A Latvian waitress disappeared without trace after leaving a celebrity Spanish nightclub with two Britons including the son of a multi-millionaire, a court was told today at the start of their kidnap trial.
CCTV footage showed Agnese Klavina appeared to be forced into Westley Capper’s Mercedes S63 before the property developer’s son drove off from Aqua Mist in Puerto Banus with friend Craig Porter, the court heard.
Police investigating the mystery disappearance said they categorised it as potentially ‘high-risk’ from the start and arrested the British pair after discovering Agnese was last seen leaving the nightspot with them and her phone stopped emitting a signal around five hours later.
Essex-born Capper, 41, and Porter, 37 – facing up to 12 years in prison if convicted of a crime of unlawful detention – took the witness stand at Malaga’s Audiencia Provincial court to deny ‘making Agnese disappear’ or disposing of her body at sea.
Capper told the court she got into his car ‘willingly’ after they met in the club but refused to answer questions from lawyers acting for Agnese’s family.
Latvian Agnese Klavina (pictured) disappeared without trace after leaving a celebrity Spanish nightclub with two Britons including the son of a multi-millionaire, a court was told today at the start of their kidnap trial
Essex-born Westley Capper (right, in court today) and Craig Porter face up to 12 years in prison if convicted of a crime of unlawful detention. Aqwa Mist doorman Siani Ousmane (left), who is accused of being an accessory to the Britons’ alleged crime only by prosecutors for Agnese’s family, told the court he had been asked to throw the pair out of the club by his boss because they were causing problems but insisted the missing woman never asked for his help
CCTV footage showed Agnese Klavina appeared to be forced into Westley Capper’s Mercedes S63 before the property developer’s son drove off from Aqua Mist in the upmarket resort of Puerto Banus with pal Craig Porter (right, in court today), the court heard
The Latvian-born waitress spent several years living in London before moving to the Costa del Sol around six months before she disappeared in the early hours of September 6, 2014.
A three-page state prosecution indictment submitted to the court ahead of the start of today’s trial claims the British pair asked Miss Klavina, 30 when she vanished, to accompany them to Capper’s home on the exclusive El Madronal residential estate a 20-minute drive from Aqwa Mist.
Prosecutor Maria del Carmen Tirado Galvez added in the indictment: ‘Westley George Capper took advantage of the fact she was under the effects of alcohol and and her intellectual and volitive faculties were affected and led her to his Mercedes S63 AMG car.
‘Agnese caused a fuss as she was led from the door of the nightclub to the car and showed she didn’t want to accompany the accused.
‘Despite this, Westley George Capper put her into the vehicle which he was driving, while Craig Ian Porter who was in the passenger seat was waiting inside.
‘Agnese tried to get out of the car once she was inside but was prevented from doing so by the accused who then sped off towards El Madronal, both of them retaining Agnese Klavina against her will.
As well as a 12-year prison sentence if convicted of a crime of unlawful detention, state prosecutors also want Capper (right, today) and Porter (left, today) to pay Agnese’s parents Vladimir and Daiga nearly £75,000 compensation
Police investigating the mystery disappearance said they categorised it as potentially ‘high-risk’ from the start and arrested the British pair after discovering Agnese was last seen leaving Aqwa Mist (pictured) with them and her phone stopped emitting a signal around five hours later
The Latvian-born waitress spent several years living in London before moving to the Costa del Sol around six months before she disappeared in the early hours of September 6, 2014
‘Since then there has been no news of her and the accused have not offered any information on her whereabouts.’
Capper, who today wore a white shirt and black trousers, admitted drinking beer and vodka and taking drugs the night Agnese vanished.
But he insisted under oath she got into his car ‘willingly’ after they met in the club and agreed to go back to his home to carry on partying despite failing to persuade a girlfriend she was with to accompany them.
He refused to answer questions from lawyers acting for Agnese’s family, but told the state prosecutor he was holding her by the waist as they left Aqwa Mist because she was ‘drunk and staggering.’
Private-school educated Capper, whose father John made his fortune from real estate, said he dropped Agnese off near a roundabout around three minutes’ drive from his home after she told him: ‘Stop here, I’ve changed my mind, I want to go home, this is where I live.’
Prosecutor Maria del Carmen Tirado Galvez asked Capper during cross-examination: ‘Did you not think it’s strange that she wanted to be left at 6am in high heels more than two kilometres from her home?’
Capper replied: ‘It was a well-lit area and I knew the turning near where I dropped her was full of houses. She said that’s where her house was and I didn’t know at the time she lived any further.’
He also insisted a number of 999 calls from his phone the morning Agnese disappeared were made by accident and said he made repeated calls to a British friend called Paul Farmer – who was questioned but never charged – to try to buy drugs off him.
The trial, due to last four days but not expected to finish until the start of next month, continues tomorrow. Pictured: Capper (left) and Porter (right) in court today
Agnese’s mother and sister are among the witnesses expected to give evidence at the trial
Police records show he called his friend’s phone 14 times between 6.23am and 6.38am before ringing him repeatedly later the same morning.
Asked about a suitcase and a carpet seen being taken onto Capper’s boat four days after Agnese’s disappearance when it was boarded by four men including the two defendants, he said: ‘I wasn’t carrying a carpet. I was carrying a case but it had clothes in it and bedding for the boat because I was planning to go to Ibiza for the closing parties.’
Porter, the first of the two men to take the witness stand, insisted he fell asleep in the passenger seat on the ride home to Capper’s house and only discovered Agnese was no longer with them when they reached his friend’s home.
Asked if he intended to have sex with Agnese by his defence lawyer Inmaculada Garcia, he answered ‘no’ and said the only reason he did not go straight home despite being ‘drunk and tired’ was because he did not want to wake his wife and children.
He admitted to going out to sea on his friend’s boat Geofil II from Puerto de la Duquesa near Gibraltar on September 10, 2014.
His defence lawyer asked him: ‘On that day did you or anyone you were with dispose of Agnese’s body?’
Porter, who admitted to seeing missing posters shortly after Agnese vanished but insisted he had never looked at them properly and could not remember what she had looked like, replied: ‘No.’
Aqwa Mist doorman Siani Ousmane, who is accused of being an accessory to the Britons’ alleged crime only by prosecutors for Agnese’s family, told the court he had been asked to throw the pair out of the club by his boss because they were causing problems but insisted the missing woman never asked for his help.
He described Agnese as a regular at the nightclub, where celebrities including Hollywood star Eva Longoria and boxer Amir Khan have partied and ex-TOWIE star Jake Hall nearly lost a kidney after being stabbed with a broken bottle in June 2016.
He insisted he only opened the Mercedes car door for Porter in the hope of a tip to supplement his £51-a-night wage – and said the missing blonde got in the vehicle herself and he did not push her in.
A National Police investigator, referred to in court only by his service number 11483 and not his name, said Agnese had a steady job and friends and had given no indication she was unhappy.
He told the court: ‘The CCTV footage we obtained from the nightclub showed she did not appear to be acting with her full will.
‘It surprised us that Westley Capper had decided to leave Agnese where he did, on a road where there was not good lighting and no pavement and where it would have been difficult for a young woman in high heels to get to her home some 40 minutes’ walk away.’
Telling the court she had been prolific on social media up to her disappearance but had not touched her accounts since disappearing, he said Capper’s repeated calls to his friend indicated an incident ‘of relevance’ might have happened in his life.
He added: ‘The person whose phone Westley Capper was calling, Paul Farmer, didn’t want to offer us any explanation about those calls.’
As well as a 12-year prison sentence if convicted of a crime of unlawful detention, state prosecutors also want Capper and Porter to pay Agnese’s parents Vladimir and Daiga nearly £75,000 compensation.
The trial, due to last four days but not expected to finish until the start of next month, continues tomorrow.
Daiga and Agnese’s sister Gunta are among the witnesses expected to give evidence.
Capper is facing a separate manslaughter trial expected to take place later this year over the hit-and-run death of a mother-of-three on a zebra crossing in San Pedro near Marbella while high on alcohol and cocaine.
He has already confessed to killing Bolivian immigrant Fatima Dorado in May 2016 and is expected to receive a two-and-a-half year prison sentence when the case goes to trial.
Father-of-four Capper was a passenger with him in the Bentley that hit Mrs Dorado but he is not facing prosecution.