OLD BAILEY TRIAL: ‘The real Bling’ not formally quizzed by police

The trial is being held at the Old Bailey

Eleven men are standing trial charged with a string of exploitative sex crimes committed against two young girls in Aylesbury.

The jury heard on Monday how Jerome Joe, of Pightle Crescent, Buckingham disclosed the name of the man who he says looks just like him, on the day he was arrested in a prepared statement.

Joe, a DJ who has played at Notting Hill Carnival, has no previous convictions.

He claims that the case against him is that of mistaken identity.

The court heard how following Mr Joe’s claims, police attended the workplace of the man he says more closely fits the description of the man the victim knew as ‘Bling’.

The man said that he did not want to have anything to do with the case, and asked the police not to contact him again.

But he also disclosed that a friend from Trinidad knew him as Bling Dawg, because he said that he looks like a rapper of the same name.

But prosecutor Oliver Saxby said that ‘no one else calls him anything that resembles Bling’.

The court heard that the man also told police that he knew the defendant, but as DJ Mad Maxx.

Defending Joe, Neena Crinnion asked investigating officer Robert Brown if a formal interview was carried out and he said that it had not. He also said that the Crown Prosecution Service made the decision to charge Mr Joe before inquiries into the mistaken identity claims were carried out.

Miss Crinnion said: “At the time of charge no inquiry was made into his defence that he wasn’t Bling, or into the man who he said was.”

The defence claims that descriptions of a ground floor flat where Mr Joe is said to have lived in Aylesbury cannot be true, because Mr Joe has never lived in a ground floor flat. Pictures of the man who the defence says is the real culprit were taken from Facebook by Miss Crinnion and shown to the jury. Woman A also claims that the man she knew as Bling used a special brand of condoms designed for particularly well-endowed men. But the jury heard that condoms seized from Joe’s home were of a regular size.