DRH/24 is the piece of wood of which the photograph does not appear to have been shown to the jury.
It appears in a photograph upon which Ralph can be seen.
Hammersley in evidence clearly stated this was not a part of the rifle butt/stock. This was easy to tell as it would not fit. It is described as being found in front of the aga.
David Bird is supposed to have taken the pictures on what was essentially the morning of the 7th august and he says he left whf at 1.15 so it had to be taken prior to Ralphs removal to the mortuary.
This appears on the picture with Ralph on so we can safely rely on David Bird taking this photograph.
In regards to DRH/21 the piece of rifle butt/stock pictured in Photograph 17 ..which we do not appear to have seen on this forum...this was not a photograph taken by David Bird as testified to in oral evidence in court.
So photograph 17 (and also 18 and 19) has no safe provenance. No one seems to admit to taking it and also we are not told when.
If indeed DRH/21 appeared in a David Bird photograph it was not made public or shown to the jury. If it was an obvious item we would have expected him to capture it prior to leaving the kitchen and going upstairs.
CONSIDER YOU ARE A SOC OFFICER gathering important items in a search.
It would be a good idea to get a photograph of any items you find in place. The more seemingly important the item the better. The photographer will be busy and not searching. You as the searcher may be finding items. Prior to collecting an item a check with the photographer to see if it has been photographed would be a simple thing to do. If it was a hidden or obscured item..then its more likely to have been missed in general photography of the scene.
Onto this case...surely Hammersley would call up Bird to check if he had photographed those items he claimed to have picked up in the kitchen. In fact in the relevant photos...the one including the piece of rifle butt he is of the belief it was Bird that took the photograph...if he was there he would know. If he called anyone else to take the photograph he would know who that was so would be able to say.
As Bird does not seem to have photographed this item and no name of who did is given we also have no idea of the date and indeed there may be nothing contained in the photo that defines that it was there on the 7th.
DRH/24 though must have come from something...but what was it?
