Previous Page

Drifter gets life for killing stranded woman
by STEPHEN WRIGHT and DAVID GARDNER, Daily Mail
24th April 2003

beautiful student stranded in a London snowstorm fell into the hands of a murderer, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

American Alyson Kaplan, 20, had arrived here to meet up with a friend.

But arctic conditions which caused travel chaos this January brought her coach grinding to a halt in North London and she was "dumped" on the streets.

Miss Kaplan managed to get to Victoria station but missed a train after being directed to the wrong platform.

It was here that unemployed drifter Robert Noble offered her shelter in his hotel room.

A petty criminal until then, he had set out that night with the intention of killing someone to satisfy a twisted craving for notoriety, detectives said.

Fuelled by cannabis and alcohol, he throttled Alyson with his hands and then with his scarf.

Noble later admitted he had often wondered what it would be like to kill someone.

Experienced traveller

The chain of events that led to Alyson's death in the early hours of January 31 was outlined at the Old Bailey yesterday when Noble pleaded guilty to murder.

She came from a wealthy family, the third of four children of financier Don Kaplan, 64, and wife Joanne, 52, who runs two Los Angeles restaurants.

She was a promising student and an experienced traveller who had been to England before, and had taken on three jobs to save up for her European vacation, intending then to settle back down to finish off her degree and pursue a career in public relations.

She had been in Italy before arriving in England on January 30 and was planning to travel by National Express coach from Stansted Airport to Bristol to meet a friend with whom she planned to go to Holland.

The coach took four hours to get to London before it abandoned its journey due to the weather and she and the other 50 passengers were left to make their own way through the gridlocked streets.

Alyson took the Tube to Victoria to try to get a train to Luton, where she could catch a flight to Holland the next morning.

But she was directed to the wrong platform at Victoria and waited 90 minutes before discovering she had missed the last train.

Noble, 28, originally of Gretna on the Scottish borders, helped her with her luggage after seeing her being harassed by a drunk and struck up a conversation with her.

Alyson was confused and unsure where she should spend the night and he persuaded her to go back to his room at the nearby Rama Hotel, volunteering to sleep on the floor so she could have his bed.

"Cruel and nasty" murder

Noble claimed the pair had consensual sex - something which cannot be disproved by police but which is believed to be a lie - before he strangled her.

A few hours later he left her body in the room and took a bus to Brighton, taking Alyson's rucksack with him and pawning her Gucci watch for £10.

He then walked into a police station and confessed to what he called a "cruel and nasty" murder.

Sentencing him to life, the Common Serjeant of London, Judge Peter Beaumont, QC, told Noble: "You took a life in circumstances of violence, the life of a young woman who had every expectation that her life would be happily fulfilled."

Noble, the product of a broken home with convictions for attempted robbery and possessing a "pointed article", showed no emotion as he was jailed.

Family welcomes sentence

None of Alyson's family was in court for the 40-minute hearing.

But, aware that unlike in their native California there is no death penalty in Britain, they told the Daily Mail: "I think it is a better punishment for him to live every day knowing what he has done.

"He is a horrible, despicable man to take advantage of a situation like this."

A week after her death, Alyson's parents flew to London to retrace her steps. Accompanied by a police officer, they walked from Victoria station to the Rama and to the small room where Alyson died.

"It didn't make me feel any better seeing it," said Mrs Kaplan. "But it gave me a little better idea of what happened."

Alyson's death devastated her family. Her sisters and brother, Lisa, 40, Drew, 33, and Tara, 18, are having trouble dealing with the loss. In a statement to the court, Alyson's father outlined in harrowing detail how his family had been affected.

"Imagine losing your child to a predator who planned to find a victim; a predator who sought vulnerable circumstances, in horrible weather, with stranded people all around; a predator who deceived your child by befriending her during the confusion of a storm and transportation breakdown."

Last night it emerged that, while stranded at Victoria Station, Alyson had dictated a letter to a friend, intended to express her dissatisfaction to National Express at the way she was left to find her own way.

It said: "I do appreciate that weather conditions are beyond your control but do believe it was within your capability to provide a higher level of service in these difficult circumstances."

The Kaplans are considering taking legal action against the coach firm.