Disordered Minds

2.     He did so as a direct result of being bullied by Trent, Hurst and Hopkinson.

3.     Wynne Stamp could have helped her son's defense by citing the gang.

Category 4 (statements that we both believe to be false)

1.     Trent did not know Cill Trevelyan-he did.

2.     Louise Burton did not know the names of the rapists-she did.

3.     She did not identify them because they weren't involved-they were.

4.     Trent has not seen Hurst or Hopkinson since they were youngsters-he has.

5.     His ex-wife knows nothing about Cill's disappearance or Grace's murder-she does.

I should stress that our conclusions may be wrong-deciphering content and tone of voice is not an exact science by any stretch of the imagination (!)-nevertheless, Trent's responses were interesting. My colleague was impressed by the way he dealt with questions about himself, his gang and Howard Stamp, less impressed by his answers about Cill Trevelyan. As you will see from Category 4 above, most of the 'lies' are associated with Cill and the rape.

Despite this, my colleague made the point that Trent was prepared for questions about Cill, viz. his calm response after you and I accused him of it. 'It's true that I was taken in for questioning...' etc. This suggests he knew we'd found out about it. Yet only two people were aware of that-William Burton and Miss Brett. It is highly unlikely that Miss Brett reported the fact to Roy Trent or anyone who knew him, but quite probable that William Burton passed it on, either directly to Trent or to Priscilla Fletcher.

Had our accusation come out of the blue, my colleague believes Trent would have postured and protested rather more strongly while he tried to collect his thoughts. In addition, he employed some fairly aggressive diversionary tactics at the beginning in order to prevent us asking anything at all. Since he seemed fairly comfortable talking about Howard, it was questions about Cill Trevelyan and/or Priscilla Fletcher that he wanted to avoid.

Of particular notice is that he shifts the conversation very quickly to Howard-where he feels on stronger ground-and only becomes comfortable talking about Cill when he knows Priscilla Fletcher has left the building. In light of what's on the tape and also Trent's attempts to keep you away from the Cill Trevelyan story, it seems reasonable to make the following assumptions:

1.     William Burton repeated details of your conversation with him.

2.     Priscilla Fletcher knew Cill Trevelyan well enough to copy her look.

3.     Trent does not want us to talk to Priscilla.

I am left with the conviction that Trent was not involved in any way with Grace's murder-and genuinely believes that Howard was guilty. However, I have an equal conviction that he (a) raped Cill; and (b) knows what happened to her. If those conclusions are right, then Priscilla Fletcher was party to the crime(s), and my best guess at the moment-whatever Miss Brett may have said to the contrary-is that Priscilla Fletcher is Louise Burton, that William Burton knows it and that he almost certainly alerted his sister to your interest in the story.

Where that leaves us on Howard, I don't know. I won't abandon his 'miscarriage of justice' lightly, but I am concerned about the 'slashing and stabbing' incident described by Trent. When I wrote Howard's chapter in Disordered Minds, there was nothing to suggest a history of 'manic' behavior against others. But if the episode happened-and we find proof of it through hospital records/Hurst/Hopkinson and/or their families/neighbors-then we will have to rethink. It indicates that Howard had a breaking point, was ready to ignore injury to himself and had a knife. You can't blame him-he had a miserable existence-but it makes our job harder.

For the moment I suggest we concentrate on bearding William Burton in his den and attempt through him to gain access to Priscilla Fletcher. I'm afraid it may turn out that the two stories are unconnected, as the police decided at the time, but we need to establish this for our own satisfaction.

Best wishes, Jon

P.S. Am sending a copy of the tape by snail mail.

From: George Gardener [[email protected]]

Sent: Sun. 5/4/03 14:29

To: [email protected]

Cc: Andrew Spicer

Subject: Conclusions

Oh dear! Snail mail delivered, and I do rather agree with you. It's so disappointing. I set such high hopes on Louise Burton or Colley Hurst and it's wretched to have them dashed. If you remember, I was depressed on the way to the station because, even while Roy was speaking, I thought what he said about Howard and his gang sounded like the truth. I was especially struck by Roy's references to 'suicidal tendencies' and 'shit lives,' both of which are well documented in literature about alienated youth.

I shall email some possible dates tomorrow, but at the moment I'm questioning the sense of wasting anymore time on Cill or Louise. I fear it's what you said at the beginning-coincidences are seductive-and if the police didn't make a link in 1970, then it's doubtful there was one.

Best, George

P.S. What happened with Emma's father?

From: Andrew Spicer [[email protected]]

Sent: Mon. 5/5/03 10:46

To: [email protected]; [email protected]

Subject: Earning advances

Dear both,

I am in the middle of negotiating a delicate-but healthy-deal which is based on a presumption of Howard Stamp's innocence. While I have listened to a copy of the tape and also been mildly entertained by your hand- wringing emails on the subject of whether or not Roy Trent was telling the truth about his revoltingly unpleasant behavior as an adolescent, may I remind you that the object of the exercise is to make him tell you everything he remembers about the Stamp family.