Alleged robber ‘was trying to topple drugs kingpin’

Tuesday 30 April 2019

An alleged burglar told Police that he was only at the house he’s accused of robbing to save a woman from an elaborate scheme orchestrated by a “very dangerous” and well-connected individual trying to frame her for importing drugs.

The account was given by Paul David William Le Geyt (27), who is currently standing trial in the Royal Court for allegedly illegally entering a family home to steal two designer watches and a camera lens, when he was interviewed by officers after a stand-off in a country barn.

Mr Le Geyt denies the charges of illegal entry and larceny and of violently resisting arrest. 

His trial began in the Royal Court yesterday with testimony from eyewitnesses and Police Officers which told a dramatic tale where Mr Le Geyt allegedly burgled the home, was chased by his ‘victim’, making a getaway on a child’s scooter and then threatening to bite Police’s fingers off whilst they were making the arrest. 

Pictured: The Court heard that Mr Le Geyt tried to get away from Police on a child's scooter.

The prosecution case, led by Crown Advocate Richard Pedley, came to a close with the reading of Mr Le Geyt’s Police interview after he was arrested following the alleged incident on 18 October last year. 

Crown Advocate Pedley, along with Detective Constable Adam Claxton, read the transcript aloud to the jury of six men and six women in Court this morning where Mr Le Geyt put forward his side of the story – one which involves an complex ploy to bring down a “dangerous” individual, who he claimed has been exploiting a young woman and framing her for drugs imports by using a connection in Customs.

The defendant recounted being in contact with a man via an “encrypted website” a few days before the alleged incident. It was this man – whom he refused to name - he said he was planning to use to get to this “very dangerous” individual and bring them down by getting evidence of his drugs scheme and blackmailing him.

Pictured: The jury heard Mr Le Geyt's Police interview today.

“This goes deep, this goes very deep,” Mr Le Geyt warned Detective Constables Fowler and Claxton who were interviewing him about the alleged burglary.

When asked by DC Claxton whether there was an investigation into Mr Le Geyt’s allegations of corruption, the Detective Constable confirmed that there had been, but that no evidence of such a scheme had been found.

The 27-year-old said he’d been told by the man he was with – said to be his anonymous accomplice by the prosecution – that the ‘kingpin’ he was trying to topple would be at the property and Mr Le Geyt “was trying to get [his] information in the slyest way possible.”

On the day of the alleged burglary, Mr Le Geyt maintains that he only went as far as the house’s porch, and the other man he was with made him “grab the bag” before they both made a run for it, but he denies having taken anything from the house or knowing anything about the burglary. 

Mr Le Geyt also told the officers that the drugs that were later recovered from his pocket whilst being arrested were not his and he had “found” outside the family home he’s accused of burgling.

Pictured: The trial is taking place in the Royal Court this week.

He said he “picked it up” because he “thought it might be a door key”, but instead discovered that “it was a f*****g little lump of dope.”

“Sweet, I’m having that,” he remembered thinking, “I’ll take that as a bonus!” 

He said it was the fact he had these drugs in his possession which caused him to run from Police - even resorting to stealing a child’s scooter from a nearby property to make a quicker getaway. 

He said he tried hiding in a bush and then asking a driver if she would give him a lift into town, telling her that he had fallen asleep in the shrubbery. When she refused, saying she wasn’t “going that way”, he said “that’s when this scooter thing came in.”

Mr Le Geyt told Police that “he was planning on using it to get to the bus stop” and leaving it there, but when he saw Officers in the area he thought, “there’s no point even using a scooter because I’m probably better off running” when he dropped the child's toy in the road and continued to make a run for it. 

The Court also heard testimony from Police Sergeant Paul Kemp who told the jury that while he and other officers were trying to search Mr Le Geyt and get him into the Police van, the defendant bit him on the thigh and threw what he described as “a donkey-style kick” to his shin. 

The bite, he said, “just left a saliva mark, it didn’t break the skin”, but the kick “was painful” and caused “bruising” and “swelling” to his shin. 

The trial continues.