LONDON—A case worker with a firm of immigration solicitors was tied up and her son was stabbed to death after a row over money between four people involved in a “sham marriage scheme,” a murder trial jury has been told.
Riches Obi, 25, was stabbed to death in the hallway of a flat in Elephant and Castle, south London, on Nov. 17, 2020.
His mother, case worker Bernadette Ortet, was found by police tied up in a bedroom, with a scarf around her neck.
Jurick Croes, 38, Suvenca Martis, 33, and Raichell Felomina, 39, all deny murdering Mr. Obi and the false imprisonment of Ms. Ortet.
All three are Dutch nationals, with roots in the Netherlands Antilles.
Defendants ‘Angry’ About Money From Sham Wedding Scheme
Opening the case at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, prosecutor Jennifer Knight, KC, said, “The background to these offences seems to lie in a sham marriage scheme in which all three of these defendants and Bernadette Ortet were engaged.”
“It seems likely that these defendants had become angry in some way about the remuneration they were receiving for their part in the scheme and went to Bernadette Ortet’s flat on November 17 determined to demand and get money from her,” she added.
She said Mr. Obi was presumably stabbed when he tried to confront the killers.
Ms. Ortet was a case worker for Obadiah Rose Solicitors, a firm specialising in immigration and nationality cases.
Ms. Knight said after Ms. Ortet was released from her bindings by police she left the flat and went to the home of her daughter, Olive Obi.
The prosecutor said Ms. Ortet has since returned to her native Nigeria and would not be a witness at the trial.
Ms. Knight said neither Ms. Ortet or Ms. Obi had given the police their account of what happened.
The jury was told detectives traced a bag of cable ties which had been left in the flat to a shop in Camberwell and watched CCTV footage from the shop that showed a woman—later identified as Ms. Martis—buying them.
The prosecutor said other CCTV footage showed Ms. Martis dropping Mr. Croes and Mr. Felomina off not far from Ms. Ortet’s home a few hours before the attack and then picking them up again shortly before the police arrived.
Alleged Killers Extradited From Colombia and Holland
Ms. Martis was arrested in London a week after the murder; Mr. Felomina was detained in the Netherlands and sent back to Britain in 2021; and Mr. Croes was only extradited from Colombia in 2023.Ms. Knight said detectives found in Ms. Ortet’s home various documents in the name of Mr. Croes and Mr. Felomina, including their Dutch identity cards.
But she said, “Neither Jurick Croes nor Raichell Felomina were clients of Obadiah Rose Solicitors. These were documents that were necessary to the sham marriages being arranged for them.”
The prosecutor said blood and DNA from both Mr. Croes and Mr. Felomina were found on two knives which had been left in the flat after Mr. Obi was stabbed.
Mr. Croes’s DNA was also found on a black New York Yankees baseball cap which was found in the flat. He was seen wearing this cap, or one very similar to it, on CCTV when Ms. Martis dropped him off.
Ms. Knight said the Crown’s case is that Mr. Croes, Mr. Felomina, and Ms. Martis “clearly intended to cause really serious harm during the commission of this offence, whether this be to bind, gag, and threaten Bernadette Ortet as planned, or indeed towards another if necessary.”
She said, “Riches Obi interfered with or impeded the plan in some way and was therefore stabbed by one or both of Raichell Felomina and Jurick Croes.”
The prosecutor said, “After the murder and clearly knowing what had taken place, Suvenca Martis did a series of acts which had a tendency to pervert the course of justice, by providing transport for Raichell Felomina and Jurick Croes, obtaining medical supplies for their injuries and clean clothes for both men, and making travel arrangements to help them leave the country.”
The trial is expected to last for at least six weeks.
