Seeking the whole truth will always be a painful process
Peter Rhodes writes: Let us suppose that the defending barrister in the Milly Dowler murder trial had been forbidden by the judge from questioning her relatives to establish that she was a sad little girl who might have run away from home, on the grounds that such questioning would deeply distress the family.
Peter Rhodes writes: Let us suppose that the defending barrister in the Milly Dowler murder trial had been forbidden by the judge from questioning her relatives to establish that she was a sad little girl who might have run away from home, on the grounds that such questioning would deeply distress the family.
If Levi Bellfield had been convicted, his defence team would have gone straight to the Appeal Court to point out that this evidence had been withheld from the jury.
The Appeal judges would probably have quashed the conviction as "unsafe and unsound" and the Dowler family would have been utterly heartbroken.
A murder trial is a ruthless hunt for the whole truth and you cannot ban part of that hunt to spare the feelings of anyone.
Cops and politicians talk glibly about making a kinder system but they must know in their hearts it cannot happen.
