Lawyer 'lied in alibi for killer'

Alistair Duncan Smith - known as Duncan Smith - is accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by giving a false alibi for Mohammed Ali, who shot dead Ibrahim Ilyas in a drugs dispute in Sheffield in June last year.

Smith, aged 44, a partner in Conisbrough law firm Evans Smith, who denies the charge, claimed he had seen Ali - who was convicted of murder in January - in Doncaster's Taj Mahal restaurant, at Hallgate, around the time of the shooting.

Sheffield Crown Court heard Mr Ilyas, 20, was killed and two other men injured when Ali, 24, fired shots into the car in which they were sitting on Osgathorpe Road, Fir Vale.

Ali was ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years after being convicted of murder at Sheffield Crown Court in January this year.

But prosecutor Tina Dempster told the court that, in a defence statement issued before his trial, Ali had claimed to have been at the Taj Mahal at the time of the murder.

Smith, of Troutbeck Road, Millhouses, Sheffield, was named as an alibi witness.

When police asked Smith about the alibi, he had spoken in "clear and confident terms," said Miss Dempster.

"He said he had been in the company of Mohammed Ali and he recalled the day because it was a Saturday," she told the court.

"He had been working in his office in Conisbrough to do some important work for a client and he remembered the day particularly because that was the day of the England v Jamaica friendly football match.

"He remembered it so clearly because Crouch scored a hat-trick."

Smith claimed he had watched the last 15 minutes of the game and after-match analysis in a Conisbrough pub, The Alma, before going to the Taj Mahal in Doncaster at about 5pm. He said he had been there a short time when Ali came in.

But Miss Dempster said police found a number of contradictions when they investigated his claims.

A check on the burglar alarm at Smith's office revealed no-one had entered or left the building since a cleaner early in the morning.

Smith's bank records showed he had been in The Wagon and Horses pub at Millhouses, Sheffield, just before 3pm on the day of the murder and had used his Visa card to pay for lunch.

Mobile phone checks showed Smith - who is separated from his wife - to have been in south Sheffield, and a vehicle number plate recognition system on Sheffield Parkway showed he had not taken the route he had claimed on that date.

Miss Dempster went on: "At about the time of the shooting Smith was collecting his son from a party in Millhouses. He wasn't in the Taj Mahal restaurant."

She added that when police searched Smith's house they found an unsigned witness statement in which he accepted he had not been at his office and must have made a mistake.

Miss Dempster said: "The prosecution say this was no ordinary witness. He was a solicitor - a partner in a firm of solicitors. You'd expect a person of standing, with that sort of responsibility, to be more aware than others of times, dates and movements."

Smith told police he knew Mohammed Ali through Ali's brother who had owned a Firth Park takeaway which one of Smith's clients had once been interested in buying.

The trial continues.