Obviously, the discovery of this impression upon the surface of the skin in Sheila's neck was something which dampened our spirits toward trying to find the elusive evidence capable of overturning these convictions! However, undeterred, something the trial judge had said in his summing up, and that which was a significant part of the prosecution's case, forged its way to the forefront of my mind - basically put it related to the fact that it had never been proven by the prosecution's case, that the silencer could have been used on the gun when shooting the others, and that Sheila could have put the silencer away in the gun cupboard where additional ammunition for the rifle was normally kept, before turning the gun minus the silencer upon herself! The prosecution's case, however was that only the upper fatal wound site was contact in nature, and therefore this was the all important shot at which her blood had got into the silencer by a process of backspatter! Once that shot was inflicted death would follow immediately with little or no time at all for Sheila to remove the silencer and dispose of it, etc...
Well, according to Mallinson and Smith, there was no circular mark around the upper entry wound site in Sheila's neck, but they concluded that there was a mark around the lower entry wound site, which led them to conclude that the end of the silencer had been impressed against the skin when the non fatal shot was inflicted, but not necessarily when the upper wound had been created!
This got me thinking that if the mark they had identified around the lower wound had been caused by the end of a silencers end cap being thrust into a contact position at the time the non fatal lower shot was inflicted and there was a substantial delay between that first shot and the second shot being inflicted, then it was possible for the silencer to have gotten contaminated with Sheila's blood at the time of the first shot, that the silencer could have been taken off or removed and out away, and that at some time afterwards, Sheila sustained the second fatal upper shot which killed her outright! Hence why there was no silencer on the gun when cops said they had found her!
This would explain how the Bloodstained silencer which had been fitted to the guns barrel, was found opinion the cupboard a few days later by David Boutflour!
