Jericho murder accused Greg Muinami’s brief suggested the police had selected CCTV to fit their ‘case theory’ that his client was the aggressor.

David Hislop KC asked the Thames Valley Police murder squad staff member whether he had heard of ‘confirmation bias’, as he quizzed the experienced ex-officer on Tuesday (May 23).

From the witness box, the officer, Mark McMurdo maintained that he had reviewed the CCTV ‘objectively’.

UPDATES FROM JERICHO TRIAL

Muinami, 19, is one of four teenagers accused of murdering 25-year-old Alex Innes outside the Love Jericho cocktail bar in the early hours of November 13 last year.

The Kidlington man was stabbed in the chest following what prosecutors have alleged was a dispute with Muinami over a £100 debt for trainers.

Yesterday, jurors at Oxford Crown Court continued to pore over CCTV footage of the moments running up to and immediately following the stabbing at the corner of Walton Street and Walton Crescent at around 12.45am.

Mr Hislop, for Muinami, suggested that Mr Innes had been holding a cocktail glass in his hand as he retreated from the corner of Walton Crescent, and not a cigarette as suggested in the case presented by the prosecution.

Showing the court a freeze-frame image taken from CCTV in Oxford Ceramics, next door to the Love Jericho cocktail bar, Mr Hislop nodded towards a white streak apparently in Mr Innes’ hand.

“That’s not a cigarette, is it?” the barrister suggested to the officer. Mr McMurdo replied: “I can assure you that’s a cigarette.”

Mr Hislop said: “That’s a cigarette?”

“Yes,” the officer told the jury.

From the corner of his mouth, Mr Hislop whistled: “Pretty large cigarette.”

Oxford Mail: Click here to sign up to the Crime and Court newsletter Click here to sign up to the Crime and Court newsletter (Image: Newsquest)

The barrister suggested that what the jury could see rolling along the ground, having been dropped by Mr Innes, was ice from a cocktail glass.

“He's had in his hand a cocktail glass and that's what shattered and that's why you can see the splashing when it hits the ground,” Mr Hislop said. The officer disagreed.

Earlier, the barrister said: "My suggestion to you is that the selection of images [in the] compilation are chosen to support a case theory.”

That case theory, the jury heard, was that Muinami was the ‘aggressor’ on the night of Mr Innes’ death.

Greg Muinami, 19, of Cranham Street, Michael Oluyitan, 19, of Waynflete Road, Bradley Morton, 18, of Cumberlege Close, and Keyarno Johnson-Allen, 19, of Furlong Close, deny murder, manslaughter and possession of a bladed article.

The trial continues.