'I let murderer stay in my house'

Katen Patel: 'He definitely planned the whole murder'

The brother of murdered special constable Nisha Patel-Nasri said he has no doubts her husband was behind the killing.

Katen Patel, 35, who watched the three-month murder trial at the Old Bailey, said the evidence proved his brother-in-law Fadi Nasri was responsible for organising the killing.

But he admitted that immediately after the murder in May 2006, he did not suspect him and let the murderer stay in his home.

"I never thought for one second that he [Fadi] was behind this," he said.

Mr Patel was due to get married just days after the murder

Mr Patel was due to get married just days after the murder but cancelled the ceremony.

Instead, on what was due to be his wedding day, he sat next to Nasri at a police press conference in an appeal for help in catching the special Pc's killers.

"After the incident I let him stay in my house," he said.

"Once the doctor said Nisha wasn't going to make it, I put my hand on his shoulder and said to him 'Don't worry, I'll look after you'.

"So I had no idea."

But he added: "During that whole time I could never give a hug or reassure him that everything was going to be fine - I just couldn't do it.

I hugged the 300 people that turned up (to her funeral) - but not him Katen Patel

"Even on the day of the funeral I didn't hug him. I hugged the 300 people that turned up - but not him.

"I still didn't think he would be involved but something inside me stopped me, something wasn't right."

"But I've been at the Old Bailey for the last three months.

"I've sat there listening to people lie, listening to people making up stories and I heard all the evidence and facts.

Leslie (l) and Jones were also convicted of murder

"You can't get past the evidence and the facts.

"There is no doubt in my mind that he definitely planned the whole murder."

Nasri, 34, was found guilty of murder along with two other men he had recruited to carry out the killing.

Recalling the night when he heard his 29-year-old sister was stabbed outside her home in Wembley, north-west London, he said: "I saw the trail of blood.

'Cheeky smile'

"The amount of blood I saw I knew there was no chance. I knew there was a big possibility she wasn't going to make it.

"By the time I got there she was already in the ambulance so I didn't get to see her."

Asked how he would like his sister to be remembered, he said: "Everybody can see her photographs in the papers, on the internet and in the news.

"She is always smiling, she was always bubbly, she had that cheeky smile on her face.

"If you just look at those pictures with the expression on her face with her smile and her eyes, that picture is worth a thousand words."