A PORT pensioner has been handed a suspended prison sentence after admitting telling lies about his sister-in-law’s death at the hands of his brother.

Martial arts man Joseph ‘Karate Joe’ Doherty yesterday pleaded guilty on day one of his retrial at Luton Crown Court over false statements he had made following the 2003 disappearance of Natalia Wilkanowska.

She was killed by her ex-husband Gerald Doherty and her body left under a pile of rubble in the back garden of a house in Luton.

The killer, who travelled to Scotland soon afterward to speak with his older brother, later committed suicide in a flat in Port Glasgow’s Robert Street.

For 12 years, the body of Ms Wilkanowska, who was 50, lay hidden as her family desperately tried to find out what had happened to her and police became involved in trying to trace the missing woman.

Detectives spoke to members of the family and Joseph Doherty gave a statement saying that Gerald had told him he had killed Natalia in a caravan and then dismembered her remains.

It was a line of enquiry that had to be investigated by Bedfordshire Police, and when Natalia’s remains were eventually found by a police search team in December 2015 in the back garden of the home belonging to Joseph’s other brother, Mr Daniel Doherty, Joseph was arrested.

The 73-year-old, of Old Greenock Road in Port Glasgow, yesterday pleaded guilty to doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice.

The charge stated that between April 15 in 2003 and December 2 in 2015 he did a series of acts that ‘allowed Natalia’s body to be hidden in the garden of the house and propagated a false account regarding the circumstances of her death’.

Passing sentence, Judge Michael Kay QC told Doherty it was ‘extraordinary’ that he had lied to the police and given a false account.

The judge told him that he should have advised police what he knew the moment that they contacted him.

He sentenced Doherty to a three month prison sentence, which he suspended for 12 months.

The court was told that the OAP is in poor health and has a life expectancy of between five and 10 years.

Earlier this year he went on trial with his brother Daniel in connection with the alleged cover-up over the death of Natalia.

Back in January of this year he denied one charge of perverting the course of justice, one of obstructing the coroner by giving a false account of her death and one charge of preventing her lawful burial.

During that trial the judge directed the jury to clear his 67-year-old brother of all five charges against him but the jury was unable to reach verdicts in respect of Joseph Doherty, and a retrial was ordered.

Ms Wilkanowska had disappeared after visiting her ex-husband from her home in Eastbourne.
When her body was discovered it was noted she had suffered trauma to the skull.

Passing sentence on Joseph Doherty, Judge Kay said: “There is no doubt she was killed by your brother Gerald.”