of payments for oil worth around £180m at today's prices.

His sister, Martina Deuss, 60, has been arrested in the Netherlands, and is being questioned about the bank and its affiliated companies, while one of her homes, in Monmouthshire, was among the properties raided by Customs.

While Mr Deuss earned millions of dollars in fees from FCIB's customers, there is no suggestion that he has been involved in carousel fraud trades.

He confirmed to the Guardian yesterday that the bank was facing investigation over allegations of money laundering by some of its clients, but insisted that the bank and its affiliated companies, including Transworld Oil, have always complied with all applicable laws, regulations and rules. "Accordingly, the companies deny any wrongdoing in connection with this matter and will vigorously defend their interests."

The bank has since been placed into a form of administration to protect those customers who are innocent.

Losses to carousel fraud, which involves the repeated import and export of items such as mobile phones and computer chips with the VAT being reclaimed each time, have shot up over the past year, to at least £100m a week, as traders have used sophisticated computer programmes to create "virtual" trades without actually moving goods.

The scale of the fraud has become so colossal that it is distorting the nation's trade figures. Estimated losses during the last financial year would have been more than enough to build and equip a dozen big hospitals or 300 secondary schools, and exceeded Britain's total annual spending on overseas aid.

What was not clear until now was how these virtual trades were accomplished. FCIB's turnover has risen in line with the scale of losses to the British taxpayer as well as other governments across the European Union, all of which are under attack by the fraudsters.

Two years ago FCIB's volume of business was equivalent to $60m (about £32m). Before the bank was effectively closed last week, it had rocketed to $6.5bn. It had a British operation, Transworld Payment Solutions, which vetted potential FCIB clients. That company's offices in Knightsbridge, west London, were also raided by Customs officers and documents handed to the Dutch authorities.

The breakthrough came when a small team of Customs investigators decided not just to investigate individual carousel fraudsters, but to follow the money trail. Using their powers under the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act - which compels British banks to report suspicions of money laundering - they found that huge sums of money were pouring in and out of FCIB via its correspondent banks which handled transactions with Europe. These were first Barclays and Dutch bank Rabobank, followed more recently by Union Bank of Switzerland. Each bank in turn shut the door on FCIB because they were anxious about the transactions.

The latest rejection, by UBS, prompted FCIB to warn many of its clients last month that it was being forced to shut their accounts, as without a correspondent bank in Britain, it would not be able to move funds for them any longer. The deadline for movement of money was the end of August and accounts were finally closed last Friday.

As a result of the disruption to fraudsters' banking facilities, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) last week reported a huge drop in the estimated volume of fraudulent exports of phones and computer chips in July. It said there was £1.6bn of fraudulent trade that month, down from more than £4bn a month in each of the previous four months.

HMRC is optimistic that the growing number of arrests of suspected fraudsters, combined with action to disrupt their banking facilities, is finally having an impact upon the crime.

    Customs cracks £5billion VAT fraud, G, 21.9.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1877288,00.html

Our beloved Lucy,

by parents of stabbed girl

Sunday September 17, 2006
The Observer
Mark Townsend, crime correspondent


The family of Lucy Braham, who was stabbed to death in their home on Thursday night, paid tribute last night to a 'stunningly beautiful daughter'.
In a statement Lucy's mother and father said the 25-year-old daughter of a schoolmaster at Harrow School in north-west London, was so modest she hated having her picture taken. Last night the family released a new picture thought to be taken last weekend at the Bestival music festival on the Isle of Wight.

'It is an irony that someone so dismissive about her looks, who disliked being photographed, should have her face in every national paper,' the statement from parents, Jason and Julienne, read.

Lucy was murdered at the family home in the grounds of Harrow, one of Britain's most prestigious private schools. The alleged perpretrator, Will Jaggs, the son of the school's head of design and technology, was found naked beside her. He had stabbed himself several times. Last night he remained in hospital in a 'serious and stable condition'. Police confirmed they were examining a line of inquiry that Jaggs, 22, had a history of mental health problems.

Police sources are acting on information that Jaggs had become obsessed with Lucy, who lived four doors away in houses both owned by the school on Harrow Hill. The two, however, were not friends. Her family indicated last night that 'Lucy had no social connection with her attacker or his friends, who were some years younger than herself'.

Messages left on an Oxford University website, where Jaggs was studying English literature, indicate that Jaggs had begun to behave 'erratically'.

One message read: 'Will took this year out so he hasn't finished his degree yet; I remember being told that his tutors had told him to go and "sort himself out" because he wasn't doing any work and was behaving erratically. He used to do some very odd and antisocial things on occasion around college. How utterly horrible, though. Whilst I'm shocked, I'm not overly surprised I guess.'

The family's statement continued: 'A fashion graduate, she was very creative and was designing and making clothes and accessories in her studio at the family's house. The weekend before her murder ... she had been talking over ideas for selling her designs over the internet.'

The statement added: 'It is the cruellest tragedy that someone so gentle should have had her life snatched away so senselessly.

'Her family and friends all miss her terribly. Lucy was quiet, calm and graceful. She had a circle of very close friends and a warm and generous smile that touched everyone she met.'

    Our beloved Lucy, by parents of stabbed girl, O, 17.9.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1874357,00.html

Street prices plummet as use reaches epidemic levels

Published: 13 September 2006
The Independent
By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent

The cost of drugs in many parts of Britain has plummeted in the past year, an authoritative study on the country's booming industry in illegal substances has revealed.

Specialists also disclosed that the potentially lethal practice known as " speedballing", in which users inject themselves with a mixture of heroin and cocaine, is reaching epidemic levels.

The low prices of many drugs suggests that they are readily available throughout the country and that police and customs are losing the war on drugs.

A new survey of 20 cities and towns in the UK provides an insight into emerging trends, offering a level of local detail rarely seen before. The report by the charity DrugScope found that dealers have been increasingly offering cut-price drugs, with heroin costing £5 a bag in Middlesbrough, and ecstasy as little as 75p a tablet in Cardiff.

Towns such as Gloucester and Penzance - where the price of heroin has dropped from £60 to £40 a gram during the past year - are being targeted with "special offers" to attract new users.

The survey also found that abuse of muscle-enhancing anabolic steroids is becoming a mainstream problem.

Overall drug prices in the UK continued to remain static - suggesting that police and customs action has had little effect on availability. When drugs supply is restricted, prices rise.

A separate report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has also claimed that Britain has the highest rate of "problem" drug abuse in Europe. It found that nearly one in every 100 of the working-age population was an addict.

The DrugScope report discovered huge regional variation in the cost and availability of drugs.

The purity of drugs also fluctuates throughout the country. In Liverpool a seemingly cheap 0.3g £15 bag of "heroin" is on average only 25 per cent pure.

The cheapest cocaine, £35 a gram, is available in Birmingham and Liverpool - both cities where drugs are generally cheaper than the rest of the country. Cardiff has the cheapest ecstasy pills at £1 each.

Researchers also found that clubbers were using a wide range of drugs, including CK1, GHB, Viagra and a vast array of obscure designer drugs.

But the most alarming development highlighted by the study for the drug charity's Druglink magazine was the rise in "speedballing" or " snowballing" which specialists fear will result in more overdoses, infections, and crime.

The survey of 80 frontline drug agencies and police forces discovered that injecting the heroin and cocaine cocktail, also called "curry and rice" , had risen sharply during the past year in Newcastle, Sheffield, Manchester, London, Bristol, Nottingham, Ipswich and York.

A second study of 100 drug addicts revealed that speedballing was the main method of drug-taking for 80 per cent of those interviewed, compared with 25 per cent a decade ago.

The research by Dr Russell Newcombe at the Manchester drugs charity Lifeline found that speedballers had three times as many convictions as those only using heroin. It said speedballers spent £500 a week on the drugs - £26,000 a year - compared with £110 for heroin-only addicts.

Speedballers say the combined stimulant-sedative effects in one shot complement each other. "You get the euphoric rush of the crack and then the heroin takes the jagged edge off it," said one user.

In a separate study of injecting drug-users, more than half of 1,000 needle exchange clients questioned in Wigan, Reading, Middlesbrough, Manchester, Bristol and Devon had injected a speedball.

Drug agencies are concerned about speedballing because it increases the risk of overdose. People who speedball also inject up to five times more often than heroin-only injectors, which means they are more likely to inject directly into an artery, block veins and get deep vein thrombosis and abscesses.

High-profile deaths attributed to speedballing include the American actors John Belushi, 33, who died in 1982 at a hotel in Los Angeles, and River Phoenix, 23, who died in 1993 outside a nightclub in Hollywood.

A speedball is usually made by crumbling a crack rock into a preheated spoon of heroin and a form of citric acid in water - which makes a soluble cocktail. It is then drawn into a syringe and injected. The average speedball costs £20, £10 each of crack and heroin.

More dealers are selling heroin in £10 bags rather than by the gram, and some parts of the country continue to report dealers offering "discount offers" on combined bags of heroin and crack cocaine, fuelling the speedballing craze. In Liverpool, dealers are offering a free rock of crack for every two £10 bags of heroin bought, while in Ipswich buying a bag of "brown" and "white" together yields a £10 discount on a £30 purchase. In Gloucester, the price of the two drugs has halved since last year and in Penzance an influx of dealers from Liverpool has led to price cuts.

Harry Shapiro, the editor of Druglink, said: "Although speedballing isn't a new phenomenon, it is clearly on the increase and, if this trend continues, it will be bad news for attempts to reduce the spread of injecting-related diseases and the number of drug overdoses."

The survey also found that the popularity of anabolic steroids had rocketed, with significant use in Blackpool, London, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Torquay, Cardiff, Manchester, Portsmouth, Luton and Newcastle. Traditionally used by bodybuilders, the drugs are now being taken by other young people simply to improve their physique. They risk side-effects including reduced sperm count, kidney and liver problems, high blood pressure and increased aggression.

Drug nation

BELFAST

Morphine sulphate tablets, stolen from NHS, popular. Most expensive heroin (£100 a gram) and crack (£25 a rock) in UK

GLASGOW

Crystal meth, form of powdered ecstasy, replacing tablets; skunk popular; 111 drug-related deaths last year

NEWCASTLE

Cheapest cannabis resin (£30 an ounce) and second cheapest amphetamine (£8 a gram) although this has risen from £2 the previous year

MIDDLESBROUGH

Cheapest heroin in UK: one fifth of a gram just £5. Low price attributed to town's role as major drugs transit hub for the North-east

YORK

UK's cheapest ketamine, an animal anaesthetic (£10 per gram). Heroin £50 a gram, more expensive than average

BLACKPOOL

Ecstasy pills as cheap as 75p each when bought in bulk. Ketamine £20 a gram. Viagra and GHB popular among clubbers

MANCHESTER

Below-average price for cocaine (£40 a gram) and crack (£10 a rock). Substantial rise in use of steroids among young men

LIVERPOOL

Drug users buying two £10 bags of heroin get a free rock of crack, which encourages 'speedballing'. Heroin purity very low (average 25 per cent)

SHEFFIELD

Crack at £10 a rock is half the price of two years ago. Standard herbal cannabis is cheaper too. Rise of 'speedballing' is a worrying trend

NOTTINGHAM

One of eight cities reporting rise in 'speedballing', in which heroin and crack cocaine are injected using the same syringe

BIRMINGHAM

Khat, a stimulant with effects like amphetamine, is increasingly popular. Misuse of anabolic steroids is becoming mainstream

IPSWICH

Price of heroin dropped by half since 2005 (now £50 a gram). Methadone and Subutex, heroin substitutes, available cheaply

CARDIFF

Most expensive cocaine in UK (£55 per gram), but the cheapest ecstasy (£1 a pill)

BRISTOL

Rising number of people suffering cocaine-related mental health problems. Skunk cannabis most expensive in UK (£140 an ounce)

LONDON

LSD still popular, along with magic mushrooms, crystal meth and MDMA. Home-grown cannabis increasingly available

LUTON

Misuse of anabolic steroids becoming mainstream, with drug services seeing big rise in number of young Asian men seeking help for misuse

GLOUCESTER

Cheapest cannabis, cocaine and crack in UK. Average heroin prices are also among the lowest in the country at £10 per 0.3g bag

PENZANCE

Heroin price fell from £60 to £40 a gram this year, attributed to Liverpool dealers. UK's cheapest herbal cannabis (£90 an ounce)

TORQUAY

Growing presence of steroids. Club bouncers using an opiate painkiller, Nubain, mixed with cocaine, to create improvised 'speedball'

PORTSMOUTH

Most expensive herbal cannabis in the UK. Cocaine among the most expensive with one gram selling for an average price of £47.50

THE NATIONAL PICTURE

HEROIN: Prices down to record low of £25 a gram. Often sold in £5 bags.

CANNABIS: Wide variations in cost - and strength - across Britain. Twice as expensive in some towns.

SPEEDBALLING: Alarming rise in injection of heroin and crack cocaine in liquid form.

ECSTASY: Price fallen to as little as 75p in some parts of country.

STEROIDS: Half of towns now report rise in mainstream misuse.

COCAINE: Price has dropped in many parts of Britain as overall misuse rises.

    Street prices plummet as use reaches epidemic levels, I, 13.9.2006, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1523145.ece

A city gripped by the speedball craze

By Ian Herbert
The Independent
Published: 13 September 2006

Neal, a factory worker from Tyneside, cannot remember how he got into the drug craze which goes by the name of speedballing.

"I just heard a few people talking about it," he recalls. "Sometimes you just want what you haven't got, don't you?" He dabbled for months with injecting the "cooked" mix of heroin and cocaine. He says he has been clear of it this year.

Neal is by no means alone in the North-east. Today's DrugScope survey reveals that speedballing - fuelled in Newcastle by some of the cheapest heroin in Britain, much of it bought at just £5 for 0.2 of a gram in Middlesbrough - is on the rise. Though the need to buy two drugs makes its relatively expensive, young men will club together for a gram of cocaine (£40) and a £10 bag of heroin for a hit they think surpasses that of cocaine or heroin.

Addicts include affluent city professionals, say drug workers, but the tragedies tend to emerge from poorer districts where work is harder to find. John Courtney, 21, was one. He died last year after an addiction which was costing him £90 a day.

Heroin and cocaine are only a part of the problem. Newcastle and Gateshead have also seen a rise in anabolic steroid abuse by young men who crave the ability to display a big body on a night out. Steroids, once the preserve of serious bodybuilders, are now permeating many ordinary gyms where users will pay £3 for a score.

Neal, a factory worker from Tyneside, cannot remember how he got into the drug craze which goes by the name of speedballing.

"I just heard a few people talking about it," he recalls. "Sometimes you just want what you haven't got, don't you?" He dabbled for months with injecting the "cooked" mix of heroin and cocaine. He says he has been clear of it this year.

Neal is by no means alone in the North-east. Today's DrugScope survey reveals that speedballing - fuelled in Newcastle by some of the cheapest heroin in Britain, much of it bought at just £5 for 0.2 of a gram in Middlesbrough - is on the rise. Though the need to buy two drugs makes its relatively expensive, young men will club together for a gram of cocaine (£40) and a £10 bag of heroin for a hit they think surpasses that of cocaine or heroin.
Addicts include affluent city professionals, say drug workers, but the tragedies tend to emerge from poorer districts where work is harder to find. John Courtney, 21, was one. He died last year after an addiction which was costing him £90 a day.

Heroin and cocaine are only a part of the problem. Newcastle and Gateshead have also seen a rise in anabolic steroid abuse by young men who crave the ability to display a big body on a night out. Steroids, once the preserve of serious bodybuilders, are now permeating many ordinary gyms where users will pay £3 for a score.

    A city gripped by the speedball craze, I, 13.9.2006, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1523130.ece

Teenager killed in gang shooting

Spectre of gun violence haunts Manchester again

Sunday September 10, 2006
The Observer
Mark Townsend, crime correspondent


Manchester's reputation for gangland killings returned to haunt the city yesterday as a teenager was shot dead in the notorious Moss Side area.
Fifteen-year-old Jessie James was gunned down outside a basketball court on a public park. His body was found at 2am in Raby Street, less than half a mile from his home.

Police are investigating leads that his murder was a revenge killing by rival gangs after a spate of shootings in the inner city. 'We have reason to believe this was not a random shooting,' said superintendent Tony Cook.

It is the second fatal shooting on the same street in less than two months.

Kathy August, principal of Manchester Academy High School, which Jessie attended, said: 'I would like to express my deepest sadness at the tragic loss of one of our boys.

'Jessie had been one of our students for the past three years and had contributed to this school community. He was a very likeable boy who was trying hard to succeed in his GCSEs.

'Every death of a young person is tragic but for a mother to lose her son and for our school to lose one of our boys in such a violent way is heartbreaking.

'Over the coming days and weeks the academy, as a community, will work through our grief and will commemorate Jessie's life. The academy will continue to deliver our promise to this community of giving hope and success to all those who come through our doors.'

The 'assassination' style of the shooting raised the spectre of Moss Side reverting to the bloody gangland disputes that led to the city being dubbed 'Gunchester' in the late Eighties.

Although Manchester police recently claimed they were winning the war against gun crime, residents in Moss Side have reported an upsurge in shootings among gangs in the south Manchester district.

This summer Ernest Gifford was gunned down at his Raby Street home with his partner and her children. Masked gunmen burst in, took Gifford to a second room and shot him dead.

Yesterday a youngster on a mountain bike close to the scene confirmed that shootings in the area were becoming commonplace. 'We were out on the streets right here about two nights ago and we heard shots being fired and had to leave the area,' he said.

    Teenager killed in gang shooting, O, 10.9.2006, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1869044,00.html

The dream that led to a brutal death

How a young Polish woman's hopes of a better life in Britain ended in her murder

Saturday September 9, 2006
Guardian
Sandra Laville

At 12.51pm on a humid Saturday at the end of July a motorist pulled his car up on the grassy verge of a narrow country lane in Buckinghamshire. Jumping out, he headed into the woods intent on taking a quick pee. He saw the smoke before he saw the charred body. It was lying in the undergrowth a few feet into the woods and still smouldering.

The remains bore little resemblance to a human form. The skull was smashed in several places, the clothing had dissolved with the heat of the flames, and the skin was blistered and burned. Pulling his mobile phone from his pocket, the man punched in 999.

Maria Bryl did not know it yet, but finally, after two months of searching, the unemployed divorcee from Gliwice in Poland had found her missing daughter.

It was to be a further four weeks before dental records provided the initial confirmation of what she had been dreading. And it was only yesterday that British police visited Mrs Bryl in Poland to take the DNA samples which will confirm the identification beyond any doubt.

The story of the terrible death of 23-year-old Beata Bryl, a young woman drawn like hundreds of thousands of other Poles to the glamour of London and the promise of a better life, is an example of what Polish charities are warning is the other side of the dream.

It comes as the Polish-based Itaka Foundation launches a campaign throughout Poland to raise awareness of the dangers lurking for young migrants, and as charities reveal they cannot cope with the number of eastern Europeans living rough on the streets of London after discovering, to their cost, that they are not paved with gold.

After the unidentified body was discovered, a murder investigation interrupted the summer tranquillity of the countryside outside the village of Wooburn Green.

Teams of forensic officers in white suits began a fingertip search of the woods, senior detectives sealed off the scene, and a Home Office pathologist was called in to begin the difficult process of identifying the victim.

The body was that of a young woman, perhaps in her early 20s, who had suffered repeated blows to the head with an unidentified weapon. She had been doused in accelerant before being set alight. The only clues to her identity were a Pegasus tattoo still visible on her right upper arm and a ring on her left middle finger which was shaped like a snake.

The brutal murder briefly sent ripples through the bar at Wooburn working men's club, and featured for a few days in the local newspapers. But soon the conversation moved on and the local reporters found other stories. Meanwhile, detectives were wondering why no one had come forward to claim the victim as their relative.

Forensic experts used an advanced isotope screening process on the bones to establish her race, and facial mapping techniques were used to create an image of what she might have looked like.

Breakthrough

Eventually, detectives in the Thames Valley police murder incident room made a breakthrough: a picture of a young woman matching the description of the victim, looking thin and dishevelled, had been caught on CCTV cameras at Leytonstone tube station in east London on July 28, the night before the body was discovered.

All this time, detectives were unaware that thousands of miles away in a small flat in the impoverished southern Polish mining town of Gliwice, Maria Bryl was desperately seeking help from the authorities to find her missing daughter.

For nearly a year, Mrs Bryl, 46, said she had been struggling to prise Beata from the clutches of a man she believed had taken her to the UK two years ago to exploit her.

"Beata thought he loved her, but he was so much older," she said. "He promised he would set her up, find her a good job, but I believe he may have been using her. I believe she may have been selling herself for him. I think the whole thing was planned that way."

Born in Gliwice on February 27 1983, Beata was brought up in the fold of a Catholic family and took her first communion at the local church aged eight.

By her early 20s, Beata, who spoke fluent English, talked of little but travelling to Britain. And when she first arrived in Britain in 2004, everything seemed to be working out. "She rang me all the time, she seemed happy," said her mother. "She was working in the catering business and doing some security work, and she even went with the boyfriend to France on holiday."

To keep her in touch with home, Mrs Bryl sent her daughter regular food parcels from Poland, and in turn she received money sent by Beata, who knew her mother was out of work and struggling.

Over the months, she moved to different addresses in east London, but Mrs Bryl began to realise that her daughter could be in danger.

"After about a year things changed. I realised something was very badly wrong. She told me she was being molested and beaten. I suspect this older man may have been using her for sex with other men. She would run away, but he would always find her. She would ring me up, sounding terrified, saying she was being threatened."

Her daughter's mental health deteriorated, until in August last year she suffered a breakdown and spent a week in a London hospital. While she was there, her mother contacted the Polish consulate and demanded that it help her daughter to return home.

"I wanted to go to London and bring her home myself, but I had no money, so I had to rely on the consulate," she said.

In October last year, her daughter arrived at the front door of the flat, looking painfully thin, exhausted and scared.

"She stayed a few months, but then this man began to call again, insisting she must return to London, calling every day, luring her back," said her mother. "There was no talking to her then, she refused to listen, and she returned to this man and to London."

Anti-trafficking charities believe Beata's story contains evidence that she was trafficked into the UK, even though at first she may not have realised she was being treated as a commodity.

"Often girls who have dreams to go to wealthy western countries are lured by older men, who persuade the girl they love them and take them to the UK," said Stana Buchowska, from the Polish anti-trafficking organisation La Strada. The group believes there has been a short-term surge in the trade in people since the opening of EU borders in 2004, because it is now easier to move across frontiers without detection.

"The victims of trafficking are a bit like victims of domestic violence," said Ms Buchowska. "They often return to the abuser. In this case this girl had emotional ties to this man; she perhaps did not realise how she was being exploited."

Desperate

Grahame Maxwell, head of the British police's new national trafficking unit, said more training was needed to help police and the authorities identify victims of trafficking. "People often come to this country voluntarily - often, in the case of young women, with an older man; often on the promise that they will be found a good job.

"Sometimes these men then begin to abuse them. They use the emotional hold they have; they may say, 'Have sex with my friend to show me you love me. Strip for my friends to prove your love.' And the woman does not realise he is being paid for her services. It is the total exploitation of trust and innocence."

On Beata's return to the UK in February this year, the evidence mounted, according to her mother. "Sometimes she would call in the middle of the night, crying and desperate. She once said she was being taken somewhere in a car against her will by this man. She said she was being kidnapped."

In her flat, where pictures of Beata adorn the mantlepiece, Mrs Bryl has two folders of letters and documents testifying to her attempts to save her daughter from the danger she believed she was plummeting into. The documents are mostly negative responses from the Polish consulate in London, the Polish police, Interpol, and other groups which she approached for help.

Her last attempts came early in June when phone calls from her daughter abruptly stopped, prompting Mrs Bryl to contact the Polish consulate once more and report her daughter as missing. She received a reply a few days before Beata's charred remains were found. "Re your missing daughter," the letter read. "We are not able to help in this matter."

But the mother did have one more opportunity to speak to her daughter. It came in a phone call she received as she was travelling on a train for a day out in the Polish countryside on Thursday July 27. "She rang me and I was so delighted," she said. "But I knew immediately something was wrong. She said someone was threatening to kill her, she ordered me to return home and lock the doors, saying they were threatening me too. She sounded terrified."

Two days later the macabre discovery by a motorist in the woods outside Wooburn Green provided proof that the threats were not empty.

Detective Inspector Colin Seaton of Thames Valley police said extensive inquiries were being made to find Ms Bryl's killer. "We are passionate about this inquiry," he said. "Over the weeks, we feel we have come to know this young girl, who came here for a new life and perhaps got involved with the wrong crowd."

    The dream that led to a brutal death, G, 9.9.2006, http://society.guardian.co.uk/asylumseekers/story/0,,1868468,00.html