The following extracts are taken from the Honourable Judge Reddihough’s summing up of the trial:
“I was aware during late summer of a horrible smell. It was close by our back
door” She and her husband were keen on watching hats which roosted over
their utility room, and it was when they were outside doing that that they
became aware of the smell….”it was late August or early September…when I
first noticed this terrible smell. I initially thought it was the drains, but it wasn’t
and it disappeared after 2 days…”
I’ve no doubt SPr and her husband were telling the truth when they recalled smelling something, but whatever and whenever it was, it was coming from their own property not ours:
“The smell extended from the front of (our) garage by about 6 or 8 metres” IPr
“She agreed it was very localized and none of her neighbours had made any
mention of it at all..Having been reminded of a David Attenborough film
(featuring) a cave full of bat droppings, IPr was not very convinced by a
suggestion that this smell was caused by the bats or bats’ droppings” Hon.
Judge Reddihough.
SPr’s home sat adjacent to our garden, but about half an acre of land separated her property from ours. There is simply no way that the smell could have emanated from anywhere other than her own garage/back door.
“Bear in mind that nobody beyond SPr ever became aware at any stage of this
or any other horrible smell” – Hon. Judge Reddihough.
Our home was positioned at the top of the Close, and the garage looked out over the main street and a public footpath. Anyone wishing to enter or leave the Close had to walk past our house – including SPr and her her husband IPr:
“(IPr) went for a run …and had gone past number 2(the family home) in doing
that, and there was no sign of this smell as he ran past number 2” – Hon.
Judge Reddihough.
The village postman came to our front door every morning. Neighbours even went into our garden to water the plants:
“When I went around, the plants looked as though they had been watered, but I
didn’t know by who as we hadn’t had any rain” SPi.
Had a body been decomposing in the garage, as the prosecution claimed, or anywhere else for that matter, all of us would have smelt it: but that just simply wasn’t the case. This was nothing more than a red herring, needlessly deployed by the prosecution to distract the jury from the real substance of the case.