· Defence says key evidence to be heard in secret
· Murder accused stole identity to raid accounts

A reclusive 84-year-old writer was tortured with hot wax and had his head bludgeoned by a sadistic murderer "trying to bash some secret out of him", the Old Bailey heard yesterday.
Allan Chappelow, a distinguished English scholar, was targeted at his ramshackle home in north London by a foreign gang, rather than Wang Yam, a 46-year-old bankrupt accused of stealing Chappelow's identity and raiding his bank accounts, the court heard.

Chappelow was found buried beneath a 4ft high pile of his own page proofs from Yale University Press. His face and head had been smashed with a heavy implement. Blood was spattered 4ft to 5ft up the walls and his clothed torso was covered in wax and burns. The killer or killers smoked cigarettes afterwards, the court heard, leaving DNA that was not Yam's.

Yam, a 46-year-old British citizen born in China, is accused of the murder of Chappelow and stealing his identity to defraud him of £20,000.

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Yesterday Geoffrey Robertson QC, defending Yam, admitted his client had used Chappelow's identity, but said he was innocent of his murder in May 2006. He said Chappelow was killed by an unknown male, possibly from a gang led by an Albanian and two "henchmen" from China and probably Malaysia.

Yam has told the police that these were the men who passed on Chappelow's cheques and bank cards to allow him to commit the identity theft, the court heard. Much of the trial today will be heard in closed court, Robertson said.

"This is not a normal case, far from it," he said. "Every other case in this building, almost every trial in this country is held in open court. In this case the crucial evidence will be heard in private ... it is a case where the truth about Yam must never be known to the press or the public.

From mid-May to mid-June 2006 Yam attempted to defraud Chappelow of £56,000 that lay in a series of bank accounts, the court heard. By logging on from internet cafes in London and using Chappelow's mobile phone, he tried to take over accounts with HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and ING, said Mark Ellison, prosecuting. He used a Visa card from Sainsbury's in Chappelow's name and applied for accounts with American Express and Morgan Stanley. He obtained a money transfer of £20,000, but his attempts to persuade the banks that he was Chappelow often failed; passwords were wrong and operators thought he sounded oriental and too young.

The court saw CCTV footage of him trying to commit fraud in several locations.

Robertson said explanations of such "insouciance" from Chappelow "will have to wait until our secret session".

Full article here.