Convicted killer back behind bars

Police who raided Keith Liburd's home in Great Horton, Bradford, found bundles of banknotes totalling more than £22,000.

They also discovered packs of crack cocaine which he had thrown away in an attempt to cover up his crimes.

The 43-year-old had been released in March 2001 after serving three years of a five-year prison sentence imposed in 1998 for drug dealing. Six months after being released he was arrested.

Liburd, of Halton Place, Great Horton, was arrested following an investigation by officers from Operation Stirrup, which was set up by West Yorkshire Police to tackle organised gun and drug crime.

They found bundles of bank notes around his house and in a bank deposit box and crack cocaine worth £4,600.

Liburd pleaded guilty to possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply.

The court was also told that Liburd had a previous conviction for manslaughter.

Then 21, he was jailed for six years in September 1983 for the brutal Christmas Day killing of his pregnant 17-year-old girlfriend Carol Smith.

Yesterday the court heard Liburd was helped by his partner and his sister to hide more than £40,000 in a bank safety deposit box.

The cash was seized by police in September 2001 after a surveillance operation led to Liburd's arrest near an alleyway between Hudson Road and Southfield Lane in Great Horton.

Prosecutor Mushtaq Khokhar said a search of the alleyway revealed a package of crack cocaine, which had been discarded by Liburd. Under a nearby bush there were further packages of the drugs.

In total, crack cocaine worth £4,600 was recovered. Officers then searched the home of Liburd and his 37-year-old partner, Melanie Suffield, where they found drug-dealing paraphernalia and seized cash totalling almost £22,600 from various parts of the property.

Police said most of the cash recovered from the deposit box and the house was in £500 bundles and folded in the same way.

The court heard that identification numbers entered on Suffield's mobile phone related to the seals on the safety deposit box which Liburd's 49-year-old sister Tessa had held at a branch of Barclays Bank in Huddersfield since 1996.

The court was told that Liburd's sister visited the bank four times to use the deposit box between April and August 2001 and when police opened it they found it contained just over £40,000.

Mr Khokhar said tests later confirmed that the money was "heavily contaminated" with cocaine and heroin.

The trio entered guilty pleas in July last year after two previous trials had been abandoned.

Yesterday Suffield - the mother of Liburd's daughter - and Tessa Liburd were each ordered to do 200 hours' community service work.

Suffield, who had no previous convictions, admitted aiding and abetting her partner to conceal the proceeds of drug trafficking on the basis that she had transferred money from him to his sister.

Tessa Liburd, of Hall Cross Road, Lower Houses, Huddersfield, pleaded guilty to concealing the proceeds of drug trafficking.

She maintained that she had originally obtained the box for a legitimate purpose and after her brother refused to take his money out of it she allowed him to continue using it.