Cop probed after bungled translation wrecks Emma Caldwell murder case

Sep 14 2008 By Norman Silvester

A POLICEMAN has been interviewed about claims he wrongly translated the so-called confession of four men accused of killing Emma Caldwell.

PC Aksoi Ozer was sent to listen to secret tape recordings of the accused - all Turkish - talking in their native language in a Glasgow cafe.

It was claimed his translation clearly had the men discussing how they killed Emma and disposed of her body in a carpet.

But the case against the four collapsed after TWO expert witnesses said they heard nothing on the tapes to support the police officer's claim.

Translators Selatin Ozturk and Professor Dr Kerem Oktem said the men were actually chatting about a variety of innocent subjects including business, football - and carpets in general.

Both experts said they could hear no mention of a murder or anything else suspicious.

The doubt over Ozer's translation was the key reason the Crown Office dropped the case against the four men.

In the police translation, it was claimed the suspects were talking about the murder of Emma and the disposal of her body and clothing.

But the experts - Ozturk, hired by the defence, and Oxford University professor Dr KeremOktem, brought in by the Crown - disagreed. Both men had to listen for hours on end to the tapes, which were put on CD.

A key part of the concern was over the Turkish word for kill. The accused were said to have used the word in PC Ozer's translation but Dr Oktem said it was a different word altogether.

Huseyin Cobanoglu, 55, of Irvine, Ayrshire, Halil Kandil, 34, of Cadder, Glasgow, Abubekir Oncu, 31, of Springboig, Glasgow, and Mustafa Soylemez, 36, also of Glasgow, had been charged with strangling Emma at the Turkish Community Cafe in Glasgow's Bridge Street.

Emma was found dead in May 2005 after disappearing from the women's hostel where she was living.

PC Ozer, who is of Turkish origin, works for Grampian Police and he was seconded to the Strathclyde force after they issued an appeal for an officer who could translate secret tapes they had made at the cafe where they believed the killing took place.

But the prosecution began to unravel after Matthew Berlow, Cobanoglu's solicitor, hired Ozturk to check the tapes for accuracy. The Crown Office then hired Oktem who confirmed Ozturk's findings.

Berlow, senior partner of Beltrami Berlow, said: "I decided to dig deep into the case and spent weeks reading the evidence and witness statements.

"Having read the transcripts of the tape recordings, I hired an independent translator who told me there were serious inaccuracies. I contacted the Crown Office with this information."

The Crown Office took the decision in July not to go ahead with the prosecution.

Strathclyde Police then decided to investigate how the case collapsed. PC Ozer, who is back working with the Grampian force, has been interviewed about the claims of inaccuracies.

Emma's body was found by a dog-walker in woods near Roberton, Lanarkshire.

Emmastarted using heroin after the death of her sister. She became a prostitute to pay for drugs and was living in a hostel in Govanhill, Glasgow.

Police investigating the killing began to focus their attention on the Turkish cafe and interviewed more than a dozen members of the PKK, the group fighting for a Kurdish state to be created out of parts of Turkey and Iraq.

Alegal source said last night: "There are different dialects and accents in Turkey as there are in Scotland.

"The allegation is that PC Ozer did not translate the tapes accurately because his translation skills were not good enough, not anything more suspicious."

The source said that some doubts were also expressed about the forensic evidence relating to the carpet.

These, combined with the serious concerns about the translation, led the prosecutors to call a halt.

PC Ozer and the two experts who scrutinised the tapes all declined to comment yesterday as did the police in Strathclyde and Grampian.

Last night a Crown spokesman said: "We can confirm Crown counsel are currently reviewing all the translation issues which arose in connection with this case."

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police added: "We will not be making any comment on these allegations."

AGrampian Police spokesman said: "We are unable to comment on the allegations as they relate to a Strathclyde Police enquiry which is currently active."

Dr Oktem said: "The translation work was confidential."

Mr Ozturk also declined to comment.

At his Aberdeenshire home, PC Ozer said: "It's better that I don't say anything about this at the moment."

'An independent translator said there were serious inaccuracies'

Matthew Berlow