11th February 2021
Still very cold, but quite bright and sunny. We went to court again and saw Yvonne being examined. The prosecuting counsel was very gentle with her and she did quite well during the examination in chief, but things went downhill when Terry Butler’s defence counsel got his claws into her. The judge had to reprimand him twice for his aggressive questioning. He was trying to force Yvonne into admitting that her husband, Trevor, could have killed Harry after she left for work that morning and before he set off for his first pick-up in his taxi.
After that, Ruby Mann gave evidence about the forensic evidence found at the Whittles’ house. Defence counsel made a big thing of the lack of fingerprints, which, of course, proves nothing – except perhaps that the killers were professionals who knew enough to wear gloves and that the crime was premeditated! They are clearly trying to make the jury believe that Harry could have been killed by a member of the family. Trevor Whittle was in the court with us, watching the video stream. I looked across at him while this was going on, and I could see he was absolutely livid. I don’t blame him!
Fortunately, Ruby is an experience professional and she didn’t allow it to rattle her. She answered all the questions clearly and the prosecutor teased out from her two important facts: that there was no weapon of the sort used to strangle Harry (a knotted cord, for example, as described in the pathology report and by Mike Carson when he gave evidence earlier in the day; and that there was a footwear mark in the hall, which didn’t match any of the family and did match the shoes that Shane Butler was wearing when he was arrested.