A Belmarsh prison officer who derailed a murder trial by investing a false confession after a killer showered her with money and gifts has been ailed for four years and eight months today.
Wiktoria Bujko, 30, reported a ‘false confession’ by suspect Aaron Campbell, 32, while he was on remand at the maximum security jail for shooting Iron Miah, 40, on his doorstep.
Bujko, who has a masters degree in criminology, made the false claim at the behest of Campbell’s co-defendant Mohammed Moshaer Ali, 31, bribing her with ‘money, gifts and promises’, the Old Bailey heard.
The corrupt prison officer was slipped £500 into her bank account, and was promised a car, after she handed her bogus witness statement to police about the killer.
Bujko, from Poland, made her false report on October 17 2022, as a retrial into the killing was about to start, and was arrested months later in December 2022.
Wiktoria Bujko, 30, was slipped £500 into her bank account, and was promised a car, after she handed her bogus witness statement to police about the killer
She claimed she overheard a conversation in the southeast London jail’s healthcare unit between Campbell and another inmate, suggesting he and Antonio Afflick-McLeod, 32, planned to rob Ali of drugs on the day of the killing.
An examination of CCTV footage of the unit revealed that Campbell was not there when she claimed to have witnessed the exchange.
Ali put Bujko up to creating an ‘entirely false account of a confession by Campbell’ and shown himself to be an ‘outrageous liar,’ said Crispin Aylett, KC, prosecuting.
Bujko had known Ali since he was first remanded to HMP Thameside, where she was working and he was working as a cleaner while in prison.
She told a probation worker that prisoners were more supportive of her than her colleagues and she ‘felt vulnerable.’
The pair had been texting while Ali was in prison and he had promised her a car while his relatives took her out for meals and supplied her with drugs.
In a message to a friend she said: ‘I got several things gifted from him, I’m not gonna lie. He’ll be out for Christmas.’
Bujko and Ali admitted perverting the course of justice.
Bujko made the false claim at the behest of Campbell’s co-defendant Mohammed Moshaer Ali (pictured), 31, bribing her with ‘money, gifts and promises’
Iron Miah, 40, who was shot dead on his doorstep in east London in November 2019
Ali, Campbell, and Afflick-McLeod, carried out the ‘brutal execution’ of father-of-two Mr Miah in east London on 19 November 2019.
Ali was jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years.
The judge had ordered that the male defendants be handcuffed during sentencing for safety – although Campbell and Afflick-McLeod refused to come into the dock in cuffs.
The judge will sentence them separately later this afternoon.
Mr Miah was found dying in the street outside his home in Whitechapel just months after he was released from prison.
Bujko reported a ‘false confession’ by suspect Aaron Campbell (pictured), 32, while he was on remand at the maximum security jail for shooting Iron Miah
Afflick-McLeod (pictured), 32, carried out the ‘brutal execution’ of father-of-two Mr Miah in east London on 19 November 2019 along with Ali and Campbell
He was taken to hospital after the hit but he had suffered an unrecoverable brain injury and he was removed from life support two days later.
Ali, Campbell and Afflick-McLeod denied murder but were convicted by an Old Bailey jury after their third trial.
Addressing Bujko and Ali, Judge Nigel Lickley, KC, said: ‘You both embarked on a brazen plan to disrupt the second trial in this matter by producing a false prison report implicating Antonio Afflick-McLeod in murder and exonerating you, Mohamed Ali.
‘Thankfully as a result of requests made by the defence team to investigate it became clear the two of you concocted a plan to disrupt that trial and bring about a positive result for Mohamed Ali.
‘As a result that trial had to be abandoned resulting in great public expense and the trial delayed by a further year.
Ali, Campbell and Afflick-McLeod denied murder but were convicted by an Old Bailey jury after their third trial
‘You Wiktoria were prepared to come into court and lie on oath.
‘You knew each other as prisoner and prison officer at HMP Belmarsh and had both been at HMP Thameside before.
‘You had been in a corrupt and dishonest relationship, money had been sent, gifts given and a car promised to Wiktoria Bujko.
‘Friends and relatives had taken Wiktoria out for meals and supplied her with drugs.’
The judge said the murder had been a ‘callous’, carefully planned attack and was likely motivated by involvement in drug dealing.
He said: ‘You chose to murder him outside his home so members of his own family would be the first to find him outside on the pavement.
‘He had regarded you, Ali, as a friend. You educed him to come out and do you a favour. You betrayed him.’
Addressing Bujko and Ali, Judge Nigel Lickley, KC, said the pair knew each other as prisoner and prison officer at HMP Belmarsh (pictured) and had both been at HMP Thameside before
Ali is married with two children, the court heard.
Bujko’s barrister Abigail Bright said: ‘She is sorry. She genuinely really and truly is sorry.
‘She has felt this absolute and demolishing fall from grace as especially hard to bear.
‘As a former prison officer, now utterly disgraced, her fall could not have been any harder.’
She said Bujko was working hard in prison on her rehabilitation and had applied to and taken many courses.
‘She acquiesced and was deployed by Ali who initiated the cause of events in which her involvement of course was critical.
‘Plainly it was to his advantage to use and deploy her and she was a willing stooge and she was his dupe.’
She is likely to be deported back to Poland at the end of her sentence.
The gun used in the murder was never recovered, but drugs and a sawn-off-shotgun were found at Afflick-McLeod’s home.
Police also seized CCTV from a convenience shop on Movers Lane, Barking, showing Afflick-McLeod buying a SIM card, the day before the murder.
Officers were able to identify him by a tattoo on his neck.
The SIM showed Afflick-McLeod had been in communication with Ali in the lead up to the shooting.
Ali, of Western Avenue, Dagenham, Afflick-McLeod, of Mayfair Avenue, Ilford, and Campbell, of Star Road, Hammersmith, all denied but were convicted of murder
Bujko, of Marlborough Road, Woolwich and Ali both admitted perverting the course of justice.