It's been said this week that the police destroyed evidence in 1996 'several months before new legislation was made making this illegal'.
This future legislation would not have been finalised by the government of the day when the police destroyed evidence. It would then have to go through parliament. The Queen's speeches from 1995 and 1996 do not mention any proposals of legislation regarding this.
Were EP aware of this future possible legislation ? If so how ? Which government minister told them ? It would have to a senior minister that would know that early discussions were taking place on this. But why would someone like Michael Howard tip off EP ? The Bamber case from ten years earlier was nothing to do with him. If discovered it would ruin his career.
If the police were not aware of future legislation, then they were not be panicking and trying to get evidence destroyed before the law came in.
The evidence which another poster said yesterday was destroyed was unlikely to support guilt or innocence to either Bamber or Sheila. If it was, then surely the police would have destroyed it sooner. They had ten years to do this.
Do other people believe that after ten years, the police simply felt it was an appropriate time to destroy evidence. Rather than knowing about future legislation which was 'several months away'.