A murderer who killed a movie mogul’s husband in a frenzied knife attack is suing the government for £60,000, claiming he was wrongly arrested over fears he could be plotting a terror attack with a bicycle pump.
Christodoulos Sotiriou, 59, was handed a life sentence in 1991 for stabbing photographer Dietmar Kirchner – husband of Maj-Britt Kirchner – with a commando knife in a changing room after the pair accidentally clashed heads in a London swimming pool.
Ms Kirchner, former head of Warner Brothers UK, reportedly learnt of her husband’s death while at the film premiere of Dick Tracy, standing alongside the movie’s stars Madonna and Warren Beatty.
Sotiriou, having being freed from jail on licence in 2000, was arrested by police in 2018 over suspicions he was connected to a cache of suspected weapon-making materials found hidden on Hampstead Heath.
Officers also found ‘worrying’ entries in journals at his home which led cops to fear he might be planning a terror attack.
‘These included out of context references to Hitler; weaponising a bicycle pump; using chemicals to induce a heart attack (and) cleaning up blood,’ barrister Nicola Kohn told Central London County Court.
Now Sotiriou, of north London, is suing the government, claiming he was wrongfully locked up in 2018, with court documents putting the value of his claim at £60,000.
He says he was unlawfully detained for 18 months in total and held for almost a year even after another person had been arrested and charged in relation to the Hampstead Heath cache.
Christodoulos Sotiriou, 59, was handed a life sentence in 1991 for stabbing a photographer to death at a swimming pool
Sotiriou was sentenced to life in prison after the murder of photographer Dietmar Kirchner (right) – husband of movie mogul Maj-Britt Kirchner (left)
But government lawyers are defending his claim, insisting his recall to prison was justified and was not only based on the Hampstead Heath discovery.
Judge Heather Baucher was told that Sotiriou had previously been recalled to prison in 2011 after he was found to be hoarding a cache of banned weapons – including a World War Two-style Sten machine gun and thousands of hollow-tipped bullets – in Epping Forest.
The killer pleaded guilty to making and possessing weapons in court, and was sentenced to seven years behind bars after a judge ruled he was a hobbyist and did not pose a public danger.
Judge Peter Clarke QC, sentencing, labelled him ‘an anorak not a balaclava’.
Sotiriou served half his sentence before being released in 2014, but was recalled to prison again in 2018 after being deemed a potential public danger when detectives mistakenly linked him to the discovery of a cache of materials which could be used to make weapons.
Defending his claim of unlawful detention, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) insists that he was ‘lawfully recalled’ on the strength of information that ‘the risk he posed in the community could not be managed other than by a recall to prison’.
Sotiriou, who was living nearby, was pinpointed as a potential suspect due to ‘the unique modus operandi and local knowledge’, said MoJ barrister Ms Kohn, with witnesses also noting the alleged ‘striking similarity’ between the Hampstead Heath hide and his Epping Forest cache from 2010.
Detectives also said they found ‘a number of suspicious items’ during a search of his home, along with ‘concerning entries in various notebooks’ including references to Hitler and weaponising a bike pump.
A detective on the case had written to the probation service urging a recall and stating: ‘The contents of his notebook that are detailed below show the signs of a man who would appear to be planning to carry out a violent attack at some stage in the future.’
Sotiriou is pictured being led into court by a detective in Nicosia, Cyprus
Ms Kirchner, former head of Warner Brothers UK, reportedly learnt of her husband’s (pictured) death while at the film premiere of Dick Tracy
Sotiriou had previously been recalled to prison in 2011 after he was found to be hoarding a cache of banned weapons – including a World War Two-style Sten machine gun (pictured)
On September 28 2018, the MoJ decided to recall him to custody on the strength of a probation report highlighting ‘significant concerns regarding the danger he poses to the public’.
But although his case was at one point referred to the Met’s counter terrorism unit, he was never charged with an offence in relation to the Hampstead Heath hide.
Sotiriou served another 18 months until his eventual release by the Parole Board in March 2020, although someone else was arrested and charged in relation to the Hampstead Heath hide in April 2019.
Ms Kohn accepted that in April 2019 ‘a different individual was arrested and charged in connection with the Hampstead Heath hides’.
But she pointed out that other factors had also prompted Sotiriou’s recall, highlighting evidence from a psychiatrist and concluding: ‘while she does not consider there to be an immediate risk of violence… any future violence has the potential to be severe’.
From the witness box, Sotiriou insisted that the journal entries in his home which so alarmed detectives were simply random comments about things that ‘pricked his interest’.
‘Whatever I have thought of which pricks my interest, I’ll write down for future reference,’ he told the judge.
Asked by Ms Kohn about a reference in one of his notebooks which read ‘how to weaponise a bike pump,’ he explained: ‘these entries are 12 years old, but something might have pricked my interest in this and so I put it down’.
He had no interest in ‘extremist ideology’, the court heard, with Sotiriou insisting: ‘I never supported nor promoted nor endorsed any extremism at all’.
The judge will give her judgment on the damages claim at a later date.
