On November 28th I removed all my posts about the trial and promised not to make any new posts, as I pointed out in this post. Nevertheless, I continued to write daily reports for myself. Now that the trial has finished and a verdict has been reached I have put back all my removed posts and published my new posts for the first time. I have backdated them to the appropriate dates, so that the date below the post corresponds to the trial date, not today's date.
Today Lisa Clarke was cross-examined by Mr. Lynch. Yesterday she claimed that she had asked her friend Darren, nicknamed Dizzy, to make an anonymous report of the assault on Brian to Crimestoppers. Since yesterday enquiries have been made, and no record of any call could be found.
Lisa denied that Jason Andrews was her boyfriend, claiming that he was just someone who followed her around. Mr. Lynch produced multiple text messages that contradict this. He also quoted Lisa's statement in a police interview in May 2012 in which she called Jason her boyfriend.
Lisa claimed that Vaughan Davies kicked Brian in the face and broke his nose in the early afternoon of May 5th. However, in the CCTV images from that evening no nose injuries are visible. Brian and Vaughan were seen shopping together as if they were friends. Lisa claimed that the major assault on Brian had taken place later in the evening of that day, leaving her traumatised, but CCTV footage late at night shows her calmly shopping with Jason and Vaughan.
Mr. Lynch pointed out that there are no CCTV images of Peter Knowles and Daniel Swift arriving or leaving. He suggested that they were never there, and Lisa had never travelled into the city centre on May 5th. It is Mr. Lynch's opinion that Lisa made up her story to fit the evidence as best as she could, while telling a story that excused herself of all guilt.
Next Mr. Denillen cross-examined Lisa. First he replayed the recording of the call to Careline on May 8th. Lisa denied that she was the woman in the recording.
The logs of telephone calls and text messages were used to support the suggestion that Jason and Lisa were together from May 4th to May 8th. It was the usual pattern that when they were apart there were constant contacts, several an hour. During these days there were none.
After cross-examination of things already covered by the other defence lawyers, Mr. Denillen suggested that the assault on Brian Farmer did not take place until the evening of May 7th. The only ones who attacked Brian were Lisa and Jason, because Vaughan was known to have been staying with a friend that night.
Mr. Evans' cross-examination focussed on the claims that Lisa had made to the police, some of them contradicting one another. She had said that if she had known Brian would die she would have stopped it, but in actual fact she didn't. She made no attempt to call an ambulance after she left Brian's flat. Mr. Evans says that she didn't want Brian to survive, because if he had survived he would have named her as the person who instigated the assault. He claimed that Lisa only took so many men to Brian's flat -- John Campion, Vaughan Davies, Peter Knowles and Daniel Swift -- because she wanted them to attack him.
Thank you for restoring, and continuing, the posts. Beyond being a grimly interesting read, i suspect it's one of the very few places where Brian Farmer will be publicly remembered.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of it that way. Brian's friends – his real friends – all remember him and cherish his memory. I'm shocked that not one of his drinking friends from the "George & Dragon" pub bothered to go to his funeral. They were fast to forget him.
DeleteOne of my friends, Maria, who was also at the funeral, regularly googles the names of the four people who were convicted of his murder. She wants to know if they've made appeals. Vaughan Davies, who was still a teenager when he was sentenced to 14 years, is the one in the news most often. He's supposedly "misbehaved" a lot in the last 10 years, so it's unlikely he'll be released in 2027.