August 7th
DC Clarke tells Ann Eaton that Nevills body was found by the AGA near the mantle shelf.
Ann Eaton takes Julie to the mortuary and notes down Nevills injuries after talking to Julie.
August 8th:
Jeremy provides a witness statement saying he left the rifle in the kitchen without the silencer on.
August 9th:
After visiting the accountant, Jeremy asks Ann Eaton to pay back the loan for the farmland that she is living on. In order to pay death duties.
Ann Eaton visits WHF with DCI and DS Jones. While there she would have seen the blue coat obscuring a certain area of the mantle shelf.
August 10th:
Relatives visit WHF again and collected the silencer and also take back home Sheila's blood stained clothing. David Boutflour does not recall seeing any blood, paint or hair on the silencer while at WHF at this stage.
Ann Eaton contacts Whitam police station about the silencer later that evening.
August 13th:
Stan Jones collects the silencer and gives it to DI Cook.
August 14th:
Ann Eaton alerts DI Cook to the scratch marks under the mantle shelf.
And so, to summarise AE had the means motive and opportunity to contaminate the sound moderator in order to incriminate JB.
At trial Ed Lawson for the defence made reference to the little known phenomenon referred to as draw-back (blood entering the silencer from a contact gunshot wound) by referring to an article by US pathologists Allen and Stephens (1983) who said at the time it was poorly understood.
Also at trial Malcolm Fletcher (HO ballistics) told the court -
457. Mr Fletcher, the firearms expert, gave evidence to explain how blood got into the moderator if it was attached, or into the barrel if there was no moderator attached. He said that the mechanism was complicated and not then fully appreciated. However, the expanding gas when the bullet left the muzzle was under normal circumstances distributed into the atmosphere. However with a contact shot there was no opportunity for this escape and the gas would follow the bullet into the wound as it expanded. Back pressure would then build up forcing the gas back out of the wound taking with it blood and tissue which would in effect be blasted back into the barrel if there was no moderator or into the moderator if one was attached. He said that even without direct contact, the same effect might occur but only if the gap between the end of the barrel, or the moderator if attached, and the skin was less than one millimetre. He said that the likelihood of such an occurrence was to an extent dependent on the part of the body to which the shot was delivered and the amount of blood present at that point.And yet David1819 wants us to believe that Mrs Eaton, a farmer, had the wherewithal to contaminate the silencer with diluted period blood!
