A law student who claims he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his controlling father is hoping to clear his name after conducting an investigation behind bars.
Mark Alexander was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for the murder of Samuel, 70.
The pensioner’s burned body was discovered buried in the back garden of the family home in Drayton Parslow, Buckinghamshire, after worried neighbours raised the alarm.
The corpse had been encased in several layers of mortar, with a 29cm-thick slab of concrete poured on top.
The prosecution argued at trial that Alexander, then 22 and in his final year of a French and Law degree at King’s College London, murdered his father to escape his bullying influence – a claim he has always denied.
Alexander (pictured above) who has also completed a master’s degree behind bars, claims: ‘If we’d known a decade ago everything we know now, I’d never have been convicted.’
At the time of the murder Thames Valley Police detectives were unable to find forensic evidence linking him to his father’s death, and Alexander was convicted by a majority verdict on circumstantial evidence alone.
Mr Alexander, who is now in his thirties, is 10 years into sentence and claims to have unearthed evidence revealing his father a had string of 11 other mysterious identities.
His investigation, conducted from his Surrey cell at HMP Coldingley, revealed his secretive father, who was born in Egypt, used alter egos to buy properties and vehicles, obtain credit, register to vote, and even enroll him at a string of different schools.
Alexander, who has also completed a master’s degree behind bars, claims: ‘If we’d known a decade ago everything we know now, I’d never have been convicted.’
Campaigners fighting for his freedom have also learned Samuel cheated Alexander’s mother in a property scam.
It is alleged that he went on to take out mortgages in her name on two further properties, before selling them, pocketing the proceeds and leaving her saddled with debt.
Alexander grew up believing his father’s lie that his mother had died of cancer. The pair were only reunited after his arrest.
His campaign team is using the new information to work on a theory that Samuel may have fallen foul of revenge.
‘It’s horrifying what he got up to,’ said the campaign spokesperson. ‘We have to wonder if he tried it on with someone else but picked the wrong person.’
Alexander grew up believing his father (above) Samuel’s lie that his mother had died of cancer
In an unprecedented move believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, Alexander used Human Rights laws to obtain the files on his father’s multiple identities from HMRC.
Documents reveal how he registered as Sami Yacoub on Alexander’s birth certificate in 1987. He used the same name but a false address when he was cautioned for shoplifting in 1995.
In 1988 he bought his home in Drayton Parslow as Sami Fahmi El-Kalyoubil, but registered on the electoral roll using the surname Yacoub.
The name Basil Demetrius and a false address were used in 1999 to register his son – who he now called ‘Alex’ – with a medical practice.
He also used the name Sam Heller to fraudulently obtain mortgages for two properties in Hemel Hempstead in 1998 and 1999.
Alexander’s investigation, conducted from his Surrey cell at HMP Coldingley, revealed his secretive father used alter egos to buy properties and vehicles, obtain credit, register to vote, and even enroll him at a string of different schools
The new information comes fives years after a bid for an appeal was turned down by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
His requests for information were initially denied on data protection grounds – despite his father being deceased – and applied to the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division, for an order requiring the tax office to divulge the information.
The application cited articles 6 and 8 – the right to a fair trial and the right to ‘respect for private and family life’ – of the Human Rights Act.
‘The Claimant wishes to understand his and his father’s past, and also to investigate whether his father had been involved in conduct that could have resulted in his death, which may be information highly relevant to his application for an appeal of his conviction,’ it said.
‘Without such a disclosure, the Claimant will have no means of discovering the information, which is held by the public authority.’
Two days before a hearing was due to take place in March, HMRC agreed to release the information it holds on Samuel Alexander and his pseudonyms.
The evidence will now form part of a new submission from Alexander’s legal team to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
They are also developing new mobile phone cell site evidence which they hope will provide proof of Alexander’s movements around the time of his father’s death.
Privately-educated Alexander, then 22, was in his final year of a French and Law degree at King’s College, London, when he was arrested over his father’s disappearance in February 2010. He is pictured above with his father
His trial at Reading Crown Court in September 2010 revealed a closeted and stifled childhood, where he was subjected to the uncompromising demands of his controlling father.
Alexander was banned from playing with neighbourhood children and was instead pressured into devoting his spare time to studies and music practise.
Prosecutors said Samuel’s ambitions for his son to spend his final year of university at the prestigious Sorbonne in Paris were a bone of contention between the pair – and the motive for his eventual murder.
They argued that with his controlling father out of the way, Alexander – then 22 years old – was free to continue studying in London and follow his own plans of moving into a flat with his then girlfriend.
The murder came to light after suspicious neighbours, among them a retired police detective, contacted authorities after months passed without seeing Samuel.
Alexander told villagers his father was staying with friends in London, and sent Christmas cards signed with both his and his father’s names.
Prosecutors said such a move was was designed to hoodwink neighbours into believing he was still alive.
At trial Alexander claimed his father was killed by unknown people and buried at the home while he was away living in their Fleet Street flat.
Writing from prison, Mark Alexander said: ‘Conducting a truth-finding mission from my own cell hasn’t been easy by any means, but I’ve had some incredible support and together we’ve come a long way.
‘There’s no drawing a line under a tragedy like this. Our whole family has been shaken by it.
‘None of us thought we’d still be fighting for justice ten years down the line.
‘I’ve always maintained my innocence, and you just assume the system will work, but we didn’t really have enough time or evidence to prove it back then, particularly against the story the prosecution were spinning.
‘If we’d known a decade ago everything we know now, I’d never have been convicted.’
At the time of his murder Samuel had been in poor health and was cared for by Alexander as well as receiving Adult Social Care from Buckinghamshire County Council.
He employed his own support staff and reimbursed their wages by a third party contracted by the authority.
A spokesperson for the campaign team – a close friend who has known Alexander since childhood – said: ‘This has been a huge success for us, but it’s been a long time coming.’
But a Serious Case Review into his care conducted in 2011 revealed Samuel alone kept records of the support staff he claimed to employ.
Alexander believes at least four employees had keys to the family home and provided Samuel with false names to avoid paying tax, though they were never traced by the police.
A spokesperson for the campaign team – a close friend who has known Alexander since childhood – said: ‘This has been a huge success for us, but it’s been a long time coming.
‘Mark has spent many, many years fighting this battle, as have we all. As positive as it is, there’s still a very long way to go.’
‘No one Sami came into contact with had a good relationship with him.
‘When we were younger it was sometimes hard to have a friendship with Mark – there were times he wasn’t allowed to social events, or even to talk to me.
‘He would have to go and sort his dad out with something, or stay at home and study.
‘But what struck me is he never spoke badly of him. Quite the opposite – Mark loved and valued him.’
‘We’d appeal for anybody who had access to Sami or the household, or who has information about Sami’s past to please come forward.
‘Mark could be living life with his friends, or married with kids by now if he’d taken a manslaughter plea years ago. It would have been very easy to do, but he refused.
‘He will fight for what he believes is right.’