GUILTY UK - Helen Bailey, 51, Royston, 11 April 2016 #2

[Alyce]

if any help is needed with updates/tweets , I can post them til 12


[video=twitter;823471619502907393]https://twitter.com/CambridgeNewsUK/status/823471619502907393[/video]

Thanks CW, I am around - in and out - but great if you and Milly are putting them up - I am here later to take over if need be.

 

[Alyce]

I know I've posted this before, but loads of thoughts to Helen's mother today and I hope she gives evidence first to get it over with for her x

 

[cottonweaver]

Alyce, yes I am happy to - which other link is better seeing as Milly has gone ahead with tara Cox?

 

[Squamous]

I know I've posted this before, but loads of thoughts to Helen's mother today and I hope she gives evidence first to get it over with for her x

Joining you in this. Poor woman, what an awful year she's had, just when Helen would have been seeking to protect her.

 

[MillyM]

Kate Bradbrook (@katebradbrook) tweeted at 10:24 AM on Mon, Jan 23, 2017:
At St Albans Crown Court waiting for Helen Bailey case to resume. We will hear from the author's mother via video link @BBCLookEast

 

[Alyce]

Alyce, yes I am happy to - which other link is better seeing as Milly has gone ahead with tara Cox?

I think Tara is the only news outlet who is posting those long updates but have a look on twitter as sometimes there is another journo who will post a short tweet which may give us a different snippet of info


eta - I have just posted one up from Kate Bradbrook -BBC Look East - so hopefully she will put up a few more tweets today


further edit - Milly has it covered x

 

[LozDa]

Just wanted to add my thoughts about him being a computer expert... I'm actually not going to go down the route of berating him on this particular description. but there's a reason, I promise!

In terms of the http://sykic.co.uk/ website... Although it looks pretty basic... In terms of coding from scratch, it's pretty modern and moderately complex. The pages are all bootstrapped, so they're responsive (if you resize your browser window, you'll notice all the pages respond and resize automatically - all the pictures on each page do the same thing and a hamburger menu appears when the screen gets particularly narrow, which is what you'll be used to seeing when using a phone or tablet for browsing)

To have a comment section working from scratch code takes a fair bit of coding knowledge (you're talking submission and action scripts).

i.e. something such as:

<!-- begin htmlcommentbox.com -->
 <div id="HCB_comment_box"><a href="http://www.htmlcommentbox.com">HTML Comment Box</a> is loading comments...</div>
 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.htmlcommentbox.com/static/skins/default/skin.css" />
 <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" id="hcb"> /*<!--*/ if(!window.hcb_user){hcb_user={  };} (function(){s=document.createElement("script");s.setAttribute("type","text/javascript");s.setAttribute("src", "http://www.htmlcommentbox.com/jread?page="+escape((window.hcb_user && hcb_user.PAGE)||(""+window.location)).replace("+","%2B")+"&opts=470&num=10");if (typeof s!="undefined") document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(s);})(); /*-->*/ </script>
<!-- end htmlcommentbox.com -->

And in the above, he will have had to have set the action parameters and the script, so although it looks like a plain old page, it's definitely more complex than a static web page that many, many businesses still use.

Aside from this, I think the term 'computer expert' gets a little distorted at times. For example, I've seen many people throughout the thread say he can't be a computer expert because the websites are so basic. However, a computer expert isn't necessarily a coding or html expert, and vice versa. He may have built computers, or dealt with computer security, or software bug-testing. None of those things would mean he had to be an expert at html.

The reason I say all this though is to point out that there may have been many, many incriminating things we will never know about because he's cleared them off the computer(s). When the police say search histories have been cleared, I have no doubt they mean a deep cleanse. Yes, files are left in temporary places, but there are many pieces of software that will wipe over deleted and cleared parts of the drive, making recovery of these things impossible. The average computer-user doesn't know about this software, or how to use it... but someone who has knowledge of computers probably would. Police don't just look at the histories tab and say "Oh, it's all gone"; they have forensic departments dedicated to technologies and computers who would have recovered everything they could.

I don't think he's stupid at all - evil, yes... but not stupid. As people keep saying, if it weren't for the discovery of the tank 3 MONTHS later, he probably would have gotten away with it. He left just enough doubt to get away with it. He's made stupid mistakes, but I don't think he's inherently stupid. I think he's clever enough to get a witty, intelligent, wealthy lady to adore him, whilst he plotted her demise to the incredulousness of all those who knew him. That's not stupid. It's evil.

 

[mrjitty]

Interesting thoughts mrjitty. I agree that it doesn't fit together. I could believe that he didn't mean to kill her but the actions he took with respect to her money suggests he had plenty of ideas for what to do once she was out of the picture.

I found it hard to hear him saying "it would be hard to abuse Helen, she's a strong person, she'd come back at you very strongly". All true, unless she was drugged into a stupor.

I think you are hitting the nail on the head.

He's not the violent abuser type.

But rather a secretive sneak.

The drugging reveals a very nasty exploitative side and who knows what fantasy he was acting out with this control over her.

I suspect that is how she died.

He lost control or went too far. Then in a panic he covered it up.

Disgusting creature.

 

[pinklilies]

She often spoke of him as being witty so I do wonder if he doesn't come across well in text (in stark contrast to Helen). I agree that his chief virtues seem to be in terms of kindness, a willingness to do things for people, being affable etc. Which are lovely attributes, but yes, quite different to Helen who I think was quite a complex character who was anxious and intolerant yet upbeat and a friend to everyone yet only on her own terms, she seemed to also be self-confessedly antisocial in person and confided in very few. I can imagine she might be quite difficult to live with but she was an amazing vivacious person with so much to give.

His words must have come across appealing in text to at least helen, as we know, it was the written text that brought them together.
I don't know how much more she had to confide as her public blog reveals more of her personal thoughts, feelings and emotions than I have ever shared with my closest confidants.
Sounds like I'm picking you're post apart. I'm not, just stressing how we see or interpret things differently.

 

[mrjitty]

Just wanted to add my thoughts about him being a computer expert... I'm actually not going to go down the route of berating him on this particular description. but there's a reason, I promise!

In terms of the http://sykic.co.uk/ website... Although it looks pretty basic... In terms of coding from scratch, it's pretty modern and moderately complex. The pages are all bootstrapped, so they're responsive (if you resize your browser window, you'll notice all the pages respond and resize automatically - all the pictures on each page do the same thing and a hamburger menu appears when the screen gets particularly narrow, which is what you'll be used to seeing when using a phone or tablet for browsing)

To have a comment section working from scratch code takes a fair bit of coding knowledge (you're talking submission and action scripts).

i.e. something such as:

<!-- begin htmlcommentbox.com -->
 <div id="HCB_comment_box"><a href="http://www.htmlcommentbox.com">HTML Comment Box</a> is loading comments...</div>
 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.htmlcommentbox.com/static/skins/default/skin.css" />
 <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" id="hcb"> /*<!--*/ if(!window.hcb_user){hcb_user={  };} (function(){s=document.createElement("script");s.setAttribute("type","text/javascript");s.setAttribute("src", "http://www.htmlcommentbox.com/jread?page="+escape((window.hcb_user && hcb_user.PAGE)||(""+window.location)).replace("+","%2B")+"&opts=470&num=10");if (typeof s!="undefined") document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(s);})(); /*-->*/ </script>
<!-- end htmlcommentbox.com -->

And in the above, he will have had to have set the action parameters and the script, so although it looks like a plain old page, it's definitely more complex than a static web page that many, many businesses still use.

Aside from this, I think the term 'computer expert' gets a little distorted at times. For example, I've seen many people throughout the thread say he can't be a computer expert because the websites are so basic. However, a computer expert isn't necessarily a coding or html expert, and vice versa. He may have built computers, or dealt with computer security, or software bug-testing. None of those things would mean he had to be an expert at html.

The reason I say all this though is to point out that there may have been many, many incriminating things we will never know about because he's cleared them off the computer(s). When the police say search histories have been cleared, I have no doubt they mean a deep cleanse. Yes, files are left in temporary places, but there are many pieces of software that will wipe over deleted and cleared parts of the drive, making recovery of these things impossible. The average computer-user doesn't know about this software, or how to use it... but someone who has knowledge of computers probably would. Police don't just look at the histories tab and say "Oh, it's all gone"; they have forensic departments dedicated to technologies and computers who would have recovered everything they could.

I don't think he's stupid at all - evil, yes... but not stupid. As people keep saying, if it weren't for the discovery of the tank 3 MONTHS later, he probably would have gotten away with it. He left just enough doubt to get away with it. He's made stupid mistakes, but I don't think he's inherently stupid. I think he's clever enough to get a witty, intelligent, wealthy lady to adore him, whilst he plotted her demise to the incredulousness of all those who knew him. That's not stupid. It's evil.

It looks like a wordpress site to me

So all the complexity, bootstrap etc will all be out of the box from the WP core plus the theme

I see he is running Yoast SEO WordPress plugin for example.

Anyone can make this site with zero tech knowledge.

ETA: he is using the free theme https://generatepress.com/

 

[hunkerdown]

I was going to say it looks like a bog standard template...I've created business websites based on templates and they're super simple. To be honest he didn't even make a great job of editing the template...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cottonweaver]

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/560/cpsprodpb/128B6/production/_93585957_mediaitem93585956.jpg

 

[Squamous]

Thanks for that LozDa, I was wondering along similar lines. My husband has computer expertise in understanding how computers are built and work but couldn't build a website (he could learn, obviously). I agree that expertise is a wide thing to judge from a slim strip of evidence.

 

[MillyM]

@LozDa

Saw him described somewhere else as a 'computer software engineer'.

 

[Squamous]

I do think having such appallingly basic looking websites as the public face of his business (and possibly Helen's work) suggests a lack of judgement though.

 

[LozDa]

It looks like a wordpress site to me

So all the complexity, bootstrap etc will all be out of the box from the WP core plus the theme

I see he is running Yoast SEO WordPress plugin for example.

Anyone can make this site with zero tech knowledge.

Then why all the testing? And the 'my handsome man is building this' stuff? Wordpress is already set up as a blog...........

Wordpress can be the backend, but you can still code it from scratch. For example, there are template Joomla sites, but we have a coded-from-scratch website that uses Joomla framework.

Yoast is just an SEO plugin - you can have that on any site that isn't Wordpress.

But... my point still stands. Even if he's using a template and is awful at website creation, it doesn't mean he's not a computer expert in another area and probably knows his way around clearing temporary and tracking files on a computer. Hence the lack of any information found on any of the multiple devices.

 

[cottonweaver]

So if he killed her in a panic as per post above ^ that means he killed the dog afterwards.

 

[mrjitty]

I do think having such appallingly basic looking websites as the public face of his business (and possibly Helen's work) suggests a lack of judgement though.

My guess is he doesn't have the css knowledge to customise the Wordpress theme, nor the graphic design skills to make it look decent within the theme.

It looks like the theme was installed with dummy content, menus set up and then not completed.

Any kid could create this on 123.reg for £2.99

 

[cottonweaver]

I do think having such appallingly basic looking websites as the public face of his business (and possibly Helen's work) suggests a lack of judgement though.

Helen will have known from professional experience and from SM browsing, that his attempt was pants

 

[MillyM]

"@katebradbrook: #helenbailey case yet to resume. Technical problems with video link are being blamed @BBCLookEast"