Accomplice facing jail for helping murderer

Steven Harratt sobbed in the dock at Leeds Crown Court as he was found guilty of assisting Ahmad Otak, who was sentenced to a minimum of 34 years in jail last year for murdering 17-year-old Kimberley Frank and 18-year-old Samantha Sykes.

Elisa Frank, Otak’s ex-girlfriend, told the trial how she watched as Otak stabbed her sister to death in the flat in Wakefield before spitting on her body and laughing.

Harratt, 57, gave Otak money, clothing, food and a sat nav to help him get to Dover and try to leave the UK after the murders.

Otak, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, forced Miss Frank to travel with him but was arrested after she raised the alarm in Dover. The jury took about two hours to find Harratt guilty of assisting an offender after the four-day trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Grey-haired Harratt, wearing a black suit and tie, clutched a tissue in his hand as judge Geoffrey Marson QC told him he would face jail when he returned for sentencing on February 8

He told him: “As I’ve indicated, the adjournment for the report and the granting of bail is no indication that anything other than an immediate custodial sentence will follow.”

Harratt helped Otak after the murderer arrived at his home in Willow Grove with Miss Frank and told him he had a problem.

When Harratt asked if he had hurt someone, Otak, who was believed to be 21 at the time, told him he could not tell him anything but he would find out in a few days.

Miss Frank, 19, said Otak had the knife used in the murders on his lap as Harratt helped him fit the sat nav in his car and that he was present as Otak bound her legs together.

The court heard that while Harratt did not know exactly what Otak had done, he must have realised that he had committed a serious offence.