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- Transcript of Sky News at Six
SKY NEWS AT SIX
MICHELLE
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.
LINDA DUFFIN (REPORTER)
The release of the TAYLOR sisters was the latest in a long
string of high profile cases which have demolished public
confidence in British justice.
COMMENTATOR
Well as we heard there one of the most notorious recent
cases of miscarriages of justice has been that of MICHELLE
TAYLOR and her sister Lisa. They were jailed for stabbing
to death the bank clerk Alison SHAUGHNESSY but in June of
this year they both walked free after the Appeal Court ruled
that that the police had failed to disclose certain evidence.
MICHELLE
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.
COMMENTATOR
Well the court found the verdicts unsafe and unsatisfactory
so they were quashed, and because of the way the press reported
the case the judge said it wouldn't be right to order a
retrial and in fact we're joined now in the studio by MICHELLE
TAYLOR and her mother Ann. Good evening to both of you.
ANN TAYLOR
Good evening.
MICHELLE
Hello.
COMMENTATOR
Thank you very much for coming in. Ann, if I could start
with you, when your children were arrested, then put on
trial, then imprisoned, obviously it was a remendous shock
for you. You not only had to cope with that but you also
had to cope with the intricacies of the legal system. How
difficult a time was it for you and how did you cope with
all of that?
ANN TAYLOR
It was very difficult right from the beginning. It depends
on which way you look at it, I mean basically after the
girls were convicted what we did was to take each piece
of evidence that was presented in court and basically destroy
it. What made it difficult was with what the press did.
They'd actually found the girls guilty on the second day,
with their headlines. That was bad enough but they was actually
printing things as though it was fact, it was actually said
in court, which it wasn't.
COMMENTATOR
How much legal explanation did you get at that time? Were
you satisfied with your Defence Counsel, your solicitors?
ANN TAYLOR
Yes they were brilliant, they've been with us all the way,
they've backed us all the way and did whatever they could.
I think they were as surprised as what we were. They didn't
realise, the same as us, how powerful the press are.
COMMENTATOR
You must have learnt an awful lot very quickly?
ANN TAYLOR
Yes, yes very much so.
COMMENTATOR
Now the appeal was based on two grounds, firstly that material
evidence was not disclosed to the defence, and secondly
that press reports had made a fair trial impossible. Under
the new recommendations they're saying that both prosecution
and defence should have a total quality of access, that
means you know, that they should get all the information
possible. Do you go along with that?
ANN TAYLOR
No I don't. You're taking a defendent's right away. In the
girls' case, if it hadn't been for the barristers actually
going back to the police station and what they found there
was nearly ten boxes of non-disclosure which the police
should have handed over to the prosecution, but they didn't.
What we're saying is, no the defence shouldn't say what
they have, you've got no guarantee that the police are gonna
pass over everything that they have to the prosecution.
COMMENTATOR
Well how do you feel about that then MICHELLE, that your
solicitors didn't actually have all the information they
should have had. That must have put you all in a terrible
situation.
MICHELLE
Yeah I think it's totally wrong, I think there's no way
they should hold back evidence. Everything the police have
they should give forward, otherwise they're holding innocent
people inside for no reason.
COMMENTATOR
Now at the time MICHELLE, there you were an innocent young
woman, you and your sister, but on trial with the press
saying you were guilty, together with your sister. What
was that time like for you?
MICHELLE
I think it was very hard. I mean I didn't actually get to
see most of the newspapers at the time because when I was
coming back from the trial each night the inmates that were
at the prison was holding them back so I didn't see them
but I see them afterwards and just reading through them
and the way they described me it was like they was describing
someone else, and everything they were saying, like me mum
said, most of the things they were printing was like they
were trying to say it was facts but half of it didn't even
get said in court, so they were making it up as they was
going along.
COMMENTATOR
But I mean you learning that information in the evening
and then having to go back on trial the next day, that must
have, I mean you must have been in a terrible state.
MICHELLE
Yeah, but you think because you've never been through a
trial before, and you don't know what people are listening
to, and when the defence are standing up or the prosecution
are standing up, the words they are coming out with you
don't understand yourself so that you think they're getting
it across that you're innocent and that you never done it,
but they're not, like the jury are listening to mainly what
the prosecution are saying and what the papers are putting
in.
COMMENTATOR
So, I was asking your mum, you know, was it all explained
properly to you, legally, but obviously it wasn't because
you didn't understand a lot of the legal jargon, I mean
it is very difficult, I mean it' s difficult for all of
us, you know, let alone a young girl sitting in court, and
yet you had faith that your defence were doing the right
thing for you and that presumably you thought they had all
the information they needed.
MICHELLE
Yeah we thought they had, but like it didn't come out until
the appeal time that the police withheld documents and if
they had had that at the time then our defence could have
put it across different, and we probably more than likely
wouldn't have got convicted.
COMMENTATOR
After going through that and then being imprisoned, and
obviously you must have lost faith then, because I mean
there you were in prison, you know you'd lost, did you have
faith that the appeal system would go in your favour?
ANN TAYLOR
After the trial, no. No, we didn't believe it would, I mean
we were gonna do whatever we could. Everything that came
out at the Appeal Court was only found three weeks beforehand,
so that's how close it was. One document wasn't handed over
'till the day before the appeal started, and we'd been trying
to get hold of that document since January.
COMMENTATOR
It's bizarre isn't it. So I should think you must be heartened
by, there's another recommendation and that's to set up
an independent appeals tribunal, and that will look into
possible miscarriages of justice which, you know, even,
a terrible thing happened to you, but hopefully it may not
happen again because of this independent...
ANN TAYLOR
We don't need it after somebody's been convicted, what you
need is an independent person now at the beginning of an
enquiry and not after somebody has been convicted.
COMMENTATOR
MICHELLE, can I ask you finally, I know Lisa's not here
but how are you now, how are you both getting over this
trauma?
MICHELLE
It's still taking time, it's still very hard like, at the
moment we're not actually around, we're not staying at home
because so many people wanted to see us and we just don't
feel like we can see them at the moment, everythings just
hard for us at the moment.
COMMENTATOR
I can appreciate that. Ann, MICHELLE, thank you very much
for sparing the time and coming in, thank you.
COMMENTATOR
This victim of the British legal system is less than impressed.
MICHELLE
I can't see it helping out at all, I mean maybe if they
have an independent party to follow it from the very beginning,
any case that they come up with an independent party is
pulled in, and follows the case right through, but other
than that I can never see anything changing miscarriages
of justice, there's always gonna be it, as long as the police
have the right to withhold evidence and do what they want
to do, there'll always be miscarriages of justice.
COMMENTATOR
It's hard to see how the TAYLOR sisters would have benefitted
from the disclosure of evidence by their lawyers. Their
false convictions and those of the Guildford Four and the
Birmingham Six were much more the result of the police and
prosecution failing to disclose vital evidence.
ANN TAYLOR
I think the problem they're gonna have is we expect, they're
gonna expect the defence to disclose everything the same
as what the prosecution do at the moment, I think the problem
you've got is the fact that the police do not disclose everything
to the prosecution so therefore they're uunable to disclose
it to the defence, which is what happened in the girls'
case. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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