The attack on Swedish housewife Mrs Meike Dalal on Thursday, September 7th 1961

[moste]

No, I don't believe Mrs Storie was telling porkies. Valerie herself stated quite openly that her parents knew about her affair. You have to remember that this was 1961, when there was a far less open attitude towards such matters, and no doubt Mrs Storie said what she said for the benefit of friends, neighbours, relatives and the public-at-large. The pretence of their being 'just good friends' was kept up all through the trial, although I seriously doubt if many of the people present in the court-room were under much of an illusion.

Graham

So, Telling Porkies then?

[NickB]

At the trial Storie said “we were very fond of one another” and Sherrard could have pursued it further had he wished.

Wikipedia says the affair “did not become public knowledge until Storie wrote a series of articles for a popular magazine”. But this cannot be true because in the Today articles (June 1962) she describes receiving letters from strangers who mention the affair.

Indeed she ends with an interesting reference to one ...

I would like to quote this passage from one of the hundreds of letters people wrote to me:
“We all do things in life which we should not do. Sometimes we escape unhurt; sometimes we pay the price for it. For those who escape we say: “They are the lucky ones.”

[Natalie Severn]

So, Telling Porkies then?

the whole thing from start to finish was a porkie fest ....truth fled early on
in this tragic case in which two people died and one was left paralysed for life.

[Graham]

the whole thing from start to finish was a porkie fest ....truth fled early on
in this tragic case in which two people died and one was left paralysed for life.

Yes indeed, the two biggest ones being the Liverpool and Rhyl alibis....

Graham

[Spitfire]

Yes indeed, the two biggest ones being the Liverpool and Rhyl alibis....

Graham

I think the biggest one was that there would be another appeal in 2011.

[Derrick]

Oops, what statement is being talked about?

The statement made by the relevant forensic officer.

...At all material times the tests were observed by scientists instructed on behalf of the defence...

No one from the defence would have been present when Dr Whitaker performed his LCN tests in 2000 on behalf of the Crown.

[caz]

Alphon may well not have been the A6 killer (it does not have to have been an 'either it was Alphon or Hanratty' debate) but he was certainly and unhinged individual who attacked Mrs Hanratty, made numerous nuisance telephone calls and made a very public confession to the crime from a safe distance. They are not the actions of a rational man.

Hi Julie,

They are hardly the actions of a rapist and murderer either. If Alphon wasn't the gunman, his strange behaviour before and after the A6 murder cannot be relevant. If he was involved and really wanted his public confession to be believed, he could have done a better job. The fact that he failed to incriminate himself does indicate he was both unwilling and unable to do so.

Without Hanratty or Alphon to blame for this terrible crime, I fear one would really struggle to find a third group O suspect to 'fit' the evidence round instead.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

I don't believe that it was Alphon who attacked Mrs Dalal, even though she did pick him out on an i.d. parade - his alibi was proven and the police accepted it as proven.

Hi Graham,

I find it fairly predictable that those who refuse to believe Valerie could have reliably identified Hanratty as the man who spent hours in the car talking to her before raping her are happy to believe that Mrs Dalal reliably identified Alphon as her attacker.

When it comes down to it, Hanratty was in effect the architect of his own downfall, which Sherrard fully realised at the time, and tried to talk him out of it. When Hanratty stuck to his Rhyl 'alibi', Sherrard did what all lawyers do under similar circumstances and passed all responsibility onto his client.

Completely agree with this, Graham. It would have been very hard for a jury to reconcile the changed alibi fiasco with an innocent man facing the death penalty. If Hanratty really had seen and spoken to all those people in Rhyl, and really had stayed overnight in a guest house there, why on earth would he ever have considered the fake Liverpool alibi a safer bet?

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

It is my view reading his autobiograph he was very far from convinced that the LCN DNA tests were done on cloth that was not only contaminated but also may have been tampered with...

Hi Nats,

I too am very far from convinced that the tests were done on cloth that was either contaminated or tampered with.

But I'm also far from convinced you meant to write that.

Love,

Caz
X

[Graham]

Hi Julie,

They are hardly the actions of a rapist and murderer either. If Alphon wasn't the gunman, his strange behaviour before and after the A6 murder cannot be relevant. If he was involved and really wanted his public confession to be believed, he could have done a better job. The fact that he failed to incriminate himself does indicate he was both unwilling and unable to do so.

Without Hanratty or Alphon to blame for this terrible crime, I fear one would really struggle to find a third group O suspect to 'fit' the evidence round instead.

Love,

Caz
X

There is, in a dark way, something almost admirable about Alphon - anyone else would have scarpered as far away from the crime as possible once he'd been cleared of any connection with it, but no. The arch-chancer saw some chances for profit! In his confessions there is always a 'deliberate mistake' which he can fall back on, if needs be. And of course he was well aware that as Hanratty had been found guilty and paid the penalty, there was no chance of him, Alphon, being charged. I've often wondered, despite their statements that they believed Alphon was the A6 killer, did Justice and Fox genuinely believe that he was? Or were they just looking at the possibility of more profit via their association with him?

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

Yes indeed, the two biggest ones being the Liverpool and Rhyl alibis....

Graham

Rather cheap that Graham. Mrs Dunwoody was a devout Christian and only testified because her conscience made her. I am sure she was not a liar---and interestingly so was Acott which was why he made the absurd suggestion that Hanratty might have taken a helicopter or a plane from Speke Airport to Buckinghamshire.

[Natalie Severn]

Indeed Caz

[caz]

Prosecution forensic experts are not /were not an 'impartial organisation'. The appeals procedure has much more to do with upholding the original verdict than ensuring justice .There has to be overwhelming evidence that the conviction was wrong for an appeal to succeed.

Hi Nats,

But the defence wanted the appeal and fully expected the DNA results to provide this 'overwhelming evidence' of Hanratty's innocence.

They clearly expected too much. If those tests were so inherently and inevitably useless for determining anything (due to long storage, contamination, degradation, take your pick), then no result - however favourable to Hanratty it might have appeared - could have proved the original conviction wrong, could it?

I'm afraid once you condemn the DNA tests on such grounds you'd have had to condemn them whatever results they might have produced, which would still have left you without the 'overwhelming evidence' required for an appeal (past or future) to succeed.

Proof of Hanratty's whereabouts on the murder night, anywhere other than in that car, would have done the trick without DNA tests, flawed or otherwise. So there simply can't have been any proof, can there?

Love,

Caz
X

[Natalie Severn]

The statement made by the relevant forensic officer.



No one from the defence would have been present when Dr Whitaker performed his LCN tests in 2000 on behalf of the Crown.

Correct

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Nats,


Proof of Hanratty's whereabouts on the murder night, anywhere other than in that car, would have done the trick without DNA tests, flawed or otherwise. So there simply can't have been any proof, can there?

Love,

Caz
X

Likewise proof of Alphon's whereabouts on the murder night ,anywhere other than that car would have cleared his name.....but there wasn't was there? Just saying.....