Bulgaria murder: ‘I’m not scared: I did my duty’
The Daily Telegraph
Charles Miranda
January 7, 2008
JOCK Palfreeman is sitting in a small cell in a police station in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia calmly reading magazines brought to him by a friend. The 21-year-old Sydney man allegedly stabbed a university student to death with a knife and critically wounded a second teenager in what police say was an unprovoked frenzied attack on a public street. But as his lawyer Stanko Barbavski and a translator tell him he could face the rest of his life in jail, Palfreeman sits back, smiles and shrugs his shoulders. “I am not scared, I did my duty as a Good Samaritan and as a soldier,” he says.
He knows he is probably going to be in prison for a long time – it will be six months at least before his trial begins – and he asks his friend Graham for novels as well as more magazines to read. He then concedes: “I just want to be free and live a normal life. I want to go home.”
About a week earlier the former St Ignatius’ Riverview college student came to Bulgaria to help expat Briton Graham renovate a cheap house he bought in Madjarovo, about 60km outside the capital. Palfreeman had visited the country five or six times before but on December 22 stayed with Graham whom he met through his travels, to celebrate Christmas and help fix up his home and ride motorcycles through the snow-laden mountainside.
One night last weekend, the pair met up with a British girlfriend of Graham’s – Susan – and the trio went bar hopping in Sofia. The mood was high and Palfreeman was happy to be on leave from the British Army 1st Battalion Infantry Training Centre at Catterick in northern England. He joined the armed forces a month earlier and was a trainee private, eking out an existence on just $90 a day – a considerably small sum in British terms, less than half the average daily wage.
The group was drinking at Happy Bar and Grill, a western-themed restaurant chain. “Happy is a really happy place,” its logo declares but it was anything but for one group of patrons last weekend.
There are two versions of events of what happened sometime after 1pm and they could not be further apart.
Palfreeman, who had had about six beers and a tequila shot, said as he and Susan were leaving they noticed an old gypsy being beaten and kicked on the ground on the usually busy Stambolijski Boulevard intersection by between eight and 10 men. He said he called out, “Leave him alone, stop kicking him” in English and rushed to the man but was set upon as calls of “stop the fascist” were being screamed. At some point Andrei Monov, the 20-year-old university student son of a well-known local doctor, was stabbed once in the heart and died almost instantly, while his friend Antoan Zahariev, 19, was stabbed a number of times and was hospitalised. Two security guards rushed to break up the group and saw the two men bleeding on the ground and immediately handcuffed Palfreeman. He allegedly claimed he was acting in self defence.
Police claim he repeated the defence alibi twice back at a nearby police station. “I am a (Good) Samaritan and I was defending an attacked man and myself,” he allegedly told them before admitting he carried a knife because he had been attacked four times before while visiting the country.
The group of Bulgarian but English-speaking university students, however, said there was no gypsy and they were walking across the road when a random aggressive man began verbally abusing them in English before producing a butterfly knife. Graham had left Palfreeman before the incident and has since told police he did not know the Aussie that well. [Graham contradicts this assertion.] Despite the claim, he went to the police station to get the Sydney man some clothes as, despite sub-zero temperatures outside, he was sitting in the cell in just a T-shirt.
Susan flew out of the country back to England the day after Palfreeman was arrested and has yet to be tracked by police.
Staff at Happy had noticed Palfreeman earlier in the night allegedly being abusive to patrons and provoking a fight. When they were interviewed by police and asked why they did not throw him out, they said they believed it was just another drunk Englishman making the most of the cheap alcohol.
There are numerous western themed-bars across the capital which are notorious hangouts for English tourists in Bulgaria after cheap booze and cheaper sex.
Palfreeman faces charges of murder with “hooligan intent” and attempted murder.
He will apply for bail tomorrow.
Who are you! What is this!
I am @ndy! This is my blog!
do you even know the man you are bad mouthing?!?!? do you know [what] kind of person he is or are you just another little sheep [following] what ever your beloved little tv tells you?!
let’s bring jock home.
kevin07, i’m sure you could have a word…
You have psychology problems. Advise you go to appropriate doctor! хахахаха
Palfreeman will never be free!!!! I promise you, don’t worry so much!
“Palfreeman, who had had about six beers and a tequila shot” – that’s enough
It`s obvious who is right and who doesn`t
RIP, Andrey! We love you so much
To me sounds like your beloved Andrey was a fascist scumbag (there is lots to prove that) beating up a lone Gypsy guy with his mates and oh no he got faced with somebody who was not prepared to turn his head away. Fuck fascists, Jock did the right thing. 60 years ago he would get a medal for this.
to antifa: you’re an idiot
to Jock who says: “I am a (Good) Samaritan and I was defending an attacked man and myself”
The story of the Good Samaritan appears in the Bible – the New Testament, more specifically the Gospel of Luke and here it is:
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn in Jericho and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”
As you can all see this story is about being good, and helping another man – it’s not about one bad man stabbing another bad man.
Jock is an idiot, not a good Samaritan – he calls him selfs a Samaritan when he does not even know what that means. He is clearly a stupid person.
that’s all
Hi,
My name is Hayden. I have worked with Jock for two years while he was in Sydney (Lane Cove). This is completely out of character for him. Jock is a man of soft nature and is extremely loyal. Yes like our [?] of us he stood up for what he believed in but would never result to killing.
I don’t confess to have all the answers or the details about the sequence of events the happened on the 28th of December but I know this, JOCK IS A MAN OF CHARACTER AND LOYALTY TO HIS FRIENDS. And I believe firmly that something else has happened out on that street for Jock to commit such a terrible thing.
If someone knows which prison he is in could you please email me as I would like to visit him.
Remember that a fair trial can only be conducted when all concerned are free of their personal issues and anger. What is coming across is alot of self hatred by many of those that are not supporting Jock for a fair trial.
After being arrested, Palfreeman lied to the police, telling them he was living in a sack in Borisova Gardens and that he didn’t know the name of the English couple he had been with that night.
In fact he was living at their house at Madjare 60 km from Sofia.
This lie allowed the girl Lindsay Welsh, who had been present at the murder, to slip out of the country the next day. She was never questioned by police or appeared at court.
Palfreman didn’t provide the correct details until told by Grayham Saunders that Welsh had left the country.
When Welsh made a statement about the events that night she simply claimed she had seen nothing as she was helping someone recharge the credit on a mobile phone.
Graham Saunders spoke to Palfreeman before he was interviewed by the police, and then claimed he had left his girlfriend with Palfreeman and gone to a hostel for the night. He therefore claimed he hadn’t seen anything or had any involvement.
Palfreeman has consistently claimed no memory of the events leading up to the murder.