| The Dream Solution
- Articles |
22/07/92
- They wanted to have children and move away, you feared you would
lose John forever
By Stephen Farrell
Today
MISTRESS Michelle Taylor was yesterday accused of killing Alison
O'Shaughnessy to stop her having children of the man they both
loved. The 21-year-old feared her lover John O'Shaughnessy was
about to start a family with wife Alison, move to Ireland and
out of her life the Old Bailey heard.
On the 12th day of the trial Michelle was challenged by prosecutor
John Nutting: "You knew by the day of the murder that Alison
and John wanted to have children, didn't you?" She replied:
"They had spoken about it, yes."
She had wanted to get rid of Alison because she feared she would
lose John forever, said Mr Nutting. "That is why you planned
Alison's death." Michelle replied: "Me and my sister
did not kill Alison." Mr Nutting insisted Michelle knew O'Shaughnessy
would never leave Alison for her.
"I knew that, yes, a long time ago." Michelle replied
quietly. She admitted writing in her secret diary "I hate
Alison, the unwashed bitch," but denied ever wanting to kill
her.
The court heard another entry said it would be her "dream
solution" if Alison disappeared and that at the time she
hated both Alison and John O'Shaughnessy.
"When I wrote all those things I was very upset," Michelle
said. "Things were going through my mind At that time i couldn't
be a friend to Alison because I was sleeping with her husband.
As time went on it wasn't Alison was jealous of or hated, it was
John." O'Shaughnessy, 30, had gone out with Michelle for
five months before he confessed he was engaged to Alison, the
court has heard.
By the autumn of 1990, a few months after his wedding to Alison.
Michelle claimed she had reached a watershed in her feelings towards
him because she suspected him of having an affair with a third
woman.
But the prosecution pointed out that despite her suspicions she
carried on sleeping with him at the private clinic where they
both worked. She also admitted continuing the affair with her
lover after his marriage, and sleeping with him once.
"My feelings had started to change towards him but it was
hard for me to say no," she said. "On the one occasion
when he did spend the night with you it gave you a tremendous
sense of happiness because that's what you really wanted?"
asked Mr Nutting.
She replied: "All I wanted was to be cuddled. Basically I
just wanted to be cuddled." She admitted continuing to give
him presents, including a chocolate bear as teddy bears were a
special symbol between them.
She insisted her feelings towards Alison grew into friendship
long before the killing, and that she had stopped having sex with
O'Shaughnessy months beforehand. "My feelings towards Alison
had changed.
I didn't feel jealousy and I didn't feel hate towards Alison anymore."
She added: "My feelings towards Alison changed and my feelings
towards John changed. You wouldn't know what I was thinking at
that time." Mr Nutting said: "What I suggest is that
this diary shows how volatile, how up and down your feelings were
and we have just got a snapshot of your feelings for this man
over this period of time.
There was no fundamental change." She denied this saying:
"The whole relationship was dying down," But the prosecution
would not accept this, accusing her of remaining so obsessed with
O'Shaughnessy that she broke off another relationship.
Mr Nutting claimed she had told different stories to police about
when her affair ended. Six weeks after the killing, he said, she
had confirmed it was "still going strong". Speaking
through tears Michelle claimed she had been bullied into the admission.
"I did say that because at the time I was being interviewed
by a man and by a police woman, Angela Thomas, and they kept taking
breaks and coming back and she kept threatening me over the table,
kept shouting at me and kept saying that I had been seeing John
after killing Alison and that me and my sister, Lisa, killed Alison.
"I kept shouting back that I hadn't told them about the affair
because I didn't want my mum to find out." Michelle and her
sister Lisa, 18, both of Forest Hill, South London, both deny
murdering Alison at the O'Shaughnessy's flat in Battersea.
The prosecution claimed the two sisters were unusually close and
accused Michelle of trying to conceal how close they were. "Why
are you trying to pretend to this jury that your relationship
with your sister at the time and before this murder is more distant
than it was?" Mr Nutting asked.
Michelle replied: "I'm not trying to pretend anything to
the jury, I'm telling the truth. "Me and my sister did not
kill Alison. I got close to Lisa when we were both in prison.
Before we just had a sisterly relationship." Mr Nutting said
she had lied to police, saying that Lisa had never been inside
the O'Shaughnessy's flat but her fingerprints were found there.
"I wanted to get my sister and family as far away as I could
because I knew it was me they wanted to get because of my affair,"
said Michelle.
The case continues. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
|
|
|
