The Truth The Whole Truth and Anything But ( 2 )

The second plank , and the most damaging to Alfred Moore , of the prosecution case was the evidence of Constable Jagger . The picture painted to the jury was of a dying Police officer making a deposition from his bedside to a magistrate , Mr. Percy Crowther. In which he told of the events leading up to the shooting of himself and Detective Inspector Fraser , the suspect had answered to the name of Alfred Moore , both he and the dead Inspector had shone their torches into the face of their attacker and saw it clearly . How he had later picked out Alfred Moore at a nine man identity parade.







The deposition taken from Jagger was read to the hushed court , the jury listened intently and believed what they had heard was the only evidence attributed to Constable Jagger . It was certainly the only evidence presented to both the Magistrates court and the court of Assize , but it was not the only statement Jagger had made with regard to events of the 15th July.







On his admission to Hospital at 4-10am on the morning of the 15th , I now know that Constable Jagger made another statement ( unknown to the defence team). In this statement he says that his attacker wore a white silk scarf . No such scarf was found near to the scene , neither was one to be found in the surrounding fields , the farmhouse or any outbuilding. Both the murder weapon and the scarf have never been found!!. The version of this statement is somewhat different in many ways to the one he gave to the Magistrate.







I know know that Constable Jagger was spoken to by six members of the observation team in the immediate aftermath of the shootings. To each one he gave a differing account of what had happened . To one person he said that a revolver was the weapon used to shoot himself and Inspector Fraser. To another he said the weapon used was a small black automatic . When speaking to each of his colleagues , never once did he say that he and the Inspector had shone their torches into the face of their attacker. These facts , like many others , were not shared with the defence team and of course they were not able to exploit them in court.







I have discovered evidence which strongly suggests that at the time of the shootings , Jagger's torch was not in fact lit but was in his coat pocket.







I now also know that when Jagger gave his deposition to the Magistrate , it was in circumstances other than what was painted to the Jury . They were not told that a man called Mr. R.C.Linney

was also present at that time , this fellow was the Prosecuting solicitor for the West Riding Constabulary and was a skilled attorney . It is my belief that the contents of the Constable's deposition were the words of Mr. Linney and not those of the dying officer.

The defence were also not aware of the full medical evidence in the case. That after emergency surgery carried out by Doctor James Hall Wrigley , he had failed to remove the bullet and he had failed to repair a main vein in the stomach , this had resulted in perpetual internal bleeding the pressure of which was so great that it had burst repairs he had made to the stomach wall. The officer was given ether as part of his anaesthesia and prescribed post operative morphine.

I have recently spoken with a former surgeon and he has examined the full medical evidence. Constable Jagger had initially been shot and was in shock , the bullet caused internal damage and his body underwent further trauma during the surgery. My expert told me that the surgical proceedure alone would have been sufficient to put the officer on the critical list . He went on to say that had he been in charge of Jagger's case , he would most definitely have not let Jagger be interviewed by the Police that day , he was far too ill. He found it incredible that within four or five hours after coming round from the operation , Jagger was able to attend an identification parade and later give a statement to a Magistrate.

The truth , simply , is that from the moment he was shot , Constable Jagger was slowly dying and getting weaker by the minute. Was Constable Jagger in a fit state to understand anything that was going on around him on the afternon of the 15th July 1951 ?.