GUILTY UK - Rebecca Watts, 16, Bristol, 19 Feb 2015 #3

[ChuckieD]

More time's been given to question the other 5 now. I can understand the house owners who found the remains being arrested and questioned but it does seem odd they need further time if they simply just found Becky's body.

 

[Wallace]

More time's been given to question the other 5 now. I can understand the house owners who found the remains being arrested and questioned but it does seem odd they need further time if they simply just found Becky's body.

Don't think anything about this will turn out to be simple.

 

[sar2them1984]

More time's been given to question the other 5 now. I can understand the house owners who found the remains being arrested and questioned but it does seem odd they need further time if they simply just found Becky's body.

Precisely they have to show a high level of probable cause to get the extension signed off

 

[Wallace]

Precisely they have to show a high level of probable cause to get the extension signed off

Yup they also need to prove that more interview time is likely to lead somewhere.

 

[Bluey]

If we add up all the custody time (approx) of all the suspects so far 2 x 92 + 5 x 44 = 404 hours.

With sleep, rest and meal breaks, plus time to talk privately with solicitors less than half of that will be useful interview time.

But still that's over 150 hours of interview time with no charges.

I'm thinking two distinct phases to the questioning - before and after the discovery at Barton Court. The discovery on Monday left them with a good chunk of time left over to question in light of what they found there.

 

[cluciano63]

NOT supporting the DM as a news source...but to be honest, their crime coverage, while salacious and over the top, generally ends up being fairly accurate in recent years, from my experience. Jmo

 

[Ontario Mom]

Allowing more time to question the 5 would seem to be appropriate so that they have all their whereabouts, alibis, witnesses, evidence, etc. lined up to either charge them or let them go. In the time Becky was missing those 5 people could have had contact with multiple other people and/or been in several different locations (school, work, errands - especially on the day Becky went missing) and that x 5 = a lot of sifting through to have an air-tight case.

Even if 1 of them says something that can't be verified, or gives an alibi that can't be confirmed, there's a mess right there for LE trying to pin down who really knew what, when, and how. Just thinking outloud.

 

[blefuscu]

Weren't they arrested for murder on Monday? The clock would start then.

 

[MissyLDT]

Is it possible they actually haven't found all of Becky yet and are using the questioning time to locate her?

Horrible.

 

[Ontario Mom]

You can prove anything with statistics [emoji12]

Did you know that the number of people falling out of fishing boats virtually perfectly correlates with the divorce rate in Maine. There is no connection yet statistically there appears to be one.

There has been no mention of abuse and with scant knowledge it is hard to say which side of the relationship is controlling.

While there is nothing funny about this case at all, I will now be visualizing this all day. Thank you for the chuckle

 

[Ontario Mom]

Is it possible they actually haven't found all of Becky yet and are using the questioning time to locate her?

Horrible.

I haven't read anything that says they HAVE found all of her. Just, parts. Hard to even type that.

 

[Cherwell]

I understand what you are saying but my point was that the media have not "named the suspects under arrest" as such. They have named people believed to live in certain properties and allowed the public to draw their own conclusions. It's a difficult call as in some cases, allowing the suspects name to be known can help a case. In the April Jones case, IIRC it was the police themselves who named the suspect prior to charging. A large part of the problem is that many of the public do not seem to draw a distinction between being arrested and being charged let alone being convicted. Not sure how that gets solved.

As you say, many of the public don't understand the difference. And the subtleties you refer to go right over their heads. For that reason I don't think they can be trusted with sensitive information.

You're right, the police sometimes do name the suspect early, but that is usually because they are either looking for him (as in the April Jones case) or seeking help from the public. In the current case they initially gave fewer details than is usual, for some reason.

 

[babame]

I apologise in advance for my ignorance with legal timescales, am I right in thinking the first two suspects will have to be formally charged or released this afternoon? No more time for questioning can be granted or is this incorrect?

 

[Wallace]

I'm thinking two distinct phases to the questioning - before and after the discovery at Barton Court. The discovery on Monday left them with a good chunk of time left over to question in light of what they found there.

That will certainly have been a turning point.

I think part of the issue will be the speed at which forensic evidence can be processed. Sadly we don't yet live in the world that CSI Las Vegas/New York exists in, where results are generated in minutes. It can take weeks or even months for crucial evidence to be processed.

 

[ChuckieD]

I wonder how long she'd been dead

 

[Wallace]

I apologise in advance for my ignorance with legal timescales, am I right in thinking the first two suspects will have to be formally charged or released this afternoon? No more time for questioning can be granted or is this incorrect?

Yes you are correct.

There can be no more extensions.

They must be charged or released.

 

[Alyce]

They don't have to know the nitty gritty details like when where or why, just enough evidence for the police to take to the cps showing that they more than likely killed her (in layman's terms). You're right though it is going to the wire. Maybe they don't have enough evidence to charge both persons as yet

So if they have sufficient evidence to bring a charge, would they still continue questioning the suspects, if the suspects are mainly giving No Comment answers.
What I am trying to say is, would they ( or are the allowed to ) make use of the maximum 96 hours in the hope of getting a few answers in amongst the No Comments, or would they be forced to go ahead and charge because they already have enough evidence ?

 

[Wallace]

Weren't they arrested for murder on Monday? The clock would start then.

Yes but they were originally arrested for suspicion of kidnapping on Saturday. They simply upgraded it to suspicion of murder on Monday.

They can't daisy chain connected crimes to get around PACE detention rules. If they could then I'm sure an imaginative detective could keep a suspect in custody indefinitely.

 

[NatalieLouiseXx]

http://m.somersetguardian.co.uk/Bec...stion-people/story-26119231-detail/story.html

Dunno if this has already been posted as this threads going pretty quick and I haven't had time to catch up yet.

 

[Wallace]

So if they have sufficient evidence to bring a charge, would they still continue questioning the suspects, if the suspects are mainly giving No Comment answers.
What I am trying to say is, would they ( or are the allowed to ) make use of the maximum 96 hours in the hope of getting a few answers in amongst the No Comments, or would they be forced to go ahead and charge because they already have enough evidence ?

Once they are granted the extension they can do what they like with it. They can use all of it or a small portion of it.

My guess is that they are all no commenting most of the time and the detectives are hopeful that forensic evidence will be analysed in time and can be used to get them to talk.