GUILTY UK - Star Hobson, 16 months, murdered, Sep 2020 *arrest*

[squish]

FS confirmed as low IQ, in bottom 2nd percentile. Just on the cusp of being officially learning disabled. However I think it's easy to throw those tests if you want to look vulnerable. But she is obviously thick.

 

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Also shown to be highly compliant, a personality trait where the person tends to defer to authority or perceived authority figures.

 

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The expert was asked about faking, and he absolutely believed she was doing the tests to the best of her ability and had no reason to believe she was faking.

 

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Interestingly, despite being highly compliant, FS had normal levels of suggestibility.

 

[squish]

Annoyed we won't be getting a psych eval for SB. Presumably the defense don't think it would be helpful for them.

I would love to know SB's IQ to compare the difference with FS. I think it's dodgy that SB sought out someone much younger and simpler than herself.

 

[squish]

Going back to the pad kerfuffle. I really think she was telling the truth. She seems to answer everything plainly, and readily agrees with things that don't make her look good. Yet she argued and insisted her toilet story was the truth. I don't think she's bright enough to understand the full significance of what they were getting at with the toilet questions.

Also obviously SB went into the flat - the murder scene - on her own for a short while after the ambulance left. I wish FS's defense could have made more of that, because even with no ulterior motives, it's obvious that if you see a dirty pad on the floor, you'd put it in the bin? And maybe even flush an unflushed toilet? I doubt even SB was planning that far ahead to frame FS. But she's the obvious reason for the supposed discrepancies in FS's toileting saga. Maybe it was normal tidying, maybe she thought a used pad on the floor would look odd and suspicious and generally draw attention that something was wrong.

 

[squish]

At this point, I'm thinking that SB should obviously get murder, FS should get causing or allowing but with a lenient sentence. <modsnip> I hope SB's sentence is as long as possible <modsnip>

 

[Theomumx14]

LIVE: Star Hobson murder trial Day 29 - closing speeches set to begin

Closing speeches today

 

[squish]

Not closing speeches now, they’re not as far through the trial as they thought and are now talking to a forensics computer expert. He is disproving SB’s claims to be on Snapchat and FaceTime at certain key times.

 

[merryforge]

Ah thank you. I was reading the updates, but not sure what the questioning of the forensics computer expert was getting at.

 

[squish]

SB had claimed to be on Snapchat during the CCTV at the recycling plant, but was shown to only briefly go on it five times that evening and they were all at different times to the CCTV clips.

On 20/21st July SB refused to return STar to her mother, Googled how to get bruises down, and returned Star the next day with a big new bruise to her cheek. SB argued - extremely rudely - that she FaceTimed with FS that night and that the barrister didn’t understand Snapchat and there would be no proof. They have proven that she never FaceTimed at all that night.

Edit - she also argued rudely about the barrister not understanding Snapchat in relation to the night of the recycling plant beating.

 

[KarenUK]

The Telegraph and Argus' coverage had been great - I wish all trials were covered this well

 

[Theomumx14]

Here today's with prosecution closing speeches


LIVE: Star Hobson murder trial Day 30 - prosecution closing speech to begin

 

[whatawaster]

What are peoples thoughts now?

 

[squish]

LIVE: Star Hobson murder trial Day 30 - prosecution closing speech to begin

 

[squish]

What are peoples thoughts now?

Obviously SB guilty of murder
FS guilty of causing or allowing. But I think there are mitigating circumstances and she should get a sentence towards the shorter end of the range.

 

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The prosecution are focusing on rebutting the evidence that FS has very low intelligence and high compliance. They seem to be focusing on ensuring that the jury know she is mentally culpable for causing or allowing, and present evidence of her conscious decision making in ways to deliberately neglect or harm Star, or hide her from people who could protect her. I think the prosecution don't have much hope that FS will get murder or manslaughter.

The closing speech has been extremely harsh on FS, I hope it is equally harsh on SB. She was the main abuser, the groomer of a borderline learning disabled teenage girl, the batterer of baby Star, and the murderer.

 

[squish]

I don't think they're being harsh enough on SB. There was a lot more emotional, judgmental language when talking about FS.

 

[squish]

I really hope they mention the awful confessions in euphemisms in the prison phone calls between SB and her sister. SB was "pissing her pants" about the idea of CCTV being recovered from the recycling plant on the 13th of September. She also mentioned searching on her phone for what the effects of her beatings are.

 

[squish]

The prison phone calls were briefly touched upon.

I feel the prosecution really hammered FS compared to SB. At the end they said that they are both guilty of murder. It seems like the prosecution had to draw attention to and emphasise every bad thing FS did to make an equal case to what SB has done. At the end of the day there is little evidence that FS directly physically harmed Star, but plenty of evidence that SB directly seriously harmed her.

And they've gone back to the blasted fanny pad again. In my opinion the prosecution are doing this because the jury only has one woman, the male jurors are easily going to be bamboozled by period evidence. SB went back in that flat for 7 minutes after the ambulance left. She had plenty of time to pick a pad up and flush the toilet.

I'm actually upset, I feel that by the prosecution trying too hard to get murder for both of them, they're actually giving SB the smallest hope of getting off of murder on the "beyond reasonable doubt" thing. Focusing on FS minimises what SB has done.

I feel that SB is a danger to society, but FS is not. She's just unfathomably thick and selfish, and not even a houseplant should be left in her care.