Ignatius Hughes QC secures acquittal in murder case

Ignatius Hughes QC, instructed by Kelcey and Hall in a six-week trial, represented Abdiwahidi Abdulahi, a Somalian drug dealer accused of murdering a subordinate who had disappeared with his drug phone, drugs and money.
 
The co-accused, Carl Cullen, convicted of murder, was a drug user whose flat was being used to deal from.
 
The case of both the Crown and co-accused was that the deceased had returned after two days. Abdulahi went to the flat and stabbed the victim to death having been informed of his return by Cullen. Cullen was then left to dispose of the body. The Crown’s case against Cullen was that he was a secondary party only.

The case advanced by Abdulahi, not the Crown, was that Cullen was the principal, arguing that the deceased had not disappeared at all but had been murdered by Cullen, and his body hidden for two days. This was the basis on which Cullen was convicted.