Still Missing UK - Bernadette Walker, 17, left parent's car, Peterborough, 21 July 2020 *Arrests* #4

[Tanzanite]

MIdge28, court is resuming at 10:30am tomorrow. If you're up for walking 12 minutes, I parked all day for free on Cheddars Lane. I also noticed that Logan's Way, the same distance away, is unrestricted parking. Head spinning is an understatement. Mind blown. Still not home. Will report later.

Well, that's me on pins <pushes work aside, pours glass of wine>

Big thank you for taking the time, and in advance of you reporting in!

 

[Mandalas]

I know I'm lurking more than contributing, partly owing to lack of time (work, kids, house project) and partly for having little of merit to contribute, but just wanted to chip in with my thanks to @helenvic and @MIdge28 for their incredible efforts and commitment to WS and this case by driving all that distance to the court and sitting through it all.

 

[SaintMoore]

*reloads page every 2 minutes*

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

I feel very suspicious about how genuine that breakdown actually was. Sympathy vote or to avoid questions he did not like answering.

Or is the truth finally hitting him?

 

[SuperStarSleuth]

Keeping my fingers crossed he caves!! Be so good for the rest of the family to have answers

 

[Ayashley]

I was in court today. I'm not home yet. I will report back later. In the meantime, could you let me know what I am not allowed to say? I know I cannot mention children's names. But is there anything else that I can't share?

MIdge28, I'll add that court ended 2:05pm today because ScW broke down. He was in such a bad state that the judge wouldn't let him continue (even though he wanted to). So, if Scott is still in such a bad way tomorrow, court might possibly not resume?? Maybe ring and check as soon as you can?

Absolutely AMAZING the both of you! Can't wait to hear your insight. Hoping someone with better knowledge knows for sure, but I think you are able to get verified and then you can state anything without proof and we are allowed to take it as fact.

 

[SaintMoore]

I reckon he's gonna share where she's buried pretty soon

 

[Ayashley]

I reckon he's gonna share where she's buried pretty soon

I agree, I've had a feeling once they knew they were in for good they would give up her location.

 

[Bethan]

In case no one else has - I just want to correct this because people who are fortunate enough to never find themselves in a world of disability might read that and take it as fact -

You do NOT get a 'free car'

IF you meet the requirements - you can get a mobility car which you don't get to just go out and choose any you like - it is specific mobility dealers and specific cars - that car is then paid for every month with the mobility element of your disability benefit (PIP/DLA) - so very much NOT free - and that car can be taken from you at any given moment if there are changes to your health or PIP/DLA payments - it's not yours to keep, you are 'just' hiring it.

Added to that - if the vehicle needs adaptions - for example, my daughter suffered a Stroke at 13 & needs adaptions to the foot pedals and one handed steering/operation - you have to pay for those - they're not free either!

Just catching up tonight so I’m a bit behind, but wanted to say Thank You Mrazda71 for sharing your daughter’s experience of mobility vehicles & explaining clearly how the system works.

 

[Ruthbullock]

I feel very suspicious about how genuine that breakdown actually was. Sympathy vote or to avoid questions he did not like answering.

I’m still on the fence

 

[Bethan]

I know I'm lurking more than contributing, partly owing to lack of time (work, kids, house project) and partly for having little of merit to contribute, but just wanted to chip in with my thanks to @helenvic and @MIdge28 for their incredible efforts and commitment to WS and this case by driving all that distance to the court and sitting through it all.

I’ll second that! Thanks so much Midge & Helenvic for making the effort to attend court!

 

[Invisibletotheeye]

Thanks so much to Helenvic and MIdge28 for your amazing dedication. Really means a lot to know people who actually care about the story of BW are there.

Interesting that ScW broke down. I wonder what triggered that. Wonder if it is finally hitting him that there isn't an escape, and that he isn't going to be able to keep up the 'no comment' approach and convince a jury of his innocence.

I too hope that he's had a reality check and will reveal what has happened to BW. Although, as someone said a while back, perhaps he won't ever give up her location, as it may be that finding the body will lead to further incriminating evidence against him.

Really appreciate the input of new info, given the lack of media coverage- thanks!

 

[SaintMoore]

If its obvious he's guilty then all he has left is to appeal to people's emotions for pity.

 

[Invisibletotheeye]

If its obvious he's guilty then all he has left is to appeal to people's emotions for pity.

Very true..

 

[helenvic]

I remember reading somewhere that it is permitted to take notes in court. But I can't find that reference now! In any case, I was not at any point told today that I couldn't take notes or share them.

So ... today in court was a continuation of ScW being cross-examined by the prosecution. I now understand why so little new information is being reported. Today only one point was brought up that I hadn't already read about. Otherwise, it was all the same information (about phones and messages and locations and social media, etc.) over and over again. The hearing was all about how ScW responded to the same old information under cross-examination.
The one new piece of information might not have been reported because it might involve a minor (whom I won't name). The prosecutor asked ScW whether the purpose of the trip out to Cowbit was because BW had a friend who lived in the Spalding area and they wanted to make it look like BW had run off to stay with that friend. ScW denied this.



SESSION 1: 10:05am - 11:13am

ScW was led into the court. He was limping in a pronounced manner. One might wonder whether it was exaggerated or entirely put on? His manner on the stand seemed gentle and compliant.

The prosecutor suggested to ScW that he knew full well the power of phone data in a police investigation and that he had deliberately set up a false trail. ScW was struggling to answer the question, claiming he knew little before the investigation, but knows more now.

He was asked if he drove Bernadette from her grandparents' house out of Peterborough to kill her. He kept saying “No.” The prosecutor said that 1 hour and 20 minutes is a long time for his phone to be switched off--long enough to drive out to the Fens and back.

The jurors and ScW were shown onscreen maps of the route ScW was driving according to available phone data timings. He had to admit that this showed that he drove to the Fens. The prosecutor said, “Do you understand, Mr. Walker, that you have never said this before?”

ScW then claimed that he drove out to the Fens with BW and ended up at Skaters Way (where she allegedly jumped out). The prosecutor said, “Mr. Walker, this telephone evidence shows completely--completely--that you were not on Skaters Way.”

ScW turned his phone back on at 12:54pm--some time after he claimed that BW had jumped out of the car. The prosecutor asked whether it had not occurred to him beforehand to ring BW's mother and let her know that her daughter had run off. ScW admitted that it hadn’t occurred to him.

ScW said that he could have been doing anything in that hour and 20 minutes. ... The prosecutor replied, “Exactly so, Mr. Walker. Exactly so.”

When asked about the buying of top-up for BW's phone, ScW admitted to buying time by sending messages as BW so that the police and the social services wouldn’t be involved. The prosecutor pointed out that his sending false messages from BW's phone wouldn’t stop her from making allegations of sexual abuse. She suggested that the purpose had been to give him time to work out what he was going to do with her body and to work out his explanation.

ScW said he went along with SaW’s false text messaging, but he didn’t plan it.

After much questioning about the laying of a false trail via text messages from BW's phone, ScW lost his composure a little, telling the prosecutor, “You’re huffing and puffing ...” He was becoming visibly stressed. So, the judge called a break 11:13am.



SESSION 2: 11:45am - 12:43pm

The prosecutor said, “Bernadette’s phone was a very, very useful tool, wasn’t it?”
“Not useful to me, no.” ScW added that SaW knew what to do with the phone; he wouldn’t have known where to start.

Becoming stressed again, ScW said to the prosecutor, “I’ve had it all my life that everyone thinks I’m stupid. And you’re making those faces at me.”
The prosecutor replied that she was just patiently asking him questions.

Becoming flustered:
“Did you leave Bernadette’s phone at the lock-up?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“You’re the one with all the tech data.”

Re. the late night /early morning (Monday 20 July) trip to Cowbit, the prosecutor suggested they turned off their phones to conceal their trip. ScW said they turned them off to charge them (even though only one could be charged at a time). He added that if they were trying to make it look like they weren’t on that trip, they wouldn’t have taken their phones at all.

This was where the prosecutor said that they were trying to make it look like BW had run off to stay with her friend in the Spalding area.

The prosecutor was suggesting that this trip was to get rid of BW's phone. She further suggested that SaW happened to have the idea that as they were out that way anyway, why don’t they send some messages from BW's phone? ... ScW agreed this was the case--to which the prosecutor replied, “Are you making this up as you go along, Mr. Walker?”

The prosecutor said the messaging around Cowbit was to try and push away the people who loved and cared about BW (her supposedly telling friends to ‘leave me alone') before they discarded BW's phone. ScW claimed he wasn't in control of the phone; that this was all SaW. ScW claimed he didn’t recall where the phone went missing. And he never asked SaW about it? “No.”

“Mr. Walker, the most cunning use of your phone [...] was the night you dealt with Bernadette’s body.”

This exchange sounded like a proper slip-up:
“Did you leave her where you killed her, Mr. Walker?”
“Sorry?”
“Did you leave her where you killed her, Mr. Walker?”
“No. ... Two questions again.”

2:47am to 3am he was at the lock-up. Why? ... He said he tends to work when SaW and the kids are asleep. “My time.”
“Or did you go to get tools to bury Bernadette’s body?”
“No.”
“And then you drove to Uldale way.” The prosecutor pointed out that it's a residential area, with nothing at all but houses, on the edge of town. “Why were you in a residential housing estate at 3 o’clock in the morning?”
ScW answered that there was no specific reason. He'd looked at the racing pages in the newspaper and then fallen asleep.

The prosecutor asked ScW whether he knew, when SaW was reporting BW missing, that SaW was going to tell the police about messages they’d supposedly received from BW, indicating that she was alive and well. She had to ask him this question three times. ScW said he was lost, that the question was too long. After the judge repeated the question, ScW admitted that he had known after the event that SaW had lied to the police.

At this point, ScW said that this prosecution process is a lie, that he needs to speak to his legal team. He asked how it would look if he left the stand. The judge told him that we should take a break now. ScW was repeating that he needed advice. The judge was repeating that he cannot talk to anyone in the middle of giving evidence. ScW said he didn’t know who to turn to.

The judge ended the session early, 12:43pm. Scott sat down, looking nervous and stressed.



SESSION 3: 2:05pm - 2:26pm

ScW was crying in the stand. He said he was OK to continue. The judge disagreed. She told him to sit down. He was crying, shaking, muttering, and incoherently trying to say that he had remembered things to help his defence. One of the lawyers said that ScW was clearly close to an emotional breakdown and needed to be taken back to the dock.

I have to say, the breakdown looked completely genuine to me--especially after he had made such a poor job of defending himself.

After ScW was led out, the judge asked the prosecutor whether she would be able to finish tomorrow. She assured the judge that she would, “even if I have to cut out swathes.” This comment suggested to me that the prosecutor thought that ScW had done a good enough job of incriminating himself, so she wouldn't need to use all her material.

 

[Crazysaz]

Oh my. So interesting to read your account as opposed to something you read. Thank you so very much for this.
By sounds of things ScW wasn’t overly intelligent perhaps? Maybe Sarah the same? And a very basic plan of ‘BW tells on abuse then we lose kids, we lose everything’. Sounds so silly but a very simple panicked plan in MOO
? What was your opinion of actually seeing him?

 

[Skigh]

Thank you so very much for such a clear and detailed report. You could probably sell it to the daily papers since they have no reporters in court.

 

[Rosegold68]

so he broke down......wonder if the same happened during police questioning

he needs to talk to someone, might get him to say where B is

 

[Alyce]

Thank you so much @helenvic , your report is way better than anything the media provide, much appreciated

 

[Little Nicki]

This is one of the main reasons I've stuck around on this site after joining to follow the Libby Squire murder which happened where I live. Even in that particular case too, there were fellow websluthers ready to go above and beyond to help find these missing people. Whether it be putting together maps and timelines, literal boots on the ground searching or like today, visiting court so we are able to find out so much more information that we have got from any of the msm during this whole sad story.

So thank you to each and every one of you who goes out of their way to do so much for the missing person, but also for us all here at WS. I appreciate you all <3