| The Dream Solution
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- Transcript of London Tonight (2)
LWT LONDON TONIGHT
COMMENTATOR
They were called sisters of evil, Michelle and Lisa TAYLOR
were found guilty by an Old Bailey jury of killing Alison
SHAUGHNESSY at her home in Battersea, but did they do it?
In our special report yesterday Christopher PEACOCK looked
at claims that press coverage of the case may have influenced
the jury. The police are still convinced the TAYLORS are
guilty, but tonight we take a closer look at the evidence
the TAYLOR family hope will clear them.
COMMENTATOR
This man has carried out postmortem examinations on over
a thousand murder victims. He says it's against type for
two girls to inflict 54 knife wounds on another woman.
DR PETER VANEZIS (PATHOLOGIST)
It's extremely unusual, in most cases it's the men who stab,
who produce multiple stab wounds. Women normally produce
one or two stab wounds.
COMMENTATOR
At the time of the trial photographs of Alison SHAUGHNESSY's
mutilated body were considered so horrific the jury were
not allowed to see them. It had been one of the most publicised
court cases and when the guilty verdicts came through Alison's
parents expressed relief it was over.
MRS. BLACKMORE
We want the world to know that those two girls did kill
Alison.
COMMENTATOR
The jury said guilty, but did the TAYLOR sisters do it?
Their mother, who is campaigning for their release, says
no. Soon an appeal will be heard.
ANN TAYLOR
They were not positively identified, they were not seen
within that vicinity, and also I know, they're our daughters
and they're not killers.
COMMENTATOR
The jury heard that Michelle TAYLOR, a former mistress of
John SHAUGHNESSY, couldn't live with the reality that he'd
married another woman. The police say the TAYLOR sisters
went to Alison's flat in Vardens Road at Battersea. They
arrived soon after 5.30, murdered her and then got back
to the Churchill Clinic, where Michelle worked and was later
seen just before six o clock, but crucial evidence at the
appeal will hear that only gave the girls 11 minutes to
make a three mile journey in their father's car.
DEREK TAYLOR
And the timing can't be done in eleven minutes. It takes,
it takes roughly 15 minutes, 15.46 was the shortest time
I done it in.
COMMENTATOR
Michelle's diary gave away her feelings of hatred for Alison.
She wrote of a dream solution for her to disappear as if
she'd never existed, but 'Agony Aunt1 Virginia Ironside
says too much emphasis could have been placed on it.
VIRGINIA IRONSIDE
You can write all kinds of terrible things in your diary
that you don't mean at all, people always, you know, people
would like to disembowel people and put spells on them and
curse them and kill them. It's a way of releasing it without
actually doing it.
CHRIS PEACOCK
A jury can only convict when the evidence is beyond all
reasonable doubt. The TAYLOR sisters were found guilty of
murder. The judge said it was a terrible crime, but very
shortly the Court of Appeal will have to decide if there
has been a miscarriage of justice. Alison's body was laid
to rest in Ireland. An ornate gravestone laid by her husband
John SHAUGHNESSY marks the spot. The husband whose illicit
affair gave his mistress motive for his wife's murder. A
murder that may yet ask more questions than it's answered.
This is Christopher PEACOCK for London Tonight. |
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