Anger as cab driver accused of killing Sian remanded

A minicab driver appeared in court yesterday charged with the murder of Sian O’Callaghan.

There were angry scenes inside and outside Swindon Magistrates’ Court as Christopher Halliwell, 47, appeared in open court for the first time since being officially charged on Saturday with killing the 22-year-old PA.

People shouted abuse from the public gallery in Courtroom 2 and, after the short hearing, a crowd of more than 100 screamed obscenities and tried to attack the police convoy including the van carrying Halliwell as it took him away.

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A large number of them then chased the van down the street.

Halliwell, of Ashbury Avenue, Swindon, spoke only to confirm his name and address when he stood in the dock, dressed in a dark suit and a blue and white striped shirt. He showed no emotion as the murder charge was read out.

He is accused of killing Miss O’Callaghan, who disappeared in the early hours of Saturday March 19 after a night out with girl friends in Swindon.

Her body was found close to the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, 15 miles from her home in Swindon.

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No application for bail was made and chief magistrate Angus MacPherson remanded Halliwell in custody until tomorrow, when he will appear at Bristol Crown Court for a routine bail hearing. He will face a full hearing at the same court on April 8.

Wiltshire Police investigating Miss O’Callaghan’s death continue to examine a body found near the village of Eastleach in Gloucestershire on Saturday.

The remains, thought to be those of a woman aged between 23 and 30, have yet to be formally identified as police continue to attempt to match them to those of women reported missing around the time she is thought to have died, between 2003 and 2005.

Miss O’Callaghan vanished from Swindon’s Suju club a week last Saturday. She was last seen alive in CCTV footage filmed close to the nightspot in the early hours of the morning.

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She lived in a flat just half a mile away with her boyfriend, Kevin Reape, 25. She had sent a text message to her partner on the night of her disappearance, saying: “Where are you? x.”

Hundreds of people turned out to help a public search of Savernake Forest, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, when her mobile phone was traced to the area after she left the club.

Her body was discovered on Thursday last week.

Halliwell was arrested on Thursday at a taxi rank at an Asda supermarket in Swindon.

Miss O’Callaghan’s father paid an emotional tribute to his daughter yesterday.

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Mick O’Callaghan fought back tears as he faced the Press for the first time since his daughter’s body was found.

He described the 22-year-old as “bright, bubbly, caring and friendly” and said the family’s pain at hearing of her death had been “raw and overwhelming”.

Flanked by Sian’s older brother Liam at Swindon’s Gablecross Police Station, he said: “Sian was a bubbly, friendly, caring and loving girl.

“She was instantly likeable, beautiful and considerate.

“Although our pain at this time is raw and overwhelming, our memories of Sian will be a comfort to us in the dark days ahead.”

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