UK Player Faces Extradition Over Murder

A UK poker player is moving closer to extradition to the United States to face murder charges after a judge rejected his arguments against the move.

Marcus Bebb-Jones is accused of murdering and then burying his American wife Sabrina in a Colorado national park in 1997.

The case has been sent to the Home Secretary for a final decision on his extradition.

The judge rejected the defendant’s calls that the sentence imposed would breach Mr Bebb-Jones’ human rights.

American prosecutors claim that Mr Bebb-Jones, 46, murdered his wife and then spent a ‘playboy’ weekend in Las Vegas.

Mrs Bebb-Jones’ skull was found in the national park, near Douglas Pass in Colorado in 2004.

Mr Bebb-Jones was arrested in a raid of his home last year.

His defence are trying to avoid extradition, as a ‘real risk’ of the death sentence could be imposed.

District Judge, Howard Riddle, at the Westminster Magistrates Court said he was satisfied that the Secretary of State would not extradite Mr Bebb-Jones if there was any possibility of the death sentence.

However, Bebb-Jones’ barrister Mr Cooper argued that the alternative sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole was “grossly disproportionate” and would breach Mr Bebb-Jones’s human rights.

The case continues.