Gardener murdered grandmother fearing he’d lose allotment

A gardener accused of strangling the secretary of his allotment association with a lawnmower cord was known by other plot holders for his ‘violent behaviour’, a court heard.

Rahim Mohammadi, 41, allegedly murdered 80-year-old widow Lea Adri-Soejoko to stop her complaining after he ‘beat her up during a confrontation’ at the site in Colindale, northwest London.

The alarm was raised after Mrs Adri-Soejoko, the secretary of the Colindale Allotment Association in north London, failed to turn up for a meeting at 7.30pm.

Her body was found in the padlocked mower shed next to the allotment office at 2.33am on February 28 after police followed the sound of her ringing mobile phone.

Mrs Adri-Soejoko was lying on a pallet next to a Mountfield mower with the starter cord wrapped tightly around her neck.

The Old Bailey heard she was ‘wary’ of Mohammadi, and he was known for his ‘threatening, intimidating, aggressive and sometimes even physically violent behaviour’. 

Jurors were told how the pair ‘clashed’ during a ‘notorious’ meeting of the Allotment Association in September 2016 when she told him to ‘shut up’. 

The prosecution claim Mohammadi strangled Mrs Adri-Soejoko with ‘cold-blooded deliberation’ after rendering her defenceless with an initial assault.

She suffered bruising to her arms, left wrist, left shoulder, right hand and left knee, bruising and abrasions to the face, a fracture of the spine at the base of the neck and two fractures to the fifth and ninth ribs on the left side.

Lea Adri-Soejoko, 80, was found in a padlocked mower shed next to the allotment office at 2.33am on February 28 after they followed the sound of her ringing mobile phone

Jurors heard from Amber Tomlinson, the granddaughter of Mrs Adri-Soekoko, who had lived at her Colindale home since July 2015.

Ms Tomlinson said: ‘She was really fit. She was mobile, completely independent – didn’t need anything from me.’

Mrs Adri-Soejoko was a ‘dedicated member’ of the allotment, and did the accounts in her role as secretary of the association, she added.

Jurors also heard Mrs Adri-Soejoko acted as a ‘peacekeeper’ on the allotments, settling disputes between gardeners.

The prosecution claim Mohammadi strangled Mrs Adri-Soejoko with ‘cold-blooded deliberation’

Ms Tomlinson said her grandmother told her of an incident at an annual general meeting in September 2016.

She said: ‘Everything with the allotment tends to be quite passionate. People care. This AGM, there were a lot of people talking over one another.

‘And my grandmother wasn’t able to chair the meeting as she intended to. Rahim had been louder than the rest, by his general nature.

‘So my grandmother had said, ‘shut up’, so she could chair the meeting. To which he took offence, and shouted at her.

‘One of the insults she specifically said was he called her a ‘bitch’ in front of everyone.

‘I guess she was concerned about it.

‘He referred to her as a ‘f*****g b***h’, before he left the meeting.’

She added: ‘She was definitely concerned. She definitely knew there was something wrong with that situation.

‘And I knew she felt she had a role to play in him reacting like that to her, which upset me.

‘She had told me not to tell the rest of the family about that incident, but I did tell my mum. She didn’t want them to worry.’

Mark Adri-Soejoko, the grandson of Lea Adri-Soejoko, attended the hearing at the Old Bailey today

A statement was also read from her close friend Anthony Darby, who raised the alarm after she failed to attend an allotment meeting.

He went to the site with her daughter Tessa, her son Andre and police officers.

Mr Darby said: ‘Someone called Lea’s phone. We heard it ringing in a locked shed.’

He said he stood on a wheelbarrow and looked through a hole in the roof, adding: ‘I could see Lea laying on the floor. I am not aware of anyone who would hurt her.’

In another statement, he said: ‘There were problems on the allotment. There were people getting drunk, having BBQs.

Mark Adri-Soejoko outside court today

‘There was a site manager at Lea’s allotment. He only lasted two weeks there because he was assaulted on the allotment by people who were drunk.

‘There was also the usual problems on allotments – theft and rubbish dumping. I think Lea enjoyed being secretary being president, and wanted to remain so.’ 

Prosecutor John Price QC said: ‘He responded with a display of verbal aggression directed towards her which shocked others and distressed her.

‘We know from what others later observed of her and from her insistence that the minutes of that meeting should include a full account of what had happened, that she was affected by it and was wary of him.

‘Amidst what will be heard on occasions to have been a fraught atmosphere, with anti-social behaviour by no means unusual on the allotment site, these outbursts have been tolerated or overlooked in the past.

‘But he would have known for sure there would be no willingness to overlook, no toleration for so serious a physical assault upon this old lady.

‘As he pondered what he had just done to her, Rahim Mohammadi will have feared that this time he would never again be allowed to return to the allotment and he feared much else besides. And so he killed her.’

Mohammadi was known for his aggressive behaviour but it had been tolerated in the past, the court heard.

Mr Price said: ‘On the allotment where Mrs Adri-Soejoko was first beaten up and then killed to prevent her from complaining, for some time before February 2017, Mohammadi has also been known by other plot holders for his threatening, intimidating, aggressive and sometimes even physically violent behaviour.

‘He has shown himself very sensitive to any perceived slight however minor and is quickly aroused to behave in a way others have found frightening. He is also capable of recovering his poise just as quickly and sometimes even of apologising. He is temperamentally volatile.’

The secretary of Colindale Allotment (pictured) Association had suffered fractured ribs and bruises from being ‘beaten up’ by Rahim Mohammadi, jurors were told

It is not claimed he has ever previously assaulted Mrs Adri-Soejoko.

The victim, who lived with her granddaughter just 100 yards from the allotment, was last seen alive leaving her home between 2.30pm and 3pm on a rainy Monday on February 27 last year.

She was not at home when her granddaughter got back from work at 6.45pm and failed to turn up to a meeting of the Barnet Allotment Society at 7.30pm.

Mrs Adri-Soejoko was reported missing by her daughter Tessa at 1.30am and police joined a search of the allotment, where they later found her. 

Mohammadi, an active user of his allotment plot despite living miles away in Hackney, was one of those who had a key to the lock, it is claimed.

Jurors were told he was also the only other known plot holder at the allotment apart from Mrs Adri-Soejoko between 2.18pm and 5pm on the day of the murder.

A mixed DNA profile found on the lawnmower cord also matches both him and the victim, the court heard.

DNA found on Mrs Adri-Soejoko’s right hand matched the profile of Mubarick Duat, a kitchen porter at a restaurant in Covent Garden.

But police have been unable to find any connection between him and the allotment, the victim or Mohammadi.

Mark and Tess Adri-Soejoko, who are the son and daughter of Lea Adri-Soejoko

Duat was working until 4.07pm on 27 February last year before travelling to Croydon, where he used a cash machine at 6pm.

‘He could not have been involved in her murder – whether acting alone or with anyone else,’ said Mr Price.

Mohammadi was initially interviewed as a witness on 1 and 2 March but gave ‘inconsistent’ accounts, the court heard.

He said he went to Lea’s home to borrow a key to the allotment key at around 1.30pm – when in fact he arrived no later than 12.39pm.

Mohammadi claimed she gave him coffee and told him the allotments were becoming ‘dangerous’ before asking him to return a tape measure.

After collecting the tape measure from the allotment he returned to the house and noticed that her hands were shaking.

He told police: ‘Her face had gone completely white. She just took it and said OK bye bye. I asked her if she was OK, she didn’t answer. I left then as I fell she wanted me to leave.’

Mohammadi claimed he left the allotment at 5pm after noticing two other plot holders staring at him and shouting.

In his second witness statement he said he had visited the victim’s home many times ‘and even slept there.’

Mrs Adri-Soejoko was found in the allotment by police in the early hours of February 28

He also claimed they spoke about a dispute between two plot holders and told police: ‘She said that the area had become dangerous and that she would solve the problems. She asked me not to get involved in the problems or solving them.’

Mohammadi is the only plot holder who says he saw and spoke to Mrs Adri-Soejoko that day, the court heard.

But he failed to account for two periods of around an hour between 2.38pm and 3.37pm and 3.56pm and 4.55pm, it is claimed.

CCTV footage and analysis of his Oyster card shows he arrived in Colindale shortly after 12.30pm and left at 5.48pm.

His mobile phone was used in the area of the allotment that afternoon and he was captured on CCTV making three trips towards the shops on the Edgware Road at 3.42pm, 5pm and 5.26pm.

On his return to the allotment after the third trip he was carrying a bottle of water, which he claimed he used to make some tea in the shed on his plot. 

Lea Adri-Soejoko did not feel safe around Mohammadi after the AGM dispute on 11 September 2016, the court heard.

Granddaughter Amber Tomlinson told jurors: ‘I had advised my grandma not to engage, we thought it best.’

Jurors heard Mohammadi had owed money to Mrs Adri-Soejoko and offered to do housework to pay her back but she refused.

Ms Tomlinson said: ‘After the AGM she began to distance herself and she didn’t want him doing jobs because she didn’t feel safe around him.

‘She didn’t want a friendly relationship with him anymore.’

Ms Tomlinson accepted that her grandma had spoken to Mohammadi after the meeting to resolve the situation.

‘They agreed there should be no bad blood because of it.’

Tyrone Smith QC, for Mohammadi, suggested that he had used the word ‘witch’ rather than ‘bitch’.

Mr Smith also claimed Mohammadi was known to Mrs Adri-Soejoko by the nickname ‘Little Puppy’.

He said: ‘Prior to the AGM your grandmother has a friendly relationship with him. She would help someone down on their luck.’

Ms Tomlinson replied: ‘Absolutely.’

Mohammadi, an active user of his allotment plot despite living miles away in Hackney, was one of those who had a key to the lock, it is claimed

Ms Tomlinson said Mrs Adri-Soejoko knew about Mr Mohammadi’s past and added: ‘My grandmother told me he had been forced to leave Iran.’

She said she had seen Mr Mohammadi on several occasions and once overheard him speaking loudly to her grandmother during a meeting at their house.

‘He was in the front room with my grandma and I was upstairs. I left them to it.

‘He was being quite loud so I went to the top of the stars to see what they were talking about. It seemed they were talking about a disagreement at the allotment.

‘I could tell it wasn’t a conflict between the two of them.’

Ms Tomlinson said Mohammadi never stayed at the house overnight but visited more regularly than other plotholders.

Mohammadi claims he once stayed overnight after losing his house keys, the court heard.

She told the court she was not aware at the time he had a caretaker role at the allotment.

The witness was shown a photo of a dark blue umbrella found at Mohammadi’s allotment plot and said there was ‘some resemblance’ to an umbrella that disappeared from her grandmother’s home.

But Ms Tomlinson accepted she had previously described her grandma’s umbrella as black.

She said: ‘I can’t be certain.’ 

Mohammadi, from Bethnal Green in east London, denies murder.

The trial continues.