SMS received from Winter's phone, court hears

Dubai: An investigator testified in court yesterday that a woman answered Kerry Winter's mobile phone saying ‘I'm Kerry and I'm okay' when he called her within 45-minutes after she got attacked.

"I dialled her number several times and a woman replied saying she is Kerry and she is okay. The woman who replied also told me ‘I will come after two days to Dubai.' This happened within 45 minutes after Dubai Police's Operation Room were informed about the attack.

"During the first period of investigations, I also received text messages from her number saying she was okay and will return to Dubai soon. Other officers, who cooperated with me in the investigations, also contacted her," testified the investigator, an Emirati police captain, during a cross examination hearing at the Dubai Court of First Instance.

Fair trial

Meanwhile the British suspect, who has denied the charge of premeditatedly killing Kerry, a 36-year-old South African, asked the jury for a fair trial.

"Your honour, last hearing I requested for the translation of witnesses say… today the witness spoke in Arabic and I didn't understand a word. I need a fair trial. The witness statement should be translated… what if the witness said something that can't be rebuked later," argued the 42-year-old Briton, M.A., when he addressed Presiding Judge Hamad Abdul Latif Abdul Jawad.

M.A. complained to the judge immediately after the captain gave his statement in Arabic. "You have appointed a lawyer, who is an Arab and understands Arabic language, to defend and represent you during the trial," replied Presiding Judge Abdul Jawad.

Towards the beginning of yesterday's hearing at courtroom 4, the captain testified that after M.A. was arrested at Dubai International Airport, he denied doing anything to Kerry.

"As the investigation continued, he confessed that he hit her with a baseball bat because of a misunderstanding… he didn't clarify the nature of the misunderstanding.

"He claimed he beat her at the villa and that she was still alive when he left her at a desert side near the Arabian Ranches. Later he guided us to her car. M.A. told the members of the investigating team that after the incident he returned home, changed and went to Al Mina Al Siyahi," added the captain.

When asked by advocate Hussain Al Jaziri, representing Kerry's family in civil right, if he knew Kerry's voice, the captain replied: "I have never heard her voice or known her."

When asked by M.A.'s lawyer Yousuf Hammad about the messages' content he received from Kerry's phone, the captain stated: "The messages read ‘I am Kerry… I am ok'.

The Briton earlier denied the charge of murdering her then tying weights to her body and dumping it in the sea.

The court reconvenes December 21 to hear from two more prosecution witnesses.