The jury in the Sam Mechelewski murder trial has today (Thursday) returned a not guilty verdict on defendant Ciara Ratcliff.
Miss Ratcliff, 21, of Sycamore Drive, Huntingdon, has been found not guilty of perverting the course of justice at Cambridge Crown Court.
The jury of three men and eight women took 18 hours to reach a verdict and have returned to the jury room to deliberate on Ashley White and Jordan Shepherd, who are charged with Mr Mechelewski’s murder. Both men have denied the charge.
Miss Ratcliff was described as “impressionable” by her defence counsel Clare Matthews who told the court she panicked when Shepherd contacted her telling her she would be in trouble if she was found to have any connection to drugs property.
She said she didn’t want to get caught for drug dealing and Shepherd had told her to delete messages from her phone and tell police that he was at her dad’s house on the night of the murder.
Ms Matthews then described how Ratcliff went to the police station to tell the truth, once she realised it was a murder investigation and not about drugs.
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