A post for now ive kept out of , but its worth remembering the rifle had to be moved, to check for signs of life and to confirm death, and to remove the rifle to make the area safe for the funeral staff to carry out their duties.
Which is what the purpose of PS Woodcocks version of events deals with at 11:10am, that morning...
Whereas, police have gone on record at the original trial, (1986) and at the appeal of 2002, that no-one moved or touched anything at all, until after PC Bird finished taking his crime scene photographs, save for DI "Ron" Cook, moving Sheila's hand to allow PC Bird to photographs the bloodied marks on her nightdress.
Now...
Not yet mentioned in any court proceedings, was / is the fact that Cook told the COLP investigators (1991) that he removed the rifle from Sheila's body at some stage in between the two occasions when Bird photographed Sheila's body in the bedroom. Cook told COLP that he removed the rifle from Sheila's body and placed it against the bedroom window as shown in photograph 23. Well, if Cook told the court he only moved Sheila's hand, why did he tell COLP (1991) that he actually removed the rifle from Sheila's body and placed it against the bedroom window at a time when only he and the other three SOCO were present inside the premises? If there was no-one else inside the premises at that stage, how did the rifle get back onto the body to enable PS Woodcock to come along later to remove it from the body again at 11:10am, and make it safe? Furthermore, PI Montgomery told COLP that he removed the rifle from Sheila's body and made it safe, so what we have is "Ron" Cook removing the rifle from Sheila's body and placing it back against the bedroom window where it had originally been spotted by WPC Jeapes before the raid team entered the premises, and there is no explanation for how that rifle got from its original location of leaning (about 7:15am) against the window, onto Sheila's body, in time for Cook to remove it again (after 10am) and place it against the window, or how it managed to get back onto the body again in time for PS Woodcock to remove it again and make it safe at 11:10am?
Whilst on this subject...
It now becomes possible to see where PI Montgomery's account of removing the rifle from Sheila's body fits into the sequence of events, because at 9am, when PS Adams visited the bedroom and saw Sheila's body (before the arrival at the scene of DI Cook who did not arrive there until 9:20am) in the bedroom there was no rifle at all on Sheila's body, so Montgomery must have removed it by that stage...
How then had the rifle got back onto the body of Sheila, once Montgomery had removed it prior to 9am, in time for Cook to remove it by around 10am? Furthermore, how had the rifle managed to get back onto the body once Cook had removed it at around 10am, from the bedroom window, in time for PS Woodcock to be able to remove the rifle and make it safe by 11:10am?
If Woodcock had to make it safe at 11:15am, it suggests that the rifle was not in a safe state when Montgomery (before 9am) and Cook (around 10am) removed the rifle from Sheila's body beforehand? But who kept putting the rifle back on the body, an unsafe rifle at that?
