Man arrested over Jeshma murder

A man arrested in Latvia in connection with the rape and murder of A-level student Jeshma Raithatha could be returned to the UK within weeks.

Viktors Dembovskis was detained under a European arrest warrant just after 8pm last night in his home town of Livani, 150 miles east of the Latvian capital, Riga.

Officers had been liaising with Interpol and the Latvian authorities in their hunt for Mr Dembovskis. Two members of the Metropolitan police murder investigation team had flown to Latvia to oversee the operation.

Mr Dembovskis, a car wash attendant, disappeared from the home he shared with other immigrant workers close to where Jeshma lived in Greenford, west London, shortly after the 17-year-old was reported missing by her parents on Monday, May 16.

As Latvia joined the European Union in May last year, extradition procedures are likely to be fast-tracked. Police sources said Mr Dembovskis would appear in Preile district court in south-east Latvia, either later today, tomorrow or on Monday.

At that court appearance, a judge will consider whether there are any bars to his extradition. If there are none, and he consents to be extradited to the UK to face questioning, arrangements will be made for his return.

If he does not consent, the judge still has the power to order his extradition at his first court appearance. Mr Dembovskis would however, have the right to appeal against this decision.

The process could see Mr Dembovskis back in the UK within weeks, although it could potentially take up to two months.

Scotland Yard praised the Latvian authorities and said they had been "extremely helpful".

Earlier this week detectives released CCTV footage of Jeshma's final movements in the hope it would jog the memory of anyone who saw her on the day she was killed.

The footage shows Jeshma shopping. In a series of pictures, Jeshma, casually dressed in jeans, T-shirt and cardigan, is seen queuing to buy a top in Primark at around 2.20pm on May 16. After visiting Primark, she went to Poundcity, where she bought a candle, before catching the bus to Sudbury Hill.

Arriving there at around 3pm, Jeshma then began her walk home, heading down a road beside a recreation ground toward the David Lloyd sports centre. Her route home would have taken her along a footpath, which cuts through a wooded area, toward the Wood End estate.

Police are still unsure exactly where and when along this route she was accosted, but it is thought she was grabbed by a stranger and taken to a secluded "den" in the woodland, just 20 metres from the footpath.

It is there police believe she was raped and then stabbed three times in the heart.

Police are keen to speak to anyone who was either going to or from the sports centre that day or to anyone who may have seen her that afternoon as she walked home.

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