It can be substantiated you idiot! Now you've changed the argument to this! Seriously, you need to see someone!
Hmmm. How can it be substantiated? It is the definition of hearsay.
I haven't changed the argument.
My argument was simply that the large number of missing negatives, added to the fact that negative strips had been cut whilst in EP's possession between 2001 and 2012, and the unwillingness of EP to release those negatives suggests that EP are withholding the pictures because they would contradict the official version of events.
You suggested that the large number of missing negatives was because Bird was just a lowly officer who had randomly been assigned photographic duties and that because there was nobody lower than him and the van driver, this explained the large number of "unusable" photographs.
You then went on to claim that Bird was not a specialist photographer and never referred to as such. When it was pointed out that he was referred to as specialist by COLP you claimed to mean that he had never referred to himself as a specialist. This was also a false claim by you which was established by again consulting the COLP interview that you were quoting from. The court transcript also showed unequivocally that he was a police photographer.
Having had to backtrack from your dubious claims of random assignments, lack of specialism, not done any courses and various other "facts" that you introduced to explain the large number of unusable photographs as each was shown to be false, the final card to play was inexperience, despite having no evidence.
Shouting abuse only shows that you are angry and have no argument. It makes no further point than that. Denying that what CAL says is hearsay is as stupid as denying that Thursday is the day after Wednesday.
My argument is still the same. EP have withheld photos and the cutting of the negative strips suggests nefarious intent. The notion that 40% of all photos taken were unusable due to inexperience/ incompetence is fanciful. There are much more believable scenarios than this to explain the large number of undisclosed negatives.
EP, to my knowledge, have never suggested Bird's inexperience to be a factor in the non disclosure. That's just you advancing specious evidence free hyperbole. In fact EP's explanation so far is that it was standard practice to cut the strips to remove unexposed film which is contradicted by the evidence of Mr. Goss of the Metropolitan police who saw them in 2001 in uncut form.
The explanation given to the CCRC by EP should also be revisited given the new evidence. Claiming that it was standard practice to cut the negative strips is unsustainable now that we know that they were uncut in 2001. EP should be made to explain this misleading statement given to the CCRC.
It should also be clear to the objectively minded that the CCRC are too ready to accept weak explanations from the police when "investigating" discrepancies and inconsistencies in the evidence and are too keen to brush over matters when more digging is appropriate.
The acceptance of the standard practice argument being a case in point. It should not be too much of a challenge to verify that claim rather than just accepting it with no further enquiries. Are negative strips cut up in other cases? Shouldn't be difficult for the CCRC with their powers to find out.
The explanation offered by the CCRC regarding the missing negatives is much worse than this in my view. It is a nonsensical claim that the missing negatives were of no relevance. How can anyone possibly know that? They did concede that the missing negatives which are related to the gun cupboard may be relevant and "of significance to the issues which may affect the safety of the conviction", but that was it.
This is pathetic from an organisation supposedly designed to uncover the sort of malpractice that appears evident here. The CCRC are much criticised, the rate of referrals is extraordinarily low and many believe their role is more gatekeeper than seekers of injustice. It is exactly this kind of practice which encourages this view.
The video does demonstrate that a lot of pertinent information has been discovered and anomalies found. Having watched the video again with a bit more attention paid, the scale of EP's withholding of evidence is shocking even to an old sceptic like me.
Although it should go back to the CoA and JB seems confident of this, I myself am not so sure. Hope I'm wrong.