Illegal immigrant Francois Baron was promised he could stay in the country if he helped police, the Sharon Beshenivsky murder trial was told yesterday.

Newcastle Crown Court was told a police witness protection officer, while assessing whether Mr Baron was suitable for the witness protection scheme, had written on a form the words "promised that if he helped he would be allowed to stay".

The un-named officer, who gave evidence behind screens to protect his identity, said: "When I spoke to him he appeared to be under the impression that now he had made a statement he could stay in this country.

"I told him otherwise and that no promises could or would be made to him."

The officer said he assessed Mr Baron on February 6 this year - three days after he had been served with a notice by an Immigration Officer identifying him as an over-stayer liable to be deported.

He said he asked Mr Baron what promises had been made to him, to ensure the witness did not think he was being offered an incentive or reward to make his statement.

The officer said Mr Baron's reply was along the lines that he was now able to stay in the country.

He told the witness the police had a different role to the Immigration Service and it was a matter for the immigration authorities whether he stayed in the country.

He said: "I knew it was vital he was no longer under the impression or had the belief that his stay in the country was guaranteed and that no police officer could or would make that promise."

Benjamin Nolan QC, for Faisal Razzaq, said he had been provided with information by the prosecution that the police and Crown Prosecution Service had made representations to the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Board about Mr Baron and he had been given temporary leave to remain by the Home Secretary.

No decision, however, had been taken about allowing him to stay in the UK to give evidence in the event of Mustaf jamma and Piran Ditta Khan being returned to the UK and brought to trial.

The officer said Mr Baron did not know whether he could stay in the UK or not and that troubled him.

He said Mr Baron was not allowed to work and arrangements were made for him to have free accommodation.

It was also decided to pay him £56 per week, the equivalent of Job Seekers Allowance, £28 for four visits a week to a gym, £11 for a weekly bus travel card and £5 a week for a mobile phone card so he could call his family.

The officer said: "To compensate for the fact he was not able to work, I decided he should receive a sum of money that would enable him to have some way of spending his time.

"As well as that I decided he should also have the opportunity to use public transport and the cheapest way to do that was to afford him an allowance for a ticket to travel for the week and also he could have a phone card to contact family."

The officer said Mr Baron had also been provided with clothing, household appliances, a TV licence and his utility bills were taken care of.

Earlier Mr Baron had told the jury the evidence he had given to the court has been 100 per cent accurate.

Asked by prosecutor Robert Smith QC how he felt when he had been stopped by police on the M1 in Derbyshire in the Toyota Corolla on the Sunday after the shooting, and not told them what he knew about the robbery and shooting, he said: "I was scared. I was in a panic because I had overstayed here."

The court heard he looked upset when stopped and told police he had never been in any trouble with them in his life.

Scotland Yard fingerprints expert Gerard Roche told the court four prints belonging to Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah and Hassan Razzaq had been found on a bathroom wall and the underside of a glass coffee table at the home of the Jamma family in Wembley, London, on November 27 last year.

Yusuf Abdillh Jamma, 20, of Small Heath, Birmingham, Raza Ul-Haq Aslam, 25, of Kentish Town, London, and brothers Faisal Razzaq, 25, and Hassan Razzaq, 26, both of Forest Gate, London, plead not guilty to PC Sharon Beshenivsky's murder.

Muzzaker Imtiaz Shah, 25, of London, admits murder and robbery but denies the attempted murder of PC Teresa Milburn. He has also pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing a prohibited weapon and two charges of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Aslam and the Razzaq brothers deny robbery but Jamma has admitted that charge. Aslam, the Razzaq brothers and Jamma also plead not guilty to firearms offences.

The trial continues.

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