NZer's persistence led police to his family's killers

A New Zealand man who harassed British police to investigate his sister's disappearance, and then jumped on the first available plane to the UK after he was unable to reach her by telephone, says the conviction of her and her family's killers at the Old Bailey is the end of "a living nightmare".

"The verdict, although welcome, is a painful reminder of an indescribable loss," nker Verma, who used to call his sister Nancy Chohan daily at her West London home, said.

"The last two years have been a living nightmare," he told the BBC.

"The deliberate, premeditated slaughter of my innocent family is akin to me being given a life sentence - a life with no laughter, no happiness and no joy."

A friend, Suresh Grover, speaking outside the court, said police did not take the disappearance of Mr Verma's sister, mother, brother-in-law and nephews seriously enough until Mr Verma arrived from New Zealand.

Mr Verma is now in India arranging his mother's estate, and has scattered her ashes in the Punjab, but Mr Grover told the BBC the Mr Verma believed the British investigation was initially tainted as the police had been influenced by the false stereotype of "an Indian businessman who was involved in something dodgy".

A prosecutor told the Old Bailey murder trial Mr Verma's persistence, when he could not reach his sister after February 13, 2003, led to the yesterday's convictions.

A drug dealer, Kenneth Regan, 55, and his henchman, William Horncy, 52, were found guilty after one of the longest murder trials in English legal history of murdering Mrs Chohan and her family.

The trial cost up to stg10 million ($NZ26 million) and stretched across four countries.

A third man, Peter Rees, 39, was found guilty of murdering Amarjit Chohan, 45, but cleared of the murder of Mrs Chohan, 24, her mother, Charanjit Kaur, 51, and her two young sons, Devinder, born in September 2001, and Ravinder, born in December 2002.

The three, found guilty by a jury after 13 days of deliberation, will be sentenced on Tuesday.

The court was told the men might have succeeded in getting away with their devilish plan had it not been for Mr Verma, living on the other side of the world.

Prosecutor Richard Horwell said: "They had not considered the persistence of Onker Verma."

Mr Verma e-mailed Scotland Yard from New Zealand on February 19 -- not knowing that as he did so the killers were driving the bodies of his sister's family to be hidden in a rural grave -- and nagged London's police commissioner until his force began investigating the family's disappearance.

Mr Verma then flew to Britain from New Zealand, and stayed in the family's house -- which had been abandoned since February 15, when Mrs Chohan, her two boys, and mother were killed by Regan's gang and their bodies removed.

One thing which immediately jarred Mr Verma was the fact that his mother had not taken her copy of the Sikh holy book -- the Guru Granth Sahib -- with her.

He began making his own inquiries, including speaking to his brother-in-law's employees at Ciba Freight at London's Heathrow Airport, and began to suspect Regan.

Regan claimed Mr Chohan and his family had vanished to escape from criminals to whom money was owed.

Mr Verma did not believe the story for a second: he knew his sister and his mother would not vanish without letting him know.

Mr Chohan's body was found floating in the sea near Bournemouth pier in April 2003 and his wife's recovered in the same area in July. Mrs Kaur's was found in November off the Isle of Wight. The bodies of the boys are still missing.

Regan was arrested after police found a note written by Mr Chohan saying he expected to be killed by Regan.

The note was folded intricately to protect the writing and hidden in Chohan's sock. It was still legible when his body was found in the water.

Police described it as a "letter from the grave".

- NZPA