British police release evidence of Zaļkalns' guilt in murder case

Take note – story published 9 years ago

The London Metropolitan Police released evidence Tuesday pointing to Latvian immigrant Arnis Zaļkalns as the likely murderer of teenaged Alice Gross, whose body was recovered deliberately submerged in the River Brent last September after going missing for a month, reported the BBC Tuesday.

Several days later the body of Zaļkalns, who had apparently hanged himself, was found just two miles from the suspected murder scene.

The Police have now informed the Crown Prosecutors that Zaļkalns was responsible for the heinous crime, which they believe had a “sexual motive” despite the lack of evidence.

Following the police briefing, Alice's family said: "Although we now have certain information about how Alice died, we are still left with some serious unanswered questions about what the authorities knew or should have known about the man who is believed to have killed our daughter when he came to the UK.

"Alice believed in the free movement of people and so do we. For her sake, we are determined to ask these questions responsibly and sensitively."

Police have maintained that even having had knowledge of Zaļkalns’ previous 2005 murder conviction and serving of prison sentence in Latvia would not have saved Alice’s life in this case. Zaļkalns arrived legally in the UK in 2007, where he was arrested two years later on charges of attempting to molest a 14-year old girl in the same area as Alice’s body was found.

Detectives said even if they had known about the conviction it was "very unlikely" Zaļkalns would have been deported.

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