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The red Sierra was owned on HP by the hostel chef, another pre-release lag and lifelong career criminal called Joseph Taggart (hereafter JT). He died in the late 90s, I think, not long after informing on JC.
JT had a council flat in Sun Road, about 7 minutes' walk north of 37SR and 20 minutes' north-east from 123SR. The block of flats has a number of garages built onto the back. I am not sure how they are or were then apportioned to the tenants. JT may or may not have had use of one of them, but owning a car rather suggests he did.
JT's information against JC was that they were mates in the first half of 1986, carried out a number of thefts from JC's employer SuperHire and that JC helped him out with the payments on the car when JT got short of money. In return for this, JC got some use of JT's car. We don't know what use he made of it. The celebrated car park ticket stub that showed he was in Southampton the day SC was killed in Southampton doesn't reliably put JC at the scene because we don't know who was driving it. I think JT is also the source of the intel and JD's otherwise unsupported "personal confidence" that JC had access to an LHD BMW at that time, perhaps organised by JT.
It's hard to know what to make of JT's information. As a lifelong thief, he's not the sort of person whose word you take for anything. Nor is it clear why he took 13 years to inform on JC, unless it was to obtain something in return from the plod. If so, for all we know he parlayed / expanded what could have been a very casual acquaintance with JC into some quite incriminating gossip, in return for...something.
At the other end of the possibility spectrum, he was a constructive accessory to SJL's murder. Nothing in his own criminal record suggests he was himself a killer or rapist. But he could possibly have assisted JC unwittingly with the use of his car, flat and garage without inquiring too closely into what he was doing. After the fact, JT realised that JC wasn't nicking things, but abducting and killing estate agents. JT abetted it with the loan of his car and garage, nobody will believe he didn't know, so he figures he'd better cover this up. Which he did until 1999/2000, when he related an edited version of his own involvement.
The supposed 60% DNA match in the Sierra is probably irrelevant since, AIUI, this means the sample found matches 60% of the populace. Even a 99.99% match would take in 6 to 7,000 people in the UK on that basis. So even if they ever get a match that good to SJL, I reckon the police are still going to have to show the CPS how that had to have been SJL's hair because she had met JC. A jury might actually have convicted JC without that, but that's because juries, like judges, lawyers, and police officers, don't understand probability.
JT had a council flat in Sun Road, about 7 minutes' walk north of 37SR and 20 minutes' north-east from 123SR. The block of flats has a number of garages built onto the back. I am not sure how they are or were then apportioned to the tenants. JT may or may not have had use of one of them, but owning a car rather suggests he did.
JT's information against JC was that they were mates in the first half of 1986, carried out a number of thefts from JC's employer SuperHire and that JC helped him out with the payments on the car when JT got short of money. In return for this, JC got some use of JT's car. We don't know what use he made of it. The celebrated car park ticket stub that showed he was in Southampton the day SC was killed in Southampton doesn't reliably put JC at the scene because we don't know who was driving it. I think JT is also the source of the intel and JD's otherwise unsupported "personal confidence" that JC had access to an LHD BMW at that time, perhaps organised by JT.
It's hard to know what to make of JT's information. As a lifelong thief, he's not the sort of person whose word you take for anything. Nor is it clear why he took 13 years to inform on JC, unless it was to obtain something in return from the plod. If so, for all we know he parlayed / expanded what could have been a very casual acquaintance with JC into some quite incriminating gossip, in return for...something.
At the other end of the possibility spectrum, he was a constructive accessory to SJL's murder. Nothing in his own criminal record suggests he was himself a killer or rapist. But he could possibly have assisted JC unwittingly with the use of his car, flat and garage without inquiring too closely into what he was doing. After the fact, JT realised that JC wasn't nicking things, but abducting and killing estate agents. JT abetted it with the loan of his car and garage, nobody will believe he didn't know, so he figures he'd better cover this up. Which he did until 1999/2000, when he related an edited version of his own involvement.
The supposed 60% DNA match in the Sierra is probably irrelevant since, AIUI, this means the sample found matches 60% of the populace. Even a 99.99% match would take in 6 to 7,000 people in the UK on that basis. So even if they ever get a match that good to SJL, I reckon the police are still going to have to show the CPS how that had to have been SJL's hair because she had met JC. A jury might actually have convicted JC without that, but that's because juries, like judges, lawyers, and police officers, don't understand probability.
