Accued ... Stuart Hazell,
Dan Jones
TIA Sharp’s alleged killer claimed he “wasn’t like Ian Huntley” and is "not a nonce", a court heard today.
Jurors were told that Stuart Hazell, 37, had told prison prison officers he was “sorry” for what happened to his 12-year-old step-granddaughter.
And he insisted he was not the same as the notorious Soham killer, jailed for 40 years for killing Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
Hazell is accused of killing Tia in a sex attack while alone with the youngster in her grandma’s house last August, before wrapping her body up and hiding it in the loft.
But a court heard today how he apparently tried to pin the blame on his Somali neighbours after the body was found in the attic they shared, accusing them of being sex offenders.
Tia was found a week later after police noticed a strange smell “like that of a decomposing body” coming from the loft the house in New Addington, south London.
Tragic ... Tia Sharp
Hazell claims Tia fell down the stairs and died as a result of an accident.
Today, the Old Bailey heard how also the alleged killer “didn’t want to be seen as an Ian Huntley”.
A statement from senior prison officer Gerald King, who had spoken with Hazell, read: "He wished he could turn back time."
It added that Hazell wanted to make sure that people knew that it wasn’t a sexual thing, saying: “He wished that he had explained the accident to his partner but he didn’t want to ruin the relationship.”
Killer ... Hazell said he 'didn’t want to be seen as an Ian Huntley'
In another conversation in HMP Belmarsh, prison officer Warren Fegan described how Hazell had said: “I deserve everything I get, 25-30 years, I don’t care.”
Mr Fegan said Hazell claimed the press were trying to make the incident look sexual when it wasn’t and that he “loved his step-grandchildren”.
The prison officer told a jury: “He said he was sorry for what happened to Tia.
"He said ‘I’m not like Ian Huntley, it wasn’t sexual. I’m not a nonce’.”
Asked if he said what had happened to Tia, Mr Fegan said: “He said it was an accident, that she’d fallen down the stairs and broken her neck.
Innocents ... Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, murdered by Huntley in August 2002
“He said he didn’t know what to do so he picked her up and took her upstairs and laid her on the bed.
“He didn’t know what to do so he wrapped her up in a sheet and put her in the loft.”
Hazell also said that the group of houses where he lived had interlinking lofts, insisting that someone had moved Tia’s body into the space above his house, the Old Bailey head.
Hazell also pointed the finger at Somali neighbours, claiming they were “bacons” – prison slang for sex offenders, jurors were told.
He said: “They were shouting and throwing plates at each other. It’s them the police should look at, they are the bacons, not me.”
Crime scene ... the house where Tia's body was found
Doug Seeburg - The Sun
Hazell also said that a paedophile had been grooming Tia by contacting her on her phone.
Mr Fegan told the court: “He claimed that Tia had paedophiles hassling her on her iPhone. Apparently, he was 25 years old but messaging her claiming he was 13.”
The prison officer said Hazell asked him how hard it was to prove a not guilty verdict for murder but guilty for manslaughter and he told him he should speak to his legal team.
Mr Fegan revealed that when Hazell was assessed at the prison, the risk of him harming himself was “at the far extreme”.
He said: “He really wanted to kill himself. He was saying he was sorry and he felt guilty.
“Initially he was fearing for his personal safety. He was very, very distressed. He was clearly saying that any opportunity he had he would kill himself.”
He added: “He wanted to be dead. He wanted away from everything.”
Asked if he said anything else about the case, Mr Fegan replied: “I remember asking how he was feeling and I remember him putting his face in his hands and saying ’guilty’.”
Hazell, of New Addington, south London, denies murder.
The trial continues.
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