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- Transcript of Channel 4 News (2)
CHANNEL FOUR NEWS
COMMENTATOR ...they are having their life sentences for
murder quashed. Michelle and Lisa TAYLOR were sentenced
last July for the killing of the bank clerk, Alison SHAUGHNESSY,
in June 1991, but today the court decided that their convictions
were unsafe and unsatisfactory because the defence had never
been told that a key witness had changed his evidence before
the trial. The judges said press coverage of the hearings
had been sensational, inaccurate and misleading and could
have influenced the jury. They also criticised the showing
on the television of a video of Alison SHAUGHNESSY's wedding.
Our Home Affairs correspondent Robert PARKER reports now
on the issues raised by yet another miscarriage of justice.
ROBERT PARKER
Outside the High Court this afternoon, and a scene that's
become all too familiar. There was the usual press scrummage
at the end of yet another miscarriage of justice, but this
time the media that were there to greet them were themselves
blamed for the main reasons for the wrongful imprisonment
of Michelle and Lisa TAYLOR. Both girls seemed understandably
daunted by their reception.
MICHELLE
I'm too nervous for this.
LISA
Go for it Mich, go for it Mich, I'm with you.
ROBERT PARKER
It was Michelle TAYLOR who finally read the statement.
MICHELLE
We have spent two years of our lives protesting our innocence
and only now has the deliberate mistake of the police come
to light. We will not say by being released justice has
been done, because we should not have been put in this position
in the first place. We also want to thank our legal team
for believing us and working so hard to prove our innocence
and also to thank the Lord who gave us strength.
MICHAEL HOLMES (SOLICITOR)
I would have thought that it would have taken them a long
time to put this experence behind them, if indeed they ever
can.
COMMENTATOR
The TAYLOR girls were convicted in July last year of savagely
murdering Alison SHAUGHNESSY, the 21 year old wife of John
SHAUGHNESSY, with whom Michelle had been having an affair.
Michelle and SHAUGHNESSY worked in a private clinic in Lambeth
in South London, and it was said that in this house in Battersea
Michelle and her sister Lisa stabbed Alison SHAUGHNESSY
54 times, a mistress's jealous fury, but today's clear decision
of the Appeal Court found that the convictions had been
unsafe.
ROBERT PARKER
The case raises further uncomfortable questions about the
workings of the criminal justice system. For the police
investigation and the Crown Prosecution took place long
after the introduction of PACE the Police and Criminal Evidence
Act, designed to prevent the kind of miscarriage of justice
which during the 1980's had done so much damage to the reputation
of English justice.
COMMENTATOR
Crucial to the prosecution case was the evidence of Doctor
UNSWORTH-WHITE, who lived a few doors down from the scene
of the murder in Battersea. He told the original trial that
he had seen two blonde girls leaving the scene at a critical
time, but during the appeal it emerged that the police had
suppressed the Doctor's original statement in which he said
that one of the girls was black, something described by
the appeal judges as a very remarkable change of story.
The appeal judges also criticised the police for suppressing
the fact that Doctor UNSWORTH-WHITE had contacted the murdered
woman's employers, a bank, who had offered reward money
for information about the killing. Lord Justice McCOWAN
stated Doctor UNSOWRTH- WHITE's evidence appeared to come
from an impeccable professional source, but he added, 'What
a different figure he would have cut if the defence had
had available the material which has now come to light.
He also said police had been completely wrong in deciding
not to disclose this information to the defence.
MICHAEL HOLMES (SOLICITOR)
This appears to be yet another case where the police have
taken it upon themselves to decide what they shall reveal
to their lawyers, and in this particular, information which
they had available was of such importance that they must
have known that importance and they would have known how
helpful it would have been to us. They chose not to reveal
it, it's their choice, their decision, and I deplore it.
COMMENTATOR
Today Doctor UNSWORTH-WHITE told Channel Four News that
he stood by his trial evidence, but what about the reward
money?
DR. JONATHAN UNSWORTH-WHITE
I didn't really see any problem in at least discussing with
the bank where I stood with regard to the reward. They asked
me to write a letter to them and if the girls were subsequently
convicted then I should get in touch with them again. I
didn't feel very easy about it even then, and I'm very glad
to say that I received no money whatsoever.
COMMENTATOR
Also today the liberty organisation said there were many
other cases where important information had not been disclosed
to the defence.
JOHN WADHAM - LEGAL OFFICER, LIBERTY
We think that there's probably fifty or perhaps more people
who are currently in prison who have had an unfair trial
because of the fact that evidence hasn't been disclosed
to them.
ROBERT PARKER
The whole case also raises serious questions about newspaper
coverage, for throughout the three week original trial the
tabloid newspapers in particular provided the coverage which
the TAYLOR family and their lawyers thought was highly prejudicial,
a view entirely endorsed by the Appeal Court judges today.
The judges particularly referred to newspapers which had
frozen a shot from a video of the SHAUGHNESSY's wedding
to make a peck on the cheek look like a mouth to mouth kiss.
By re-running the video the real nature of the embrace is
nothing like it had been presented, and the appeal judges
have asked the Attorney General to decide what action should
be taken against the newspapers.
ROBERT PARKER
The first thing the reunited family did after they got to
their home in South London was spend some time in church.
Tonight a big party is planned, after a case which leaves
nothing for the criminal justice system to celebrate. |
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