One of the men accused of being involved in the Hatton Garden jewellery heist broke down in tears in court as his wife told the jury he was with her at home on the night the burglary took place.
Carl Wood, 58, wiped tears from his eyes with a handkerchief as his wife of 19 years, Paula, told the jury at Woolwich crown court that he was with her on the night of 4 April, when the prosecution alleges he was in London’s Hatton Garden diamond district taking part in what has been described as the biggest burglary in English legal history.
Paula Wood told the court her husband had not spent a full night away from home since his 20s and they had both slept in the same bed over the Easter weekend, when £14m-worth of jewellery, gold and cash was taken from the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company.
Bespectacled Wood, who watched from the dock in a brown V-neck sweater, white open-collar shirt and dark trousers, is accused of being one of the men who broke into the safe deposit building on the night of 2 April. He is alleged to have returned on the night of 4 April, but walked away from the “job” after finding the fire escape door closed. Wood denies the charges.
Dressed in a pastel-green woollen sweater, his wife told the court that she and her husband had hosted a barbecue at their home in Chestnut, Hertfordshire, on 4 April but it was a “flop” after her daughter and Wood’s friend, Daniel “Danny” Jones, had pulled out. Jones, 60, has admitted his role in the burglary and hiding his loot in a cemetery.
Asked by Wood’s barrister, Nick Corvallis, where Wood was on 4 April, Paula Wood replied: “I’m telling you, my husband was with me.”
Wood, who suffers from Crohn’s disease, earlier on Wednesday repeatedly denied being one of the men who entered the vault.
Cross-examining Wood, prosecutor Philip Evans showed him CCTV images from the basement of the safety deposit company of a man identified by prosecutors as Man F, who, like Wood, is seen wearing glasses. Wood repeatedly denied it was him in the images.
“You agreed with these men, you agreed with Mr Jones, maybe in a cafe or on a walk or on the telephone, you agreed to take part in the burglary at Hatton Garden,” Evans said. “You went on that first night and were part of drilling that hole.”
“You’re wrong,” replied Wood.
“You went back the second night. You got spooked, didn’t you?” asked Evans.
“Never,” replied Wood.
Evans continued: “Not only did you take part in a burglary, the reason you were going to do it is because you’re a man in a great deal of debt and you relied on this being the end of your problems.
“It was all part of your agreement to burgle and cancel the proceeds. Your alibi is a lie. And you’ve now implicated your wife and daughter.”
Ringleaders Brian Reader, 76, John “Kenny” Collins, 75, Jones and Terry Perkins, 67, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary between 17 May 2014 and 7.30am on 5 April this year.
William Lincoln, 60, of Bethnal Green, east London, and Jon Harbinson, 42, of Benfleet, Essex, are on trial accused of the same offence. A fourth man, plumbing engineer Hugh Doyle, 48, of Enfield, north London, is jointly charged with them on one count of conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property between 1 January and 19 May. He also faces an alternative charge of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between 1 April and 19 May.
One of the thieves, a red-haired man known only as Basil, has not yet been identified.
The trial continues.
