2nd October 2018
Post date: 02-Oct-2018 18:59:09
Watching a trial isn't nearly as exciting as it sounds! Vanessa's trial started yesterday. Practically the whole of the morning was taken up with selecting the jury and having them sworn in - and listening to a pep talk for them from the judge about what they are and are not alowed to do. Then Vanessa was invited to change her plea to "guilty", which she declined to do and then the court was adjourned for lunch. In the afternoon, the prosecuting counsel treated us to a long speech, setting out the basis of the charges being brought against Vanessa. Eventually, he called his first witness, who was the PC who attended the scene. He seemed to give a fair and unbiased account of what happened. Christabel presumably thought so too, because she only asked one question in her cross-examination - a rather strange one about Vanessa having bought some specal blue cheese that Christopher liked that morning. I suppose the idea is that she wouldn;t have bothered getting it for him if she'd already stabbed him to death before going shopping - which is wht the prosecution are alleging.
Today was more interesting - for us, but perhaps not for the jury - because it was mainly forensic evidence about fingerprints and foot prints (or the lack of them). Jonah and I watched the trial, while Peter continued to hunt for information about who the real murderer could have been. We still don't have anything conclusive, but we have got one or two additional witnesses who may sow a few seeds of doubt in the minds of the jurors. Christabel seems to be very happy with that idea, but we'd much prefer to have found out who did kill Christopher, and not just to have accumulated enough uncertainty that Vanessa has to be acquitted purely on hte basis of "reasonable doubt".