Totally agree. One outcome of poring over every word and going into the minutiae of every single thing is that you end up not being able to see the wood for the trees. IMO
Different people have different ideas of time and distances. One person's 10ft is another person's 20ft. One person's 5 mins is another person's 10 mins.
Expecting three people to come up with identical descriptions of everything they remembered is totally unrealistic IMO.
Fortunately the people who do matter - i.e. the professional policemen investigating this case are well aware of that.
AIMHO
On this point you are somewhat wrong . For it is the apparent contradictions in whether Jez and Gerry saw Jane that make people doubt whether Jane really saw Tannerman. I think G-unit has come closest so far to solving the riddle.
"Distance from pathway to the top of the road according to Jes;
10 + 5 = 15 meters. He is twice as far from the top of the road as he is from the pathway.
15 + 5 = 20 meters. He is three times as far from the top of the road as he is from the pathway.
Actual distance from the pathway to the top of the road is 32 meters (approx)
So Jes was either 22 meters from the top of the road and 11 meters from the pathway or he was 24 meters from the top of the road and 8 meters from the pathway. Either way, he was very close to the gate."