| The Dream Solution
- Documents |
??/??/??
- Transcript of LWT News
LWT NEWS
COMMENTATOR
They always said they were innocent, now their parents hope
new evidence will see them freed. Stuart MAYSTER reports
a new development in the case of two sisters jailed for
murder.
COMMENTATOR
It was by any standards a sensational Old Bailey trial.
Alison SHAUGHNESSY stabbed 54 times at a house in Wandsworth.
Her husband John was revealed as having an affair with Michelle
TAYLOR, who with her sister Lisa was convicted of murder.
The sisters' parents have campaigned for their release ever
since and an appeal will be heard soon. Today's Observer
publishes fresh allegations that the sisters couldn't have
been in the house at Wandsworth at the time of the murder,
and claims newspaper photographs taken from a video of the
SHAUGHNESSY's wedding have been doctored to show Michelle
kissing her lover far more intimately than was the case.
DEREK TAYLOR
No, not at all.
ANN TAYLOR
They're not capable of this at all, no, they value life
too much, and would not take someone elses and I'm damn
sure Michelle would not take Alison's life for the sake
of somebody like that.
DEREK TAYLOR
No.
ANN TAYLOR
Because she didn't want him. I mean the affair was finished,
over and done with. She was already going out with somebody
else in January 1991, for about four months, and what then
she decides wey-hey yes I'll go and bump Alison off because
I need John back? That's a loud of rubbish.
COMMENTATOR
The newspaper suggests that a burglar was far more likely
to have carried out the murder. A date has yet to be set
for the appeal. Stuart MAYSTER LWT News, South London.
COMMENTATOR
The Law Society in Chancery Lane, Ann and Derek TAYLOR have
come to the annual Tom SERGEANT lecture, dedicated to a
man who devoted the last thirty years of his life to exposing
miscarriages of justice. They're here because their two
daughters have been found guilty of a harrowing murder.
I believe they were wrongly convicted.
ANN TAYLOR
Until you're in this situation you don't understand how
courts work. I mean when they start off it's printed in
the papers what the prosecution says, so I think the public
automatically believe that is what, that is the truth. Well
they basically, I suppose in some ways had a trial by media.
COMMENTATOR
This is where our story starts, a residential road in South
West London. Here on June the 3rd 1991 21 year old Alison
SHAUGHNESSY was brutally stabbed to death in her own home.
There were no immediate suspects but police picked up rumours
of an affair between Alison's husband John and Michelle
TAYLOR, a wages clerk at the clinic where John was a Purchasing
Manager. Two months later police charged 21 year old Michelle
and her 19 year old sister Lisa, with Alison's murder. On
July the 24th this year Michelle and Lisa TAYLOR were convicted
of Alison's murder. They were sentenced to life imprisonment.
There is already a ground-swell of opinion that this was
yet another miscarriage of justice, but what is extraordinary
about this one is that it may have been caused, at least
in part, by the irresponsibility of the British Press.
MICHAEL HOLMES (SOLICITOR)
In my view the evidence which was always circumstancial
was not of sufficient strength to convict them, and I also
think a factor was the very unfair press coverage which
they both received throughout the trial.
MICHAEL HOLMES
It's important to remember that these jottings by a girl
were about an affair which was long dead and over months
before this dreadful crime ever happened, but the way that
it was portrayed by the press was that it was still a live
thing, which it certainly wasn't.
COMMENTATOR
On July the 20th the defence opened, now the papers had
a chance to put across Michelle and Lisa's case.
MICHAEL HOLMES
I hope this doesn't sound sour on my part but once we got
cracking on the defence case, the press seemed to lose interest.
|
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
|
|
|
