UK - Constable arrested in murder of Claire Parry, 41, near Bournemouth; she died 10 May 2020

[Tortoise]

2:06pm

"My learned friend's approach, it seems, was to say to you not to worry about the details of the case, you may think it focussed more on the equation that Timothy Brehmer lied about the affair, ergo he can't be trusted, ergo he is a murderer."

2:08pm

"What are the three different scenarios. The first was of course Timothy Brehmer's interview. Then there was the prosecution's scenario relying on Mr Stentiford's evidence, then there was the suggestion Tim Brehmer killed Mrs Parry after the text was sent and acting in a deliberate manner, causing the wound to his arm and moving the body to create the scene the Bartlett's found."

2:10pm

"May we deal first with Scott Stentiford's evidence. You know that both at the scene to the ambulance crew, to the medical staff when his injury was being treated, to the police at the scene and throughout is two interviews, and in his evidence to you, Timothy Brehmer has consistently said the struggle was because he was trying to get her out of the car."

2:11pm

"And yet, despite that consistency of account on May 9, May 10, May 11, to ambulance crew, medical staff and police that he was trying to get her out the car, the Crown say on July 3, in an unguarded moment he told a young trainee prison officer a partial truth."

2:11pm

"A partial truth, rather than saying he was getting her out the car, he was trying to keep her in the car to stop her telling his wife, that's what he said."

2:12pm

"There's no dispute that Timothy Brehmer spoke to Scott Stentiford, no dispute he spoke about himself and his work. No dispute he told Scott Stentiford that he hadn't intended to hurt her."

2:13pm

"What Timothy Brehmer denies is that he ever told Scott Stentiford anything other than what he has always said."

2:15pm

"There are, we suggest, so many reasons why you should quite frankly ignore Scott Stentiford's evidence.

"We aren't suggesting that Scott Stentiford has deliberately and maliciously lied. We don't think it's as black and white as that. What we are suggesting is he had taken that conversation, and whatever he though was being said, he has taken things out of context, made assumptions and added embellishments."

2:17pm

"He has just got it wrong.

"Scott Stentiford didn't make his notes as soon as reasonably practical. He made his notes four days later, when he had no doubt been meeting and dealing with other prisoners."

2:20pm

"Scott Stentiford was wrong infront of you, he said Timothy Brehmer had demonstrated with his left arm crooked around his elbow.

"He was, he said, 100 per cent certain that when Timothy Brehmer gave this demonstration, he had used his left arm."

Ms Martin said when Mr Stentiford was told DC Singleton wrote "right arm" in his statement, the prison officer was "still 100 per cent" he used his left arm.

2:21pm

"Mr Stentiford's evidence, not only was he not consistent, what he says Timothy Brehmer told him just doesn't make sense.

"Why would he say he was trying to keep Mrs Parry in the car to stop her telling his wife. Why would he say that when we know, Mr Brehmer knew, she had already sent the message to Martha."

2:22pm

"My learned friend suggested that maybe what Mrs Parry did was she was going to see Martha, that wasn't Scott Stentiford's evidence."

2:25pm

"There is a more fundamental reason why you should be very, very cautious of Scott Stentiford's evidence.

"On the Crown's case, Timothy Brehmeer has created a successful story of wanting to get Claire Parry out the car, and he kept up this charade throughout his long and intensive interviews. Why would this deceiptful, practised liar, tell a trainee prisoner a partial truth? Something he had never spoken of before, something completely different, it makes absolutely no sense, Scott Stentiford has just got it wrong."

LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

2:27pm

"The evidence of Matthew Rowe (crime scene investigator), he said he hadn't found any blood. In cross-examination, Matthew Rowe fairly accepted the things that disturbed the scene, all that trampling, there was the clear potential for blood or other signs to get lost."

2:29pm

"You cannot draw any inference around the lack of blood, it would be a gross distortion of the evidence."

2:32pm

"The absence of blood tells you nothing. What about the presence of blood, and the presence of fingerprints?

"How does the blood that we see get onto her shoe that was found in the passenger footwell? My learned friend said this was by Mrs Parry fighting for her life and getting her feet up to where Mr Brehmer's left arm is, you need to think about that, you may think that's quite hard to visualise."

2:33pm

"How did the blood drips get onto the passenger door sill, how did Claire Parry's fingerprint appear on the driver's sill in a downward position as we know it was?"

2:34pm

"On the Crown's version, you have to find that Timothy Brehmer has lied, and lied and lied again, not just the big things on whether the struggle was to get her out or keep her in, but also the small things.

"But you have to ignore, on the Crown's version, some of the evidence at the scene.

"We say you can dismiss Mr Stentiford's evidence, you cannot be sure it is plausible."

LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

2:36pm

Ms Martin said Mr Wheelhouse, the forensic scientist, was asked on October 2 to consider the scenario that Brehmer killed Claire Parry, then self-harmed "whilst" moving her unconscious body.

2:38pm

"To make you sure, on this scenario, the Crown's evidence has to be strong and you would expect a proper analysis of the evidence.

"When I came to cross-examine Mr Wheelhouse we had a general version of this scenario. I asked how it would explain the blood in the footwell, the blood on the bottom of her jeans, how the blood with the ribbed pattern associated with the seat be on her cardigan, how it would explain for the clotted blood on her.

"Mr Wheelhouse accepted the scenario couldn't readily explain the evidence he had seen."

2:43pm

Ms Martin said Dr Jeffery told the court Mrs Parry's bruises were "much more in keeping with a struggle before the compression of the neck".


LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

2:45pm

"We get the scenario that the prosecution seem unwilling to suggest to you, we would say because it doesn't fit the evidence, of Mrs Parry sending the text to Martha, she then tries to get out the car, Mr Brehmer then tries keeping her in the car, first by the trousers then by the neck, what would have happened when Mr Brehmer put his arm around her neck, imagine it.

"In this scenario, her hands are free. We don't have scratch marks on her neck trying to get her off."

2:47pm

"Could that version account for the bruising on her right hand side, could it account for the bruisng on her right arm.

"And there wouldn't be any blood at this stage, this is a scenario to throw mud to say Timothy Brehmer is lying."

2:49pm

"In this scenario, blood would have to be distributed after the compression of the neck.

"What are the Crown saying? They are suggesting he hatched a plan, it's very easy to dismiss the character references of Mr Brehmer, Timothy Brehmer hasn't gone to the car park on anybody's case to cold-bloodedly kill mrs Parry, they say he did it in rage."


LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

2:53pm

"My learned friend suggests to you to speculat he (moved to body) to put her back in her car and drive off. So how, on the Crown's case, did he get her half out the car? Not by pushing from the passenger side, so that means he must have been pulling from the driver's seat.

"It can't, can it, explain the blood on the bottom of her trousers. That scenario just doesn't work. It doesn't explain on the passenger sill, the blood drip on the passenger window, and it doesn't explain Claire Parry's fingerprint pointing downwards on the driver's side sill."

2:55pm

"Members of the jury, we accept that the Crown are entitle to look criticall at Mr Brehmer's version of events. Defendants do indeed, some might say often, minimise what happened.

"What we find and you may find that there's a challenge here by the lack of detail from the Crown. The Crown haven't looked at the detail of the physical evidence that is available to you."

LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

2:57pm

"Let us, do what the Crown didn't, and critically examine Timothy Brehmer's evidence. Let's test the physical evidence.

"The prosecution say 'don't be fooled' by him because they say he is a pracctised liar. Well who has he lied to, certainly he's lied to Martha."

2:59pm

"Other people he's lied by omission, he's left things out.

"He didn't lie to Claire, he didn't tell her about his relationship with Mrs Rhodes but his relationship with Claire was very on and off, did he lie about that?
"And yes he was deceiptful to Andrew Parry on the phone, scripted as you know."

3:00pm

"Is he a practised liar, can you never trust anything that comes out his mouth?

"Or do you think he was trying to tell the truth throughout? Especially to police.

"I'm not sure if you can imagine being cross-examined by Mr Smith, what you saw was Mr Brehmer being tested."


LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

3:01pm

"Let's look at what he said. Timothy Brehmer gave all this information to police before they had a chance to investigate."

3:03pm

"May 6 then, Timothy Brehmer told police he had gone to Mrs Parry's address and they had sex. He didn't have to tell police that he chose to do that, the police checked it out and phone masts confirmed."



LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

my comment - why would he lie about where he was when he knew police could check where his phone had been? no reason to hide it once he knew the affair was discovered.

 

[Tortoise]

3:04pm

"The evidence supports that he had no idea what was about to come, he has told the truth about that."

3:07pm

"That compartment he, and I'm sure Mrs Parry, they were both consenting adults having an affair, had put that affair, was being flung open."

3:10pm

"Why is Claire Parry so angry? Well it would seem her life was crashing down around her. Her compartments were being broken down. On May 7 her and Andrew Parry and gone to the last counselling, they were only living together because of the lockdown."

3:11pm

"She asked if that was the end of their marriage and Andrew Parry effectively said yes.

"Claire Parry didn't want to split up with Andrew Parry, and that night on May 8 as they seemed to have a reasonable day, she asked him to sleep with her in the same bed, but he said no."

3:13pm

"Both Andrew Parry and Timothy Brehmer describe Claire Parry as a lovely woman, but also, perhaps like all of us, scared of failure.

"Her extreme emotional response on May 7, you may think, was because in her mind, her world was falling apart.

"She was lashing out wherever she could, trying to blame somebody other than herself for what was going wrong in her life and it seemed she made the decision to take Timothy Brehmer down with her."

3:14pm

"And that all fits what Timothy Brehmer said, doesn't it? You can imagine what the Crown would have said if they didn't get hold of those Facebook messages."


LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

3:16pm

"Back to what Timothy Brehmer said in his interview, he said he hadn't slept, he told you his head was at this stage 'like a hurricane', because of this bombardment from Claire Parry.

"He wanted, he says, to tell Martha but he was too cowardly. And the lack of sleep, bombardment from Claire, the realisation he wasn't going to have his cake and eat it anymore, he wasn't thinking straight at all."

3:18pm

"Both Timothy Brehmer, and Claire Parry you may think, were both descending in those three days into emotional chaos. That must be when you've held a secret for so long from people you love. It must eat away at you, keeping that secret.

"What happens when your whole sense of who you are explodes? How do you react?"



LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

3:19pm

"After that call on the morning on May 9 Tim Brehmer went to bed, the messages continued. He couldn't sleep, his head was whizzing. He told police Claire Parry told him to meet, he then told the police in painstaking detail what happened that day."

3:20pm

"He was simply trying to explain in those interviews, what was going on in his head. He tried to rationalise, irrational behaviour."

LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

3:26pm

"I don't know, members of the jury, if you or anyone you know has every been in a state of emotion turmoil, you can't quit thinking irrationally.

"His desire to tell Martha, but he didn't, his desire not to hurt Martha, his desire to give himself time but then going to drop off a paper at a neighbour's.

"He had a sound intention to kill himself, he didn't think ahead to an FLO turning up at Martha's door."

3:30pm

"I urge upon you, members of the jury, to look at his interviews with care. To look at what he actually said.

"There's no doubt, is there, there was conversation going on throughout that time (in the car)?

"Would the Crown have believed what he was saying? No, I don't suppose they would."

3:32pm

"Timothy Brehmer says that prior to the text going at 3.02pm, when he put his phone on Airplane Mode, he stabbed himself to his left arm. Whenever he did it, you may think it was a pretty frantic thing to do.

"He said it was to see if Mrs Parry still cared for him. The fact he was bleeding was not going to stop Claire Parry wanting to be in that car, and in the mood she was in, she was content to struggle with a man who was bleeding."

3:35pm

"By the morning of May 10, Timothy Brehmer said what is now accepted by everybody, as being the truth.

"And yet, because in panic, confusion, desperation, he told what is said to be a lie immediately (after the incident) you can disregard everything he's said, (the Crown says)."

3:36pm

"What is the Crown's case on the resetting of the phone, what do they suggest was the purpose? They are silent on that, they are silent as to the time and silent as to the reason why."

3:37pm

Ms Martin said Brehmer's explanation for it is with his head "a whirl" and phones going back and forward, he reset his phone because he just wanted to go.

3:38pm

"Claire Parry's response to him stabbing himself? She was scornful, she didn't act as a nurse just as he didn't act as a police officer.

"It's a uniform, they're not always that person."

3:40pm

The court is now breaking for 15 minutes.

LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

None of this has anything to do with what he did to her.

 

[Tortoise]

"He reset his phone because he just wanted to go"

What sort of an explanation is that?

He reset his phone to hide his communications and whatever else was on it more like. IMO.

 

[Tortoise]

3:59pm

She said the jury can't put any weight on Elizabeth Morris' evidence that she heard shouting because "she doesn't know what she heard".



LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

Probably not advisable to tell a jury what they can do, IMO.

 

[Tortoise]

4:01pm

"Brehmer told you, in his head, he just needed to go, whether to commit suicide or to find space, he was in pain, he was bleeding.

"He told you Claire Parry had send to him he can't go he must wait until 3.55pm.

"It's consistent with how Claire Parry was acting, consistent with the fact she was working at 4pm and consistent with his version of events that he wanted to go, and consistent that she wasn't letting him to go."

4:02pm

"He was bleeding and was in pain and the person whom he had shared over the last ten years a good relationship with, whom he'd had fun with, had gone from someone who wanted to be with him to someone who seemed to hate him."

4:03pm

"What it means, that his desire to get Claire out the car, the desire to be alone, makes sense. He wanted her to get out the car so he could either commit suicide, or be alone."


LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

4:04pm

"And so, eventually, when she wouldn't get out, he got out the driver's side, went round the front of the car. The absence of blood is not evidence that he didn't do that. He opened the door of the passenger side.

"Why, Mr Smith asked, didn't she lock the door? Mr Brehmer didn't know, if he was to say, that would be guessing."

4:05pm

"Going round to that side he left blood on the passenger door, he left blood on the sill, fits with the physical evidence, doesn't it?

"That evidence is consistent with what he said happened."

4:10pm

"He was so desperate to get her out because he wanted to go, and she didn't want to go. So desperate he got into that little car that you have seen, tried to push her out the car.

"Members of the jury, what he described we hope, you have an advantage of Dr Jeffery, you have heard the interviews, you have heard him give his evidence, you have seen the car itself, you have heard the other evidence about the blood, you have the advantages that Dr Jeffery didn't have."

4:11pm

"The physical evidence is completely consistent with his version of events."

4:13pm

Ms Martin said Brehmer telling police Mrs Parry was in the press up position matches the evidence of the finger print in the door sill.

LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

4:16pm

"It's no surprise there's injuries to her jaw because her arm is, as he said in his interview, around her neck, and he is trying with all her force to get her out.

"And she, in her part, struggling wildly against him, struggling because she wanted to stay in but also struggling for her life, it must have been terrifying for her.

"She was partially stuck underneath him and had no way out, but he has no idea, does he?"

4:18pm

"He's moving forward, she's moving back, just try to envisage what's going on.

"Her neck is extended, trying to get her jaw down. Significant force breaking the bones, yes? Dr Jeffery said she couldn't tell you how long the force would have to go on for, the best that could be said was that the haemorrhages are believed to take 10 to 30 seconds to appear."

4:19pm

"You must not ignore the evidence she gave you, but you can assess the evidence and ask yourself whether you can say 'actually the evidence Tim Brehmer has given us does fit with how Dr Jeffery says those injuries were caused'."

4:20pm

"Ten seconds is not a long time when there is a massive struggle."

4:22pm

"Tim Brehmer did not know the police had already taken a statement from Andrew Smith the day before (the police interview).

"Andrew Smith's evidence is really important if you are to reach a correct verdict, what he told you was he was out from about 3.15pm, and the sequence he described is wat you can see on the CCTV.

"He said he heard a horn hooting two or three times, then his neighbour came ghome in his van, then he saw a man at the entrance of the pub car park."

LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

4:24pm

"Everything about Andrew Smith's evidence fits with Timothy Brehmer's version of events, doesn't it?

"The struggle came to end, Mr Brehmer said, because he rolled out the car and you've seen some injuries to his tricep and shoulders that you may think fit that description.

"The Crown says what he said is not plausible. He told you he looked and he saw Claire Parry lying there, and he said he saw her eyes were open, but said he didn't really see."

4:25pm

"But if you are following through Mr Brehmer's version of events, try to imagine what is going through her head. He wanted her out the car, he stabbed himself in the arm, this struggle would have taken a lot out of him just as it took Claire's life. Does he know something's gone wrong? Is he not computing? Does that mean everything he told you is a complete lie?"

LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

 

[Tortoise]

4:26pm

"No he didn't go into police officer mode, thats quite right. He wasn't a police officer that day, he was Tim Brehmer, life falling apart that day."



LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer

I can hear violins

 

[Tortoise]

4:29pm

Ms Martin said Brehmer encouraged the police to get any evidence they could like dashcams or CCTV footage.

"When you reread his interview you will read, as I said, the detail of what I've said, and you will realise it's the prosecution who have minimised what he said.

"They have described some 'awkward pushing and pulling in the car', it's so much more than that."

4:29pm

"The Crown don't want to accept Timothy Brehmer's version of events because if they do they have no case for murder."

4:31pm

"If you're satisfied, as we think you should be, that Timothy Brehmer has told the truth, then you will find him not guilty of murder.

"If you're not sure what happened, then you will find him not guilty.

"It is only if that you are sure Timothy Brehmer has lied and has deliberately taken Claire Parry by the neck, that you will look at the issue of whether it was explicable by a loss of control."


LIVE: prosecution warn jury "don't be fooled" by murder accused Timothy Brehmer