Rachel Manning: waiter on trial for murder after boyfriend wrongly jailed for six years Russell Gumpert, prosecuting, said DNA found on the steering lock matched the accused's. The lock was discovered by the road "on the direct route between the spot where the body was hidden and Shahidul Ahmed's home in Bletchley." The court also heard Ahmed sold his car eight days after Miss Manning, who had been to a fancy dress party then a nightclub, was murdered. The jury of seven women and five men heard that Ahmed came to police attention in May 2010 when he was arrested for an unrelated matter. It was at this point officers matched his DNA to the unsolved murder, the jury was told. Mr Gumpert said the victim was strangled with a soft ligature. "Her body was deposited in the undergrowth at Woburn Golf Club about eight miles from the centre of Milton Keynes," said the barrister. The prosecution case is that she was murdered by Shahidul Ahmed and that he attacked her close to a telephone box in Milton Keynes from which she had just made a call, before driving her body to the golf club and disposing of it. There is no evidence which points to any particular motive, although it seems likely that the impulse to attack her would have been a sexual one. Whether he always intended to kill her, or only did so because she was not willing to comply with his demands is unknown. The prosecutor said the case was "an old one" and said that Miss Manning's boyfriend at the time had been convicted of her murder in 2002. On that occasion he said the case had been Mr White had attacked Rachel at the telephone box, strangled her and telephoned his friend Keith Hyatt, asking for help. Together, and in Mr Hyatt's van, they were said to have driven her body to the golf club. He told how at the retrial expert evidence was called which "neutralised" a significant part of the prosecution case and Mr White was acquitted. New scientific evidence has now come to light. It implicates Shahidul Ahmed. The prosecution case is that the new evidence is sufficient for a jury to be sure there is no other explanation but that Mr Ahmed murdered Rachel Manning. He told the jury how on Saturday December 9 2000 Miss Manning and Mr White had gone to a party in Bradwell, Milton Keynes. Miss Manning was wearing a white embroidered cheesecloth blouse, a dark miniskirt, a pair of hot pants underneath, white knee-length boots and a blue wig. Later that night the couple went to Chicago's nightclub in Central Milton Keynes. Not longer after 2am they left. Outside the club Mr White became involved in an argument with some other young men and at one stage Miss Manning tried to act as a peacemaker between him and another man. The jury heard Mr White instructed his girlfriend to get a taxi home, because he was going to walk to the home of his friend Mr Hyatt, who lived on the nearby Fishermead Estate. Mr Gumpert said Rachel began walking home and was last seen alive at around 2.30 the same morning by a roundabout close to the city centre. The jury was told Mr White was Mr Hyatt's home early that morning when there was a call from Rachel from a phone box and telling him she was lost. The prosecutor said: "White instructed her to wait for him in the car park outside Blockbuster video store in the town centre. He and Mr Hyatt then drove to the store in Hyatt's van but there was no sign of Rachel and they left the scene. Later, at around 4.30 that morning, Mr White again looked for his girlfriend on foot, but there was no sign of her. It was on the morning of Tuesday December 12 2000 at around 8.50am that Rachel's body was discovered in undergrowth at Woburn Golf Club, 8 miles from where she was last seen alive. She was wearing the fancy dress clothes she had worn at the party, but the wig was missing and has never been found. Mr Gumpert said: "She had extensive injuries to the left side of her face. Rachel Manning's death had been caused by strangulation by compression of the neck by a soft ligature. The jury heard it was a remote spot where Rachel's body was discovered near a gated private service road owned by the club. Her body was discovered because the area was being surveyed with a view to laying electrical cables to improve TV coverage of events. A hair from Rachel was allegedly discovered on a fence close to the scene, along with fibres similar to the clothes she was wearing. Soil was trapped in the top of her white boots indicating she had been dragged. Some 500 metres from where Miss Manning's body lay police discovered a steering lock. On it were traces of Rachel's blood. The prosecutor told the court the steering lock was forensically examined and a DNA profile obtained from its handle was discovered. Initially there was no match for the profile on the police database. However in May 2010 Mr Ahmed was arrested for a matter completely unconnected to Rachel's death. When his DNA profile was obtained it proved to be a match for the profile found on the steering lock. Mr Gumpert said it was not in dispute that it was Mr Ahmed's DNA. In addition he alleged a hair which could be linked to Mr Ahmed had been recovered from hot pants Rachel was wearing after they had been subjected to advance DNA testing in the years following her death.