Belmarsh prison officer given gifts to lie in Iron Miah murder case

Iron Miah was found with a gunshot wound to the head in Nelson Street, east London

A prison officer was given "money, gifts and promises" to lie for a defendant awaiting trial for murder, a court has heard.

Wiktoria Bujko, 30, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice for reporting a "false confession" by a man awaiting trial for the murder of Iron Miah.

Mr Miah, 40, was shot dead in Nelson Street, east London, in November 2019.

Three men were found guilty of his murder on 9 January at the Old Bailey.

Bujko's guilty plea can now be reported after Judge Nigel Lickley KC lifted a ban ahead of the defendants' sentencing next month.

Mohammed Moshaer Ali, 31, of Dagenham, Antonio Afflick-McLeod, 32, of Ilford, and Aaron Campbell, 32, of Fulham, were found guilty of Mr Miah's murder at the conclusion of a third trial for the case.

An earlier trial had to be aborted after former prison officer Bujko came forward with a false account to police.

'False account'

Prosecutor Crispin Aylett KC said Ali had put Bujko up to creating an "entirely false account of a confession by Aaron Campbell".

Ali had "repeatedly shown himself to be an outrageous liar" and rewarded the female prison officer with "money, gifts and promises", Mr Aylett said.

At the time, she was working at high security HMP Belmarsh in south-east London where all three defendants were being held on remand.

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On 17 October 2022, shortly before a retrial was due to begin, Bujko made a statement about a conversation she claimed to have overheard between Campbell and another inmate.

Someone paid £500 into Bujko's bank account the day after she submitted her witness statement, the court was told.

Wiktoria Bujko was working at HMP Belmarsh where all three defendants were being held on remand

Her statement suggested that Campbell and Afflick-McLeod had planned to rob Ali of drugs.

A jury heard that Bujko had known Ali since he was first remanded to HMP Thameside, where she had been working.

Bujko, of Marlborough Road, Woolwich, was arrested in December 2022.

Bujko and Ali both pleaded guilty to conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

All defendants will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on 28 February.

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