A FORMER Huddersfield university student has refused to give evidence in his own defence in a manslaughter trial.
Ioannis Revenikiotis declined to take the witness stand in a trial at Sheffield Crown Court.
The Greek engineer is accused of killing Wakefield estate agent Stephanie Hammill and of kidnapping the 20-year-old.
It is alleged she leapt or fell from his moving car having mistakenly got into it in the belief it was a taxi.
Miss Hammill had been been on a night out with her boyfriend in Wakefield. It is thought she feared she would be sexually assaulted by the car driver.
Revenikiotis, 29, of Dewsbury, studied at the University of Huddersfield.
His defence barrister Malcolm Swift QC told the court: “He elects to give no evidence.”
The judge, Mr Justice Wilkie, asked Mr Swift if the defendant had been told the point had been reached when he could give his own evidence.
When told that Revenikiotis declined to do so, the judge said: “If he fails to do so the jury may draw such proper inference as they think proper”.
It was in November 2003 that Miss Hammill got into the car allegedly driven by the accused, believing it was a taxi. Her boyfriend James Garland watched as the car sped off.
Miss Hammill died when she either jumped or fell from the car a mile down the road and was struck by a taxi.
