Make-up artist who took centre-stage

By Chris Summers
BBC News

Five people have been convicted in connection with Britain's biggest robbery. Michelle Hogg, who started off as a defendant, became the most crucial witness in the whole trial.

Miss Hogg, a make-up artist from Plumstead, south-east London, spent nearly a fortnight working on prosthetic faces for several men shortly before the robbery, but said she had been unaware of the true purpose of her job.

She started the trial accused of being an integral part of the conspiracy, but was the only one of the defendants given bail.

Nervous

The 32-year-old was clearly very nervous and upset, and was granted permission to sit in the well of the court rather than in the dock with her co-defendants.

Four months into the trial, Miss Hogg suddenly switched sides.

She agreed to turn Queen's evidence and testify against her former co-defendants, and in return the prosecution dropped all charges against her.

But the prosecutor, Sir John Nutting QC, was forced to accept they still considered Miss Hogg an accomplice.

Several defence barristers highlighted this apparent contradiction to the jury - the prosecution basically did not believe their own witness when she said she had been unaware of the true purpose of the prosthetics.

When the former Harvey Nichols salesgirl entered the witness box, the atmosphere in court was electric.

Sir John asked her if she was now prepared to identify the men to whom she had applied prosthetics.

"I am," she replied.

She went on to identify Lea Rusha, Jetmir Bucpapa, Stuart Royle, Roger Coutts and three other men.

Angry exchanges

When the time came for Royle, who was defending himself, to cross-examine her, the exchange was quite comical.

He began by politely reassuring her: "I am going to try and be as nice as I can."

Royle conceded he knew her and said she had cut his hair a few days before the raid, shortly after it had been dyed.

I'm sorry but the lies that come out of his mouth are ridiculous Michelle Hogg on Stuart Royle

"You trimmed my hair and said it looked nice. You said I was a gentleman for helping you with your bags," he told her.

"Yes, I thought the new colour looked good on you. It made your eyes look bluer. It gave you younger-looking skin," she replied.

But soon their exchanges turned sour.

Royle said she had put his name in the frame instead of one of the real robbers.

He denied she had been to his mother's bungalow in Maidstone, and suggested she could have confused it with one of 325 similar homes nearby.

She replied: "Bless you Stuart, but it was that bungalow. I did a face cast of you, Stuart, a nose was made for you. I am sorry but that is the bungalow that I went to. You offered me a drink and a cake or a biscuit."

When he denied she had ever been to the bungalow, her response was spiky: "You are absolutely lying and you are lying by saying the make-up wasn't done at your mum's bungalow."

Lost temper

As tempers frayed, the judge, Mr Justice Penry-Davey, intervened and warned them to calm down.

In pictures: The make-up

Miss Hogg replied: "I'm sorry but the lies that come out of his mouth are ridiculous."

Later she told the judge: "I am sorry my lord but he is talking absolute rubbish. He might as well be talking out of his bottom."

Miss Hogg spent several days in the witness box. A phrase she used which never failed to amuse listening journalists, lawyers and jurors was: "I got lost".

At one point Miss Hogg was asked to recount how she travelled down to Kent to meet some of the robbers and touch up their make-up the day before the raid.

Time and again she said she had to pull over and call either Lea Rusha or Jetmir Bucpapa because she had got lost.

Hopefully she has since invested in a sat nav system.