29/10/92 - Murder sisters innocent
by Lisa Collins
Standard Recorder

A BASILDON man has taken up a fight for justice for two sisters who, he believes, have been wrongly convicted of murder. Lisa and Michelle Taylor, of London, were convicted of killing Alison Shaughnessy last June. She had been stabbed 54 times in a violent and bloody attack.

Michelle, 20, had been having an affair with Alison's husband John and, according to the prosecution, she murdered Alison to be with him. Bernard King, of Curling Tye, Basildon, believes otherwise. He says the police made too much of Michelle's diary in which she wrote: "I wish Alison could just disappear as if she never existed."

Mr King believes there was no more in this than any other 20-year-old with a 'rival in love' wishing she would disappear. He told the SR: "I believe Michelle's words are common amongst girls of her own age group and not the foundations of a murder plot."

The rest of the evidence is equally flimsy, he claims. On the day of her murder Alison Shaughnessy left work at two minutes past five. At the very earliest she could not have been home before 5.30pm, yet there are positive sightings of Michelle Taylor at the clinic where she worked at 6pm.

That would have given her half an hour to kill Alison, dump the murder weapon, clean herself up and arrive back at work. "The whole theory is completely ridiculous, "says King. Lisa's fingerprints were found in the flat but this was because she had been round three weeks before the murder cleaning windows, he goes on.

Finally, bank records show that Michelle Taylor withdrew cash from a bank in Lambeth at a time when she claimed to be in Bromley. "Michelle could not explain it. She just stood in the dock unable to say anything. It made her out to be a liar and we believe it was a turning point in the trial."

But, says King, many people have had disputes with banks over 'ghost' withdrawals. He is now asking for anyone with experience of malfunctioning cashpoints to write to him with details at 24 Curling Tye, Fryerns, Basildon. "For me and the Taylor family I would be very grateful," he says.