Lamin Cham, a police detective attached to the Major Crime Unit of the Gambia Police Force (GPF), last Thursday, told the High Court, presided over by Justice Ngui Mboob-Janneh that the accused person, Kate Atori West, told the police investigative team that she cut the body of her late husband, William West, into pieces and put them in a bag.

Kate Atori West is standing trial for the murder of her late husband, William West, a Briton, some time in 2006 in Sanyang village, Kombo South, Western Region (WR). The police detective made these revelations whilst responding to cross-examination from the defence counsel, Lamin Camara. According to the Major Crime police detective, he was part of the police investigative team that visited both the scene of the murder and the place where the body was burned. "We discovered the body of the late William West.

The accused told us that she cut the body into pieces and put it in a bag and we obtained many statements from her. In the course of the investigations into the murder, three people were arrested, and remanded in custody by the Brikama Magistrates court and later released," he explained. Lamin Cham added that the accused, in one of her statements, indicated that the three accused persons were not involved in the murder of her late husband, thus they were later released from custody.

Major Crime Unit boss recalled
Malamin Cessay, head of the Major Crime Unit of the Gambia Police Force,  was also recalled to give evidence in the same case. The Major Crime boss's recall by the state prosecutor, Merley Wood, was pursuant to Section 123 of the Evidence Act. Ceesay told the court that on the 6th of November 2006, a team of police investigators from Sussex Police Station in the UK, led by one Paul Feit arrived in The Gambia on an investigative mission.

According to him, the team of British police investigators gave him some documents and a photo album, which contained photographs of the late William West.  "Some of these documents contained detailed reports and a post mortem report of the deceased. I put the reports in the file and forwarded them to the Attorney General's Chambers," he told the court.

The Major Crime Unit boss identified the documents, which were tendered and marked as exhibits. At that juncture, the state prosecutor, Merley Wood, informed the court of the intention of the state to close its case in the trial. The defence counsel, Lamin Camara, applied for an adjournment to enable him to open his defence on the next adjourned date, 1st September.