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06/09/01 - killer's cash bid blasted by rosie family
Hartlepool
Today
THE family of murdered toddler Rosie Palmer have slammed her
killer's bid for compensation. The Mail yesterday told how Shaun
Armstrong is suing the author whom says he helped secure the
pervert's conviction following the 1994 death.
Mum Beverley Palmer was too distraught yesterday to talk about
Armstrong's bid for cash, although Rosie's stepdad, John Thornton,
said: "If I had my way and the law was different I would
have seen Armstrong hanged for what he did. "This is sick
what he is doing and I don't agree with it at all."
And Hartlepool MP Peter Mandelson has voiced his disgust that
Armstrong has been granted legal aid at the taxpayers' expense
to pursue his lawsuit. Armstrong, 39, formerly of Frederic Street,
on the Headland, wants to claim up to £15,000 in damages
from an author to whom he allegedly confessed the crime.
The East Durham-born killer claims that letters he wrote to
Bernard O'Mahoney were obtained under false pretences and his
privacy was breached when they were passed to the police. Mr
Thornton, 53, of Olive Street, Hartlepool, added: "It is
disgraceful but he will do all he can to cause trouble from
prison because he has got time on this hands.
"At the end of the day it is the law which is wrong for
allowing Armstrong to do this after the terrible crime he committed.
We are serving a life sentence for what he did to Rosie and
this just rakes over the past and brings everything back. "Armstrong
is using the system and these solicitors in Liverpool should
not represent him."
The particulars of Armstrong's claim state that "in about
the month of July, 1994, the claimant (Armstrong) received a
letter from a person claiming to be Laurna Jane Stevens. "The
claimant also on occasion spoke by telephone to a woman claiming
to be Laurna Jane Stevens.
"During subsequent months the claimant regularly corresponded
by way of letter with a person he believed to be a woman named
Laurna Jane Stevens. "The claimant wrote approximately
80 letters to Ms Stevens and received between 20 and 50 letters
signed by Laurna Jane Stevens.
"In the course of this correspondence the claimant disclosed,
amongst other things, information about his childhood experiences,
his feelings for Laurna Jane Stevens and information about the
murder he had committed. "The said information concerned
the claimant's private and family life and was imparted to the
defendant, as the defendant well knew, in confidence."
Armstrong claims that in October 2000 he received a letter from
Mr O'Mahoney explaining he was the author of the letters. In
it he said he had trapped other prisoners in the same way and
that he intended to write a book about Armstrong.
After her daughter's death, former midwife Ms Palmer, 43, launched
an unsuccessful legal action in an attempt to hold public bodies
responsible for her daughter's death. Armstrong had been discharged
from the Navy on psychological grounds and was being treated
at Hartlepool General Hospital.
Mrs Palmer's efforts to hold Tees Health Authority and Hartlepool
and East Durham Health Trust responsible failed in the Court
of Appeal. |
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