Addict who threw man from window walks free
A CRACK addict who threw a man from a fourth-floor window has walked free from court.
Keith Beckles was part of a gang who paralysed Mohamed Abdi Mohamoud when they hurled him out of a council flat in Fanshaw Street, near Old Street Tube station.
Mr Mohamoud, 33, who had been lured there on the promise of sex with £25-a-time prostitute Michelle Whyte, will never walk again after suffering massive spinal injuries.
Beckles, 43, was convicted in 1997 of the attack, along with Whyte, 37, and fellow junkie Rudolp Montague, 58.
He had not given any answers to police when questioned, on the advice of his solicitor.
But the jury in the trial were allowed by law to draw adverse inference from this.
Beckles as a result appealed, with his barrister claiming the jury should not have been permitted to do this. The case went to the Court of Appeal before Beckles' claim was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights.
Beckles' conviction was then quashed by the Court of Appeal and he was granted a re-trial.
At the Old Bailey, Beckles was found guilty by a 10 to two majority verdict of causing GBH with intent. The jury was discharged from returning verdicts on charges of attempted murder, robbery and false imprisonment after reaching stalemate in their deliberations.
Beckles was sentenced to eight years in jail - but walked free from court because of the time he had already served.
Judge Jeremy Roberts said: "In the light of the fact that Mr Beckles has served quite a long sentence, it would be quite unfair for him to be sent back to prison."
The jury had heard that late on January 3, 1996, Mr Mohamoud, a Somali, met vice girl Whyte in Whitechapel.
He agreed to pay her £25 for sex and they got a cab to the council flat. As soon as they walked in, he was seized by Montague and robbed of £40 at knifepoint.
Montague, Beckles and Whyte then all smoked crack cocaine in the flat. When Mr Mohamoud tried to leave, he was thrown through the window.
He is now paralysed and will never walk again.
Beckles, of east London, denied two counts of robbery, false imprisonment, attempted murder and causing GBH with intent.
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