GUILTY UK - Helen Bailey, 51, Royston, 11 April 2016 #4

[Moll]

Did anyone say whether they went ahead with 11 jurors today or somehow the 12th juror managed to continue? In desperately catching up on all the day's evidence and discussion I might have missed it!

 

[neteditor]

Who has a pic taken of their family and doesn't put the children front and centre? Surely the children are the main reason people have them done? So their development is recorded etc?

 

[snoopydog]

Perhaps so, but there were likely a number of poses done and he chose to post this one in public.

The kids and his wife look nice in it. They look very happy and if we didn't know he was a murdering bast&rd we might say it was a decent family portrait. There's not many other ways you could pose that photo in the small frame and the way the backdrop is set up. He's a big beast of a man so he'd overpower the composition in most images. (I'm a photographer btw)


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[neteditor]

Did anyone say whether they went ahead with 11 jurors today or somehow the 12th juror managed to continue? In desperately catching up on all the day's evidence and discussion I might have missed it!

I didn't see it mentioned, I assume all 12 jurors were present. Awful for someone losing a parent and having to concentrate on this.

 

[neteditor]

The kids and his wife look nice in it. They look very happy and if we didn't know he was a murdering bast&rd we might say it was a decent family portrait. There's not many other ways you could pose that photo in the small frame and the way the backdrop is set up. He's a big beast of a man so he'd overpower the composition in most images. (I'm a photographer btw)


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True it would be hard to balance such a bulk, he's quite overpowering looking. I don't find men like that attractive, I prefer the small wiry ones

 

[Moll]

But you must admit it's like the fact that he's no dog-lover. Might put you off him but it's hardly evidence for the prosecution!
(Luckily they don't need any more.)

 

[Squamous]

There have been pics of the sons in the press already, and this one was posted on a public Flickr page that anyone can access, so hopefully it's not against the rules.

Cool, I'm sure you experienced members have a much better handle on what's allowed than I do!

I find the younger pics quite disturbing...he looks quite different but not necessarily in a good way!

 

[snoopydog]

I'm not sure if we should be judging him based on how he looks particularly. Obviously we all hate him but how he looks has no relevance on his behaviour.


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[Cherwell]

Helen writes about rings.

http://planetgrief.com/2012/02/13/the-ring-thing/

 

[neteditor]

I'm not sure if we should be judging him based on how he looks particularly. Obviously we all hate him but how he looks has no relevance on his behaviour.


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I'm not judging him on how he looks, just saying for me personally I don't get the appeal.

 

[snoopydog]

I'm not judging him on how he looks, just saying for me personally I don't get the appeal.

No I agree. I was talking generally


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[Squamous]

I'm not sure if we should be judging him based on how he looks particularly. Obviously we all hate him but how he looks has no relevance on his behaviour.


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Ah, but I think the evil blackness of his soul comes through as his worms along on his front.

Or maybe not. I still find him a bit unsettling though.

 

[neteditor]

You did make me giggle there Squamous

 

[Moll]

Helen writes about rings.

http://planetgrief.com/2012/02/13/the-ring-thing/

Oh dear, rings were a thing, I hadn't realised to what extent - and she said

'The Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower is an expert at dealing with widows' (and my non-grief) quirks. When 'interviewed' for this blog post, he said he hadn't even thought about my rings. He had taken his wedding ring off a long time ago, but in a shocking display of two-facedness, I think I might find it a bit strange if he still had his.'

 

[snoopydog]

Ah, but I think the evil blackness of his soul comes through as his worms along on his front.

Or maybe not. I still find him a bit unsettling though.

Yeah I know what you mean but that's easy for us to do now we know what kind of person he is. If he was still 'lovely GGHW' we might think he was just an ordinary man that we definitely wouldn't ever fancy. Not that I don't think some people definitely do look dodgy e.g. Jimmy saville before he was found out. [emoji37][emoji37][emoji37][emoji37]


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[Squamous]

Yeah I know what you mean but that's easy for us to do now we know what kind of person he is. If he was still 'lovely GGHW' we might think he was just an ordinary man that we definitely wouldn't ever fancy. Not that I don't think some people definitely do look dodgy e.g. Jimmy saville before he was found out. [emoji37][emoji37][emoji37][emoji37]


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I do see what you're saying. And I look at those nice Alice the Camera pics of him with Helen and I find it so hard to believe that he killed her (despite knowing that he clearly did). He looks like such a lovely, safe, teddy-bear man.

It's hard to look at Diane. I think we'll never know her story.

 

[snoopydog]

I do see what you're saying. And I look at those nice Alice the Camera pics of him with Helen and I find it so hard to believe that he killed her (despite knowing that he clearly did). He looks like such a lovely, safe, teddy-bear man.

It's hard to look at Diane. I think we'll never know her story.

I know. I feel sorry for the sons and her family now. They must all be wondering about it a lot.


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[faybradshaw]

The kids and his wife look nice in it. They look very happy and if we didn't know he was a murdering bast&rd we might say it was a decent family portrait. There's not many other ways you could pose that photo in the small frame and the way the backdrop is set up. He's a big beast of a man so he'd overpower the composition in most images. (I'm a photographer btw)


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Apt description - beast of a man. In every picture I have seen him in, it's a weak face, certainly not one with strength of character.

 

[DollyDiamond]

The witnesses today have all provided a patchwork of clues pointing strongly to IS' guilt. For me it has also answered a lingering question about why he was so keen to leave the scene of the crime/cess pit unguarded, and hop on a plane to Spain - he had a crucial job to do dumping incriminating phones and perhaps other evidence, in Palma (a shame it doesn't seem he was shadowed by plain clothes police over there, it could have been fruitful).

But I have to be honest and say I am disappointed we didn't get a big fat smoking gun today - ideally a computer mention of cess pits. That would have been 100% damning. Yes he wiped computer history, looked at stuff online about power of attorney, wasn't too interested in engagement rings and talked about Helen and Boris in the past tense. But for me, none of it was a big AH HA! moment. Sorry to be negative - at the end of the day it is crystal clear he's guilty, just wish something really strong and unequivocal had been revealed against him today.

As for the family photo of him from (ten?) years ago. He has definitely improved with age, the grey hair and beard have softened him. In this photo I think you see more of the real man - a big, fat self centred, entitled baby, posing front and centre before his pretty, sweet looking wife and healthy sons. A man who has got what he wanted without too much effort throughout his life (he receives £24,000 pa in his mid-fifties without doing a day's work!) An only child, he never had to compromise with siblings, didn't date too much at school (according to a former fellow pupil), was lucky enough to meet an attractive, eligible woman and gain the status and respectability of marriage and children. He has a huge and quite unrealistic sense of entitlement - so extreme, he will kill someone who stands between him and the lifestyle he craves.

When he is sentenced to life in prison I hope society will take advantage of his incarceration to study him like an animal in a zoo. Psychiatrists should study dangerous men like IS If we are to pay for his bed and board for the next however many decades, let's get our money's worth. Let's find out how the IS's of this world are created. Maybe lessons can be learned? In my view it's a mistake to just shrug our shoulders when we hear of another ruthless killer like him, as if we accept its inevitable, chuck them in jail and forget about them. That's a wasted opportunity in my view. Let's make them earn their bed and board.

 

[Alyce]

Re the photos. The one most often used, of Helen and IS in the garden.


First time I looked at it ( and this was before it was clear what he had done ) I thought he looked a bit smarmy or smug, with a kind of can't quite believe my luck expression, as he posed next to slim and stylish Helen, wearing his ill fitting, far too young for him, denim shirt and saggy jeans.