Killer 'slipped through police net'

A murderer committed a violent armed bank robbery in the US years before he returned to Britain and killed his boss during a terrifying four-hour ordeal, a court has been told.

But because no formal agreement exists to alert the UK of his criminal past, authorities in Britain did not know.

A Newport Crown Court jury found Russell Carter, 52, guilty of murder of Kingsley Monk and three counts of attempted murder.

They also listened to a harrowing victim impact statement from the murdered man's widow Deborah Monk.

In the six-page statement she said of her husband: "He is the first thing that I think of in the morning and the last thing at night. When I go to bed at night I close my eyes and see Kingsley tied up."

Earlier the jury had heard that it was only during the trial that the UK authorities got confirmation of Mr Carter's previous convictions. Despite close links to America, the lack of a formal agreement allowed Mr Carter to live and work here as if he had a clean record.

European Union member states are required to inform each other in such cases but no mechanism exists with the US.

It meant Mr Carter was able to work unhindered as a lorry driver while in breach of parole in the US after serving part of a 20 year jail term there. Mr Carter, of Cardiff, south Wales, was born in Britain but was brought up in America and had dual citizenship. He murdered his former boss Mr Monk, 45, at the climax of a brutal four-hour ordeal.

Mr Monk was strangled, probably with his own tie, at Driverline 247 in New Inn, Pontypool, south Wales, last October.