THE KEY Crown Prosecution witness in the Jong-Ok Shin murder trial "told the truth" in her evidence, a court heard yesterday.

These were the words of prosecutor Nigel Pascoe as he made his closing speech to a jury sitting at Winchester Crown Court.

Mr Pascoe told the court that it was always preferable to have a witness who came with a "nice baggage label".

He added: "But when a murder happens at 3am and the background is drugs you cannot pick and choose your own witnesses, we can only call them before you for you to assess."

One of the witnesses in question, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a recovering drug addict and former prostitute. She claims she unwittingly drove Omar Benguit, 31, and Nicholas Gbadamosi, 33, and a third man to and from the murder scene. The third man is not before the court.

The prosecution claims Benguit lost his temper and repeatedly knifed the 26-year-old South Korean language student in the back when she rejected his sexual advances.

Jong-Ok Shin, who was known as Oki to friends, died later in hospital.

Speaking of the key prosecution witness Mr Pascoe said she was either "a liar and fantasist who has set out to incriminate these defendants or right at the heart of her evidence she spoke true".

He added: "Right at the heart she told you the truth - that's the case."

But Benguit's defence counsel Oba Nsugbe said in his closing speech: "Her evidence is bitty, incoherent, inconsistent and it comes very vague. In a nutshell it is very unsafe."

Benguit, of Linwood Road, Winton, denies murdering Oki at 3am in Malmesbury Park Road, Charminster, on July 12 last year. Gbadamosi, of Nutley Way, West Howe, pleads not guilty to disposing of a bag of clothing into the River Stour to help Benguit's cover-up. Both defendants deny raping the crown prosecution witness and Gbadamosi denies a further charge of rape against her.

The case continues.