GUILTY UK - Louise Smith, 16, Havant, Hampshire, 8 May 2020 *Arrest*

[Harchmare]

10 minutes ago
‘Hard to imagine’
Detailing the ‘catastrophic’ injuries to 16-year-old Louise’s face and head, Mr Newton-Price says: ‘It’s hard to imagine, we respectfully submit, harm that is more grievous - or more serious - than that.'

The prosecutor added that Mays has admitted ‘by his actions and his own confession that at the very least he inflicted repeated hard punches to the head of a vulnerable and slender teenage girl’.

Louise Smith trial: Live updates as Shane Mays jury told to put aside emotions

 

[Harchmare]

1 minute ago
‘Did he hope to take advantage?’
The prosecutor is reminding jurors Mays bought £30 worth of ‘strong alcohol’ when he has a £50 fortnightly allowance in total.

Some people might ‘ply’ others with alcohol to get them to ‘shed their inhibitions,' he says.

‘Did he hope to take advantage? He denies topping up her glass but how did she get so drunk?'

He is referring to the night of May 7 where Louise drank and awoke the next morning posting on Snapchat about the ‘worst hangover’.

Louise also messaged a friend saying ‘I’m allowed to smoke weed’ at 12.26pm, shortly before she left the flat at Ringwood House, Somborne Drive in Leigh Park.

The prosecutor says: ‘How come Louise was given permission to smoke weed at that point? Who made that promise to her?'

He adds: ‘You may reasonably conclude that Shane Mays had given Louise permission to smoke weed. There’s no-one else is there? There’s no other candidate who could have permitted her. It can’t be anyone else but Shane Mays.'

Louise Smith trial: Live updates as Shane Mays jury told to put aside emotions

 

[Harchmare]

12:03JAMIE PHILLIPS
More instructions to the jury
Mrs Justice May says:

Your task is to decide what his intention was when he did what you decide he did do. What he did before, at the time and after the attack.

He says he lost his temper and did not think at the time that he had killed her or hurt her badly. If you believe he did so with the intention of killing Louise Smith or cause her injury, you will find him guilty. If you do not, you will find him not guilty.

Louise Smith murder trial updates as closing speeches expected

 

[chimpface]

I predict a guilty verdict within a couple of hours and a 25+ year sentence (hopefully more!). Although sentencing will be in a few weeks I'd imagine.

 

[Alyce]

I hope you are right Chimpface - nothing less than 25 would be acceptable.
They might get sentencing done this week - out of the way before Christmas shut down.

 

[Harchmare]

1 minute ago
The walk to Havant Thicket
The prosecutor is telling jurors Louise was ‘somehow persuaded’ to walk with him to Havant Thicket despite making plans to meet a friend.

He says: ‘What could be more boring for a teenager than to go on a long walk - two hours - no phone, no contact, unless there’s some reason. Some reason offered.'

Mr Newton-Price said Louise had ‘somehow been persuaded for a reason, I suggest, Mr Mays will not tell us. Somehow persuaded to go with him’.

Louise Smith trial: Live updates as Shane Mays jury told to put aside emotions

 

[Harchmare]

12:17JAMIE PHILLIPS
Shane Mays lied to police, court hears
Running through evidence that has been presented, Mrs Justice May reminds the court that Shane Mays lied to police about the route he and Louise took on the day of the attack as "everyone pointed the finger at him all the time".

She continues:

He told his mother, wife and Bradley that he took her to Emsworth skate park and left her there. He lied in police interview about where they went, what they did and the three boys on a ramp.

He now accepts this is not what happened, but did not deliberately lie to police as he believed this to be true and did not know what had happened until remanded in prison after being arrested.

Louise Smith murder trial updates as closing speeches expected

 

[Harchmare]

12:19JAMIE PHILLIPS
Prosecution closing speech begins
James Newton-Price QC has begun the prosecution's closing speech in the case.

Louise Smith murder trial updates as closing speeches expected

 

[Harchmare]

5 minutes ago
‘Sexual interest’
The clearing where Louise’s body looked like ‘an occasional den’ and a ‘regular play area,' jurors are told.

‘You many conclude that Shane Mays had been there before, that he knew that location and that he was taking here there and that he led the way, and that he lured her to that quiet location,’ Mr Newton-Price says.

‘What he had promised her, to give her there, he wouldn’t say and as I say, we may never know. But why did he want to get her there?

‘The prosecution do not have to prove a motive for any crime but the background, of the flirting, and the circumstances leading a teenage girl into a secluded remote area far from anywhere, where no-one can hear her, suggests, does it not, a sexual interest.’

Louise Smith trial: Live updates as Shane Mays jury told to put aside emotions

 

[Alyce]

snipped from above

and did not know what had happened until remanded in prison after being arrested.

Amazing how being in prison can help clear the mind

 

[Harchmare]

12:26KEY EVENT
'Shane Mays killed Louise by repeatedly punching her', court hears
Mr Newton-Price begins:

You have had to listen to troubling evidence about the attack and the state of the body when it was found. As you know, you task is to try the case on the evidence before you and not be swayed by emotions or speculation, but to come to common sense conclusions on the evidence.

We say you may reasonably and fairly come to the following conclusions. You may reasonably conclude Louise Smith was a vulnerable and impressionable girl. You may conclude that Shane Mays somehow persuaded her to leave the flat and go on a country walk with him to a remote clearing in the woods he knew so well, the woods he played in as a child and made fire in as a teenager.

We reject that Louise was leading the way. Shane Mays killed Louise by repeatedly punching her. Striking blows to the head with both fists so many times he cannot remember and that she lay defenceless and immobile on the ground.
Louise Smith murder trial updates as jury told to put 'strong emotions' aside

 

[Harchmare]

1 minute ago
‘No mercy’
Shane Mays chose to ‘afford her no mercy’ in the attack at Havant Thicket, the prosecutor says. Mays despite his IQ can ‘function perfectly well in society,' he adds.

The prosecutor adds: 'He deliberately took Louise to that place, he chose that clearing in that woods. He could have stopped after the first punch. He did not.

'He carried on. He may well have done much more and even worse. He chose to abandon her in the woods and chose, really, to afford her no mercy.

‘These are his choices, these are his deliberate intentional acts, and he is responsible for what he has done.’

Louise Smith trial: Live updates as Shane Mays jury told to put aside emotions

 

[JosieJo]

Thanks for all the updates

It does seem like an easy verdict

 

[Harchmare]

12:40JAMIE PHILLIPS
Mays tried to 'cover the horror of what he had done' to Louise, court hears

Mr Newton-Price continues:

Still he hit her head as she bled and as he heard the bones on her face fracture. The evidence suggests he did worse than that.

Spoiler: graphic

We say he also pushed that stick or branch inside her body

- an act that would have required him to grip that stick and leave his DNA on the stick.

There is no DNA from any other mystery man on the stick. You may fairly and reasonably conclude that on Friday night and Saturday night for many hours to burn her body, to cover the horror of what he had done to her to destroy the evidence.

Louise Smith murder trial updates as jury told to put 'strong emotions' aside

 

[Harchmare]

1 minute ago
‘Trying to cover up’
Mays ‘rather too conveniently’ says he could not remember punching Louise until June having been charged with murder, meaning police could no longer question him, the prosecutor says.

His evidence on Friday in court alluded to ‘false memories’ and post-traumatic stress disorder, the prosecutor says, but adds: ‘There’s no evidence that Shane Mays has any psychiatric disorder of any kind.'

Mays told two different stories - walking Louise to Billy Lawn Avenue that he walked to with police in 'quite an acting performance - and that of taking her to Emsworth skatepark.

‘This isn’t the confabulation of a trauma victim - it’s a lie to the police trying to find (Louise),' Mr Newton-Price says.

‘Is this a man suffering from memory loss or actually a man who’s lying to the police and trying to cover up?'

Louise Smith trial: Live updates as Shane Mays jury told to put aside emotions

 

[Harchmare]

12:44JAMIE PHILLIPS
'He gave false information' about what happened, court is told


Mr Newton-Price continues his closing speech to the jury:

You may reasonably say he gave false information. Different stories on different days to different people. He told about taking Louise to Emsworth skate park and taking her down Somborne Drive to Tesco and watching her go down Billy Lawn Avenue.

Both of those accounts were lies. This was not some case of some memory loss as he would have you believe.

Louise Smith murder trial updates as jury told to put 'strong emotions' aside

 

[Harchmare]

1 minute ago
‘Search trips were a cover for burning the body’
Mr Newton-Price says: ‘This is a man who’s told many and varied lies and some inconsistent lies.

‘This isn’t the confabulation of a traumatised man. These are the lies of a man who has killed a teenage girl and who wants to get away with it.

'It was a a charade, what he was doing with those police officers, showing them that route, and his searches for Louise night and day were also a charade, you may think.

‘Because he can’t have been searching for her. He knew where she was.

‘You might conclude that his search trips were a cover for his real purpose, which was to burn the body.’

He asks jurors: ‘Who else but Shane Mays would burn Louise’s body?'

He says anyone coming across her body in the woods would have called the police.

No evidence of Mays buying flammable liquid was found by police, but people often have these at home, he adds.

Jurors are reminded that when asked how you set a fire in the woods, in general, Mays said ‘flammable liquid’ in response, not matches or a lighter.

Louise Smith trial: Live updates as Shane Mays jury told to put aside emotions

 

[Harchmare]

12:54JAMIE PHILLIPS
Prosecution closing speech continues
Mr Newton-Price QC adds:

The charge of murder requires the prosecution to show that the attacker had the intention either to cause serious bodily harm or kill her - one or the other. If one man attacks his victim with the intention of causing serious harm and death results from that, it is murder.

It does not have to be pre-meditated, it can arrive in the moment in the heat of the attack and the panic of the moment. The fact that you regret it afterwards is neither here, nor there. You cannot read anyone's mind, but you can come to a reasonable conclusion.

Louise Smith murder trial updates as jury told to put 'strong emotions' aside

 

[Harchmare]

3 minutes ago
‘Utterly defenceless’
Jurors are being reminded of the ‘severity of the force inflicted upon’ and ‘utterly defenceless’ Louise.

‘The scene must have been horrific,' Mr Newton-Price adds.

Louise Smith trial: Live updates as Shane Mays jury told to put aside emotions

 

[Harchmare]

13:00KEY EVENT
'It is a clear and compelling case of murder', court hears
Mr Newton-Price QC tells the jury the case for murder is "clear and compelling".

His guilty plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter he has accepted he contributed or caused the death of Louise Smith. You will have noticed now he cannot come to admit that he killer her. He could not face up to what he has done.

How many times do you remember he said he did not kill her when he gave evidence? We say it is a clear and compelling case of murder.
Louise Smith murder trial updates as jury told to put 'strong emotions' aside