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Vincent Tabak confessed Joanna Yeates killing in emotional meeting with prison chaplain

A prison chaplain has told how Vincent Tabak confessed to killing Joanna Yeates during an emotional meeting in jail

Peter Brotherton, a voluntary Salvation Army chaplain at Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire said the Dutchman had unburdened himself on February 8 this year.

He said Tabak had requested a meeting, informing him: “I have something to tell you that will shock you.”

Giving evidence at Bristol Crown Court, Mr Brotherton said: “I said ‘you tell me and we will see’, or words to that effect.

“He said ‘I am going to change my plea to guilty’. He said it was to do with the crime he had committed.

“I said, ‘is this concerning the young lady from Bristol?’, he said ‘yes’.”

Mr Brotherton said Tabak was upset and said he was going to find it very difficult to tell his girlfriend, Tanja Morson.

The chaplain told the court he then advised him to contact his legal team and inform them of the decision and offered to pray with him.

While Mr Brotherton accepted he had told Tabak the conversation would be in confidence, he decided to tell his superiors because he did not regard it as a religious confession.

But under cross-examination by William Clegg QC, defending, Mr Brotherton accepted that Tabak had not told him he wanted to change his plea, only that he intended to plead guilty.

Mr Brotherton also told the court that Tabak was depressed and distressed and had been on suicide watch on the prison’s healthcare unit.

He said Tabak had been angry that he had breached his confidence and told him he would not tell him anything else.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... plain.html