Blue ribbons worn in Becky’s memory

Wednesday November 11

The verdicts are already in for the Becky Watts murder trial that shocked us all and touched our hearts.

As thought yesterday, early this morning the Judge at last had finished his summing-up and instructions to the probably traumatised Jury (chosen from the original fifteen randomly selected), so had sent them out to their deliberation room to consider their verdicts, and they alone determined the guilt and innocence of the four Defendants – whatever the rest of us outsiders think, eh?

Jurors need to properly understand the court process beforehand, and their task at the end and that is why a Judge spent some time going over it when the closing speeches concluded. The Judge assisted the Jurors in the route to take in reaching their verdicts, as far as he could, by giving them twenty-one clear questions that they had to answer about the various charges faced by the Defendants.

The problem was would they be able to reach a verdict (beyond reasonable doubt), and if so could we see justice done– that was anyone’s guess, wasn’t it? If at least nine of them couldn’t agree a verdict would we have to see retrials? Then, were the police able to gather sufficient evidence to allow the Prosecution to present irrefutable cases and did it do a top professional job in doing so? Or, did the Defences adequately explain away what their clients had done, when some things seemed a bit iffy? We saw the answers to all that today with a hundred percent unanimous verdicts on all charges and within a few hours didn’t we?

How long did we expect the Jury take, then? A few hours, a few days, a week, or more? There was no pressure on the time taken, and they were told that they would have been allowed home for the night, whatever (the length of the deliberation though doesn’t really normally give any indication of what the ‘final’ verdicts will be).

In English law there doesn’t have to be proof of motive, only criminal acts. Furthermore, as in this case ‘circumstantial evidence’ can still be powerful if it leads to a conclusion about the guilt of the defendants.

Admitted killer Nathan Matthews was found guilty of both the charges he had denied – murder of sixteen year old stepsister Becky Watts (no big surprise there then) and the kidnapping plot, while long-term joined-at-the-hip girlfriend Shauna Hoare was not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, the kidnapping plot, perverting justice, and possessing a taser stun gun. They are both now proven evil scumbags, aren’t they?

Work friend  of Karl Demetrius, one James Ireland, escaped any consequences of moving Becky’s body parts in the middle of the night, reportedly for a large amount of promised money, by being found not guilty of assisting an offender (to the surprise of many who had followed this trial?), together with Donovan Demetrius, who lived at the property where where the dismembered  bits of Becky were hidden in a garden shed.

Matthews had already admitted perverting justice, preventing Becky’s burial, and possessing a stun gun. Another couple, Jaydene Parker and Karl Demetrius, have previously pleaded guilty to charges of assisting a defendant.

[It is all now down to the Judge to enact justice through prison sentences (in the absence of the death penalty), with those on hateful and arrogant Matthews, plus on feelingless and emotionless Hoare due on Friday – let’s hope they rot in prison, eh?].