Alibi given in murder case 'false'

A FRIEND of two women accused of murdering a bank clerk gave them a false alibi because she 'trusted' them, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

Jeanette Tapp, 26, a hospital assistant, admitted she told police that Michelle and Lisa Taylor were in her room when Alison Shaughnessy was killed at about 5.45pm on 3 June last year. 'I believed and trusted them because they were good friends,' she said.

Michelle Taylor, 21, and her sister Lisa, 18, of Kemble Road, Forest Hill, south-east London, both deny murder. Mrs Shaughnessy, 21, of Vardens Road, Battersea, south-west London had been stabbed 54 times.

Miss Tapp told the court that on the day of the murder she went shopping and visited her mother. When she returned to her room at the Churchill clinic, in Lambeth, south London, Lisa was waiting.

Both sisters claim that they were waiting for Miss Tapp in her room at 5pm.

Four days after the murder Miss Tapp made two statements to police that they had all spent the afternoon in her room.

A month later Miss Tapp was arrested for conspiring to murder Mrs Shaughnessy and immediately withdrew the statements.

The trial continues today.