'ACOUSTICS'...
That is the way forward...
The walls between this type of cells is sometimes two to three feet thick - Depending upon the location of the informants cell, lets say Michael Stone was in the cell to the informants right, and depending upon which floor the informants cell and Michael Stones cell were situated, it would be impossible for the informant to tell in which direction anyone talking came from, in the instant case, without knowing the actual layout of the cells where the confession was supposedly overheard, and whether or not, not only was there a cell either side of the informants cell, but perhaps even a cell directly above, and directly below, and adjoining cells either side of those other cells...
I have been in Wormwood Scrubs when I had my appeal, I have been in Strangeways prison when the Manchester police investigated my complaints against South Yorkshire police, I have been at Wellford Road, Leicester Prison on remand, many years ago, in connection with a £25,000 theft of silverware the burgalry of a retired judges house, I have been held at HMP Armley in Leeds, I have been detained at Hull Prison, and I can tell you thaat the walls between cells are very thick, sometimes as much as three feet in thickness between each cell, thats left, right, up and down. There's no way that you can tell which direction a person who might be talking to you is located, other than if what is being said is accompanied by a tapping on the pipes, or a banging on the wall, (all pre-arranged), The density of the cell walls, floors and ceilings, distort sound and you can sometimes even hear things being spoken about by someone who might even be on another landing many cells away from where your being detained! You can't easily get direction because of the unusual design features of these very old cells...
'ACOUSTICS'...
At the very least when the trial judge and the jury visited the prison to see if they could have heard the supposed confession, as I understand it, was prejudicial in favour of guilt because they only had someone in one of the cells next to the cell the judge and jury entered. There should have been at least two different people, reciting whatever it was they got them to say, in a cell either side of the one where judge and jury were being entertained. If there were landings above, and below, there should really ought to have been people in numerous cells all reciting in turn, and so the judge and the jury could fully understand the acoustic properties involved.
I would like to bet, that if the judge and the jury had not been told which cell the reciter was present in, a pound to a penny, they wouldn't have a clue which direction, the talking, or the reciting, was coming from?
There are other factors, also...
What time of day or night did this confession evidence supposedly get told?
