| Flowers in Gods Garden
- Articles |
06/09/01
- Killer gets legal aid to sue 'confidante'
By Chris Bunting
Guardian
A man who abducted and murdered a three-year-old girl
has been granted legal aid to sue the writer who helped
put him in prison. Shaun Armstrong, 39, was jailed for
life in 1995 for killing Rosie Palmer in Hartlepool,
Teesside.
Her body was discovered battered and sexually abused
in a bin liner in his flat. Now the killer has been
granted legal aid to sue Bernard O'Mahoney, an author
who was crucial in bringing him to justice. Letters
that Armstrong wrote to Mr O'Mahoney, in which he admitted
killing the girl, were passed to the police.
The killer now plans to sue the writer for up to £15,000
for breaching his privacy by handing on his letters.
A spokeswoman for the Legal Services Commission confirmed
that Armstrong had been granted legal aid.
Armstrong had intended denying murder when he appeared
at Leeds Crown Court to stand trial in 1995 but changed
his plea after Mr O'Mahoney, pretending to be a woman,
wrote to him while he was in prison on remand.
After an 11-month correspondence, he eventually admitted
in a letter: "Yes, I'm responsible for the crime,
but Flowers in Gods Garden anybody."
The killer's solicitor, Elkan Abrahamson, said yesterday
that his client's had been obtained under false pretences
and his privacy was breached.
He said: "The claim is not purely about the damages,
more about the fact he wants the letters back and he
doesn't want a book written about him." |
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