A GWENT police detective constable told a jury yesterday she interviewed a murder trial witness in the proper way without putting any pressure on her.

DC Jessica Jones was giving evidence at the trial of Karl Drummond, 37, of Attlee Court, Shahid Rafiq, 37, of Bryn-yr- Ysgol and George Glover, 40, of Graham Court, all Caerphilly.

All three are charged with murdering and conspiring to rob Newport father Tony Singh, 24, on November 11, 2010. All three deny the charges.

DC Jones interviewed Drummond’s girlfriend Nina Sayer on November 23, 2010 through to the early hours of November 24 and took a witness statement from Miss Sayer.

Drummond’s barrister John Charles Rees referred to notes made by DC Jones during the interview with Miss Sayer.

In the notes, it was recorded the witness had originally said that after the defendants hadn’t been able to get their money back from a drug dealer who had sold them stuffing mix instead of heroin, she was told Rafiq was going to “buy” crack cocaine from another dealer. Later on in the interview though, Miss Sayer described that she had been told the defendants were going to “take” the drugs off the dealer.

Mr Rees said: “It’s an example of you being given an innocent claim and you getting her to change it to what you wanted.”

DC Jones said: “That is not correct.

I did things properly and recorded what I was told.”

Miss Sayer had previously told the court that she lied in the statement because police had told her that her son would be taken away from her if she didn’t cooperate.

Proceeding