9th February 2021
The Butler gang trial began today – at last! Nothing much happened though. It seemed to take for ever to get the jury sworn in and do all the other preliminaries. With four defendants each facing multiple charges, just hearing their pleadings on each charge took ages. They’ve admitted all the drugs offences and Shane Butler has pleaded guilty to “Causing Death by Dangerous Driving”, but he’s holding out against Murder, and they’re all still claiming that Harry Whittle’s death was nothing to do with them.
We watched on a video link from the next court, because, with social distancing, the main court had to be dedicated just to the judge, jury, legal teams and defendants. Poor Stella Gilbert spent the whole afternoon waiting to be called to give evidence and then being told to come back tomorrow because there wasn’t time for any witnesses today.