The Truth , The Whole Truth And Anything But (1)

It is clear from what Colin and myself have discovered that the defence team were not privy to all the prosecution evidence in this case. They had to rely upon the evidence given at the committal proceedings at the Magistrates court , which was basically a condensed version. The jury were not in possession of the full facts during the trial and given those circumstances , I personally do not see how Moore could have had a fair trial . Lord Bingham the Lord Chief Justice once said , when commenting on the case of Derek Bentley , " That fair trial which is the birthright of every British citizen".

The one issue that is not in doubt is that the the Murder weapon , believed to have been a handgun , was never found . Almost sixty years on and that weapon has not been accounted for , this despite a massive search of the farmland , surrounding fields and the farhhouse itself. Soldiers from the Royal Engineers equipped with mine detectors spent three weeks searching for the weapon , to no avail. There was no evidence , forensic or circumstantial , to say that Moore had fired a gun that night , nor that a gun had ever been in the pockets of his raincoat.

The Police had always insisted that their cordon was in position by 11-45pm on the night of the 14th July 1951 . Moore always insisted that he arrived back at the farm about midnight , he had walked through the cemetery and through the fields back to his home , in effect he had entered the Police cordon . According to Moore he did not see any Police officers and was not challenged by any during his journey home. When Alfred Moore appealed against his conviction in January 1952 the issue of the Police cordon was raised and the then Lord Chief Justice , Lord Goddard , made the following comment , " If the Police evidence was correct , it was impossible for the appellent to approach his house without passing some Policemen. Moore's evidence was that he had been in his house all along since a much earlier hour". The first part of his comment is of interest to me , what if the Police evidence was not correct ?

Not one Police officer on duty that night saw Moore leave the farm with his brother, nor was he seen by them returning to the farm . The only information as to his leaving and returning to the farm was supplied by Moore and his brother , this information was given in a written statement by Charles Moore and in an interview in the cells , between Moore and Superintendent Metcalfe early on the morning of the 15th July . It was information that was obtained before any Police Officer put pen to paper.

I now have evidence which suggests that even if the cordon was in place by 11-45pm that night , the officers concerned were instructed not to stop anyone until 12-30am. ( Half an hour after Moore said he arrived home).

Further to this I am in possession of other facts which suggest that the cordon was not in fact in position by 11-45pm but it is more likely that it was some fifteen minutes later . Also that the Police had been on observation duty around the farm the previous weekend and had seen nothing of Moore on that occasion . The defence team were not aware of these facts.

With regards to the position of every officer on duty that night , I have taken measurements , photographs and conducted experiments . My overall findings , leave me to believe that the events as portrayed by the Police are innacurate to such extent that the validity of their evidence , must be questioned.

It is now known that it rained for about an hour and a half that night and rained heavily , some time just after midnight until about 1-30am . None of those in the cordon mention this either in their statements or depositions and yet when Moore was arrested some two hours after the alleged time of the shootings , his raincoat when found hanging in the wardrobe , was bone dry. There were no grass stains or grass seeds adhering to it.