Newthoughts
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- Feb 21, 2019
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How many steps do you need to get to killing?I think at this stage I am with you. We know the prosecution have said they now believe he will say he raped her, but that time scale is so close to call for all the rest. Isn't it barely 33 minutes from him first clocking Libby, stalking her, getting her into the car, driving to Oak Road, doing whatever happened at Oak Road, then arriving home? I know his crimes are hideous and have been escalating, and he is clearly responsible for her death in some way, but the step up to actually killing another human is something else. I wonder if we are going to hear any more of his Internet search history. We know about the masturbation sites but I wonder if he had any other preferences, choking/asphyxiation, etc. Shame we won't get to hear from his wife/any former girlfriends about this too.
The defence are really going to hammer the mental health issue.
Worrying to hear Libby's mum's statement about the river/suicidal thoughts too. The sad thing is we will probably never know for sure how things actually played out.
He got 8 1/2 years for his previous convictions. Each of those only carried small maximum sentences and there were reductions for pleading guilty. So instead the judge went out of his way to ensure the sentences were Served consecutively rather than concurrently. I didn't even know that was a thing - but clearly the judge felt something about him brought him way beyond just 3 years in prison
If an experienced judge clearly took those crimes far more seriously than the sentencing system suggests it would that alerted me.
Victim statements show how terrified those victims were because he kept eye contact rather than running away when discovered.
And its worth remembering they were all crimes with very clear evidence. Almost undeniable. But I'd guess one of the problems with those sorts of crimes is lack of evidence. Masturbating against someone's door gives evidence - just following them in the street doesn't. Especially if the police don't come out straight away and the DNA us left on the pavement somewhere or in a hedge somewhere
So IMOO there may we'll have been other reports where the police couldn't get clear evidence.
Everyone killer and rapist has a first time and looking at his behaviour after his return to the park for the third time I think we're lucky he didn't have a second time that night