| The Dream Solution
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- Diaries held a jealous woman's deadly secret
Reports by John Steele, Courts Correspondent
DETECTIVES knew soon after the murder of Alison Shaughnessy that
her husband had been having an affair with Michelle Taylor, a
cleaner at the Churchill Clinic.
They thought the killer might have been an intruder unknown to
the victim. Six possible suspects were considered, but there was
no evidence of forced entry and there was no evidence of a sexual
attack.
So their strong suspicion was aroused by the failure of Taylor
and Mr Shaughnessy — who found the body — to mention
the affair.
The investigation made little progress in June and July last year,
as Mr Shaughnessy went to Ireland for his wife's funeral and then
his brother's wedding.
Taylor also went to Ireland. Both said they had rejected the other's
attempts to resurrect their affair. It was clear that Mr Shaughnessy
was not involved. At the time of the killing he was buying flowers
outside Waterloo Station from stall run by Buster Edwards, the
Great Train Robber.
Mr Shaughnessy later said the affair continued throughout his
marriage. He did not mention it because he thought it irrelevant.
After July 24 — by which time Taylor had admitted the affair
but claimed it had ended in 1989 — a flurry of clues emerged,
pointing directly at her.
On July 24, detectives found the two shorthand notebooks she used
as diaries from September to December, 1990. They contained the
comments that would return to haunt her — a "dream solution"
of the disappearance of Alison Shaughnessy, the "unwashed
bitch" she hated.
On Aug 2, fingerprint experts discovered prints from the left
thumb and forefinger of Lisa Taylor on the inside of the front
door of the flat in Vardens Road. She had said she was never in
the flat.
Two days later, a doctor who had cycled along Vardens Road at
about 5.45 on the evening of the murder, came forward to say he
saw two young women hurrying down the steps of the house.
He said they were carrying a large bag and were in jogging gear,
but he could not identify the sisters. Police were also puzzled
by an alibi given to the sisters by Jeanette "JJ" Tapp,
26, their friend at the clinic.
She said they were with her between 5 and 6pm on June 3. Alison's
murder was around 5.35-5.45. The defence said police bullied Tapp
into changing her story to the one she gave in court — that
she had not been in the clinic and trusted the sisters when they
said they were there — by threatening to charge her with
conspiracy to murder.
A detective in the case said: "It was simply a question of
if the girls did it then 'JJ' had to be lying. She admitted she
had been lying." The sisters were charged with murder.
Michelle Taylor admitted the affair, but denied all involvement
in the murder. Police began to delve into their backgrounds. Michelle
had worked as an accounts clerk at the Churchill Clinic before
becoming a part-time cleaner there, and also worked for her father's
cleaning company.
Lisa had worked for six weeks at the clinic before joining the
family business. They had taken lessons in jujitsu, the martial
art which teaches fighting with bare hands and knives.
They were regarded by instructors as "very competent"
students. Detectives do not believe jujitsu played any role in
the murder, which was a frenzy of blows with a knife one inch
wide and at least five inches long.
Police were unable to prove which weapon was used, but a blade
fashioned from a metal ruler was found in the handle of a cleaning
mop owned by Mr Derek Taylor, the father of the sisters.
Earlier this year, Mr Taylor was fined £100 at Kingston
Crown Court for possessing the ruler knife. He told the court
it was "anti-mugger" protection.
There is no evidence he ever knew it might have been used in the
murder. The case was put on the basis that Michelle, the jealous
and desperate mistress, stabbed Mrs Shaughnessy, but although
Lisa looked fragile, detectives saw her as "having backbone".
An officer said: "It can only be speculation, but we suspect
she is the one who said to Michelle, 'Look, stop whining about
it and do something about it'." The answers to these questions
may have been written by Michelle Taylor.
Detectives believe she was compulsive in her diary-keeping. An
officer said: "We never found a 1991 diary. If she ever had
one, she got rid of it." Detectives believe she was shocked
when they found the 1990 diaries.
They suspect she thought she had disposed of them. It was at the
time the diaries were found that Taylor made a complaint against
a woman detective who, she alleged, had threatened to "kick
her out of the ******* window" if she was found to be involved
in the murder. |
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