Main planks of the innocence stance. Plausible or laughable ?

[Jane]

I would certainly FEAR for the safety of my family if I had a call after 3am and heard that my sister (if I had one) had gone crazy and had hold of a gun. I'd be so scared for their safety, I'd call 999. I wouldn't even think of a call to the boyfriend - mind you, if I had 26 minutes to spare (like Jeremy), I might be able give him a call and fit in a quick online shop!! 

Yes Caroline. Ironic that it seems Freddie has the right to feel afraid for his life but Sheila did nothing to him to warrant it, yet it appears Jeremy is justified in acting with complete disregard for his family's safety whilst Sheila has allegedly gone mad and has hold of a gun.

[Jan]

Sheila didn't go shooting, she didn't like guns and didn't even want her children to have toy guns. She was at boarding school for much of her childhood - she clearly was NOT the hunting, shooting and fishing type!

she did go beating though and guns were around her all her life.

[lookout]

Of course Sheila's illness is the Defence's strongest card and one would expect them to play it for all it is worth. My mind went back to the carving in the chest of drawers of unknown provenance: "I hate this place" in the twins' bedroom at White House Farm,and the extract below from Colin's book:

On one of my first visits to the farm,Bambs was showing me some of her paintings and drawings,which her parents had kept from her schooldays,when one caught my eye as particularly striking. It portrayed three girls wearing long dresses standing on a spiral staircase,another girl at the bottom,kneeling on the floor in dark clothes,looking down and away from the others. Its imagery was both powerful and rather disturbing-not unlike Edward Munch's painting The Scream. When I asked Bambs about it,she told me she had painted it at Moira House when she was eleven years old. The three girls represented the older pupils who were always "really nasty" to her and always made out that they were "so superior and glamorous" and that she was always so "dowdy and pathetic." I told her I thought the painting very moving and advanced for the age at which she did it,and asked if she would let me have it.

I recently turned the picture over and looked at the back of it for the first time. There was a sinister black and white face with bright red lips,which had then been crossed out with two broad daubs of red paint. It is often the case that the aborted attempt at a picture can be even more significant than the one which is presented. The whole thing,which in its entirety is even more reminiscent of The Scream,now seems horribly symbolic.

 So sad Steve. A very disturbed mind in one so young which sadly led to her downfall in her adult life in which she couldn't cope. In her mind she must have been screaming,poor girl.

[Caroline]

she did go beating though and guns were around her all her life.

My partner used to go beating - never fired a gun though.