Monday 16 April 2012

Knife Collector Denies Fatal Xmas Night Stabbing


A man accused of the Christmas night killing of a stranger outside his front door, told a jury today the body was already there when he returned home from the pub.


"I saw this bloke lying there and there was blood everywhere," 35 year-old sheet metal worker David Folley (pic.r.) claimed at Croydon Crown Court.


"I walked into my flat. I was confused, I did not know what was going on. I was quite drunk, I was not one hundred per cent with it.


"I sat in the armchair and tried to get the number for the local police station, but I did fall asleep before I made the phone call. To be honest, I was tired."


Knife collector Folley, of 28 Calshot Walk, Bedford has pleaded not guilty to murdering alcoholic Inderjit Singh, 36, - known as 'Raj' to friends - in the early hours of December 25, 2010.


The victim (pic.l.) was struggling to find a friend's flat and was outside the wrong address when his throat was slashed and he bled to death.


The prosecution say the defendant must be the killer because of the victim's blood pattern on his jeans.


However, Folley gave an alternative explanation. "One of the police officers went to pat me down and search me, but he realised he was wearing the same gloves that he had touched the body with. I am pretty sure he touched me around the waist area."


He insisted there was nothing sinister about his large collection of knives explaining: "I like collecting knives.


"I got them at car boot sales and jumble sales. I just like collecting things like that, no particular reason really.


"I have never been arrested for a violent offence or arrested for carrying a knife."


Police found three crossbows - one with a telescopic sight - a 17" 'Bad to the Bone' folding knife, and another knife with a Nazi swastika emblazoned on it amongst Folley's collection.


"They are ornaments, I bought them as souvenirs," said the defendant.


He explained his anti-immigration 'Fuck off. We're full' T-shirt was a freebie from a motorcycle rally and he had never worn it and his BNP flyer had come through his letterbox.


Folley admitted having some BNP sympathies, but insisted he was no racist.


"I believe you should put British people first, whatever colour they are, not just white."


He dismissed his 'Danger of Death - Keep Out' sign above his front door as a "joke" which a pal of his found funny.


However, prosecutor Mr. Stuart Alford asked Folley: "What is the joke. what is funny about it?


"It is how you fell about your flat isn't it? Protective? You felt that was your space."


While on remand awaiting trial Folley was removed from Woodhill Prison, Northamptonshire after a fellow inmate was cut by a sharpened plastic knife he was wielding.


"Out of desperation I did that to get out of the wing," Folley told the jury. "I had never been to prison before and I was being bullied by several prisoners and one in particular.


"I did not mean to hurt him and I staged the attack with the knife to make it look more serious. If you just punch someone they won't do anything."


Folley was transferred to Belmarsh after cutting the inmate's chin. "That was an accident. That happened in the struggle."


Trial continues...............

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