The case has been repeatedly discussed as a high-profile example of when the media have put criminal trials in jeopardy. In 2001, the case was highlighted as such when a trial of professional footballers Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer collapsed due to press and media intrusion. [38] [39]

Laurence Allison: Forensic Psychologists Handbook: Psychological Profiling and Criminal Investigation (2013) ISBN 9781134028863, p.198 year-old Green suffered a frenzied stabbing in the office adjoining his shop, and his fiancée found his body there the next day. He was not known to have had any enemies, causing police to wonder if he had been murdered in a case of mistaken identity. Two men seen pushing Green into the shop on 1 February (the day of the killing) remain untraced. [55] year-old Maria Christina Requena went missing on New Year's Day 1991, and her remains were found on 6 January in five plastic bin bags in the lake at Pennington Flash. She was a sex worker and the location where she was found is less than two miles from where the body of Linda Donaldson was discovered in 1988. A link with Donaldson's murder has been suggested, [51] as has a link with the 1994 murder of Julie Finley. [52] Police have investigated prostitute killer David Smith as a suspect in both Requena and Donaldson's cases. [53] Colin Stagg, David Kessler: Who Really Killed Rachel? Greenzone Publishing 1999, ISBN 978-0-9582027-2-5.On 7 August 1991, the Taylor sisters and Tapp were arrested on suspicion of the murder of Shaughnessy. [1] Michelle initially complied in interviews and discussed her relationship with John openly. [1] When asked how she felt about Alison, she responded "When you see a person and you don't see the other person with them, it doesn't really enter your head. So you still feel like you're boyfriend and girlfriend and there's no-one else there." [1] Police believed Michelle had killed Alison as she knew she and John were about to move to Ireland to start a family together, and she wanted John to herself. [1] Lisa Taylor answered "no comment" to every question asked of her in interviews. [1] Media: Did the messengers shoot themselves?: Coverage of the Taylor". The Independent. 1993-06-15 . Retrieved 2023-02-19. McInally, 23, was last seen getting into a car with two men in Cadogan Street, Glasgow, on 15 October 1991. Her body was found in woodland in the city's Pollok Park and she had been strangled. Two men were charged with the sex worker's murder, but there was not enough evidence for either to stand trial. In 2017, McInally's son called for the investigation into his mother's murder to be reopened, claiming he had new evidence. [94] The 40-year-old was found dead in her kitchen by her elder son on 1 April, having been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated while he was at school earlier that day. Nothing was stolen from the house and there was no sign of forced entry, leading investigators to consider it likely that the perpetrator was known to her. [117]

In 1993, a second person was tried for Royal's murder. As with the previous defendant, someone close to him having a connection to the man Royal had fatally stabbed (in this case his girlfriend, who was the sister of that man) was viewed as a motive, and he spent nearly 14 years in prison for the murder before his conviction was overturned in 2007. [13] Footballer's Trial: The Law - Navigating the legal maze of contempt". The Independent. 10 April 2001. p.3. Both of them are holding on to their humour in the hope that the court of appeal will open the prison door for them. If they are released, they say, life will never be the same. Michelle has started talking about studying the law. “We’re not the only ones in here who are innocent. And I want to get a law degree and help prisoners. I had no idea what went on until all this happened.”Two weeks later, JJ Tapp was woken at twenty to six in the morning by four detectives who arrived at her room with a search warrant and a stunning announcement. They told her they were arresting her for conspiracy to murder Alison Shaughnessy. JJ was bewildered. Still, the police pursued their theory and, on July 24, they interviewed JJ again. She remained adamant, recalling the detail of conversations and the brands of cigarette which Lisa and Michelle were smoking with her. She said was sure of the day because she had been out buying things for her birthday party and she remembered showing them to Lisa and Michelle; and she was sure of the time because she was waiting for Neighbours to start on television when they arrived. On the same day, the police also interviewed Lisa and Michelle and secretly tape recorded the two girls talking to each other in Battersea station. But, just like JJ, the two sisters stood by their story. But if it is clear that the press are now pushing the law to breaking point, and if it is clear, too, that the Attorney General is open to criticism for failing to act, it remains doubtful that the underlying issue is quite so simple. Are juries really as vulnerable to the press as defence lawyers suggest? The truth appears to be more complicated. Chicago style: The Free Library. S.v. ALISON WAS STABBED, BUT I LOST MY LIFE TOO; Woman cleared of Irish murder tells of her pain.." Retrieved Nov 26 2023 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/ALISON+WAS+STABBED%2c+BUT+I+LOST+MY+LIFE+TOO%3b+Woman+cleared+of+Irish...-a082452614 The 51-year-old taxi driver vanished on 3 February and his Ford Sierra was found abandoned with bloodstains inside it in a car park at Heathrow Airport (some miles from Whyteleafe, the Surrey village where he lived) on 12 February. A forensic re-examination of the car in 2012 did not give detectives the breakthrough they were hoping for. [7]