GUILTY UK - Bernadette Walker, 17, left parent's car, Peterborough, 21 July 2020 *Arrests* #5

[dunkley]

'Sexual Abuse' is a broad term that covers every type of abuse.
Scott was arrested on suspicion of murder, IIRC, nothing else.
There was no formal allegation of rape, or anything else, by Bernadette. So in effect, no evidence. No statement, and no complaint.

 

[SaintMoore]

That's what I sthought too, until Tortoise shared an article specifying a rape allegation.

If a rape allegation was specified by Bee ? I have only ever seen claims of sexual abuse with no details as to what that constituted. Apart from the camera spying on her in the bathroom. Have you seen the word rape mentioned anywhere?

 

[jackal67]

Bernadette Walker: How our ex-reporter Carly got to know her mother - PeterboroughMatters.co.uk

Yet another person taken in By SaW !

 

[jackal67]

That's what I sthought too, until Tortoise shared an article specifying a rape allegation.

Ok. I didn't see that article myself

 

[SaintMoore]

Here it is


Bernadette Walker death: Father ‘murdered teenage daughter to silence sex abuse claims’

"But the jury was told Bernadette had recently sent text messages to her mother in which she revealed she had been raped and sexually assaulted by her stepfather for about seven years. She also claimed he had planted a camera in her bedroom and bathroom, the court was told."

 

[SaintMoore]

'Sexual Abuse' is a broad term that covers every type of abuse.
Scott was arrested on suspicion of murder, IIRC, nothing else.
There was no formal allegation of rape, or anything else, by Bernadette. So in effect, no evidence. No statement, and no complaint.

The video shows police saying to Scott "we are arresting you for sexual assault of a child".

 

[SaintMoore]

Police footage shows man's arrest over missing teen

 

[Resident71]

Yet another person taken in By SaW !

Unfortunately you have to sign up to make a comment but I would certainly be given ‘Carly Beech’ a piece of our minds.

 

[jackal67]

From above...

In the final weeks of her life, as she summoned up the courage to tell her mother she was being abused, her online posts became darker, almost prescient, in their references to dying.

'Can you buy PLZ play this at my funeral' she wrote on Instagram after posting the lyrics to a song by The Irrepressibles: 'I bled everyday now, for a year, for a year'. She had recently changed her Facebook cover picture to a photograph she had taken of a gravestone showing an angel on a cross. Beneath her name, she'd written: 'Life is just a dream for the dead'.

So very sad. Did this not raise alarm bells among her friends ? Her social media mad mother. devoted Brother? Why was no one there for this poor sad girl? Shocking

 

[KarenUK]

Operator: Is her phone switched on now?

Sarah Walker: No..... She didn't take her charger

CLANG! She back-peddled there mentioning the charger quickly, but not before saying she knew her phone was switched off, and no "maybe she used a friends charger"

 

[dunkley]

Thank you, SM!
I couldn't find the footage, so that helps enormously.
I am curious as to exactly how they were intending to proceed, because without a detailed statement of complaint from Bernadette, where did the evidence come from? Certainly not Bernadette, and there was nothing forensically at that stage, or indeed since.
What it *did* do was get Scott into custody, and enable post-arrest searches.

 

[jackal67]

EBM

You have made the point that I was reluctant to earlier. Scott Walker (he's now been convicted so we should be able to name him) claimed that the two oldest boys would back him up with his lie by agreeing that Bernadette had admitted to them she'd lied about Scott Walker sexually abusing her. If the police had asked them if this were true when it so obviously wasn't, would they be facing charges too? I don't doubt that he was capable of coercion as that was what the police said when they arrested him. He obviously felt confident that he'd worked on them sufficiently that they would go along with what he was telling police. Unless he wqas just ************ on the hoof. Just MOO based on the arrest video.

Just thinking about this , perhaps they too had received fake texts from Bees phone stating that she had run away and the abuse allegations were lies? Or they had been shown the fake texts SaW sent to herself from Bees phone .
I guess at this point they had no reason to believe she had been harmed? Surely all the occupants of the house would have been questioned by police as a matter of course and statements taken?

 

[Mercsw]

Just thinking about this , perhaps they too had received fake texts from Bees phone stating that she had run away and the abuse allegations were lies? Or they had been shown the fake texts SaW sent to herself from Bees phone .
I guess at this point they had no reason to believe she had been harmed? Surely all the occupants of the house would have been questioned by police as a matter of course and statements taken?

sadly no. Until it was reviewed externally two months in, and then given high priority due to the nature of allegations, they were happy just agreeing with the parents. I’ve never seen a missing child case so inept. It’s actually angering to look into how little they actually did

 

[Bethan]

For those of you with BBC iPlayer you can watch the news report on BBC Look East (West) here

It is only available for a certain amount of time. Anybody know if I can video it and upload to a content sharing platform?

It had a short interview with AW , shows footage of SaW police interview and parts of the messages Bee sent revealing the abuse.

Thank you for sharing this link Bear!

 

[Tortoise]

Thank you, SM!
I couldn't find the footage, so that helps enormously.
I am curious as to exactly how they were intending to proceed, because without a detailed statement of complaint from Bernadette, where did the evidence come from? Certainly not Bernadette, and there was nothing forensically at that stage, or indeed since.
What it *did* do was get Scott into custody, and enable post-arrest searches.

Bernadette had told friends online.
Bernadette sent messages to her mum.
Sarah messaged Bernadette on 17th to say she was taking Scott into the police station to report the allegations.
Sarah told Scott's step-mother JW that she had made allegations, and Bernadette had told JW it was the truth.
Sarah and Scott self-reported to police on 22nd July, saying the allegations were false.
Sarah's boyfriend knew Bernadette had made allegations because he knew Sarah was angry about it.
Scott told officers before his arrest that two of Bernadette's brothers were aware of her allegations.
One of the allegations was to do with cameras Scott had set up to record Bernadette. He didn't deny it in court, so they must have had proof he couldn't refute.
Police also saw him deleting things from his phone he admitted he didn't want anyone to see.

With the alleged victim, a minor, disappeared since she made the allegations, and her parents admissions that allegations were made, I'd say police had grounds to make an arrest on suspicion of sexual assault.

It's a shame whoever made the charging decisions didn't pursue the charges, based on all of the above, as well as Bernadette's diary, the parents admitting they used her phone because they didn't want social services to investigate, and based on the motive for murder.

moo

 

[jackal67]

Wife who escaped beast reveals horror as he is convicted of murder


Wife who escaped beast's clutches reveals horror as he is convicted of murdering his stepdaughter | Daily Mail Online

Sorry didn’t know it had been put up already.

I did wonder where and how SaW met ScW. I find it very distasteful and strange when a person goes straight to the papers with their stories. Personally I would be horrified to share my association with a murderer and would keep a very low profile MOO

 

[Tanzanite]

I cannot get away from the joint enterprise charge, and why it was dropped.

So we now know (officially, that is) that Sarah knew - almost immediately, it seems - that Scott killed Bernadette. From Sarah's calm, detail-rich lies to the police, the driving around at the dead of night (we assume disposing of Bernadette's body), the endless lies and half-truths to cover tracks and lay new ones, to her social media 'PLEASE FIND MY DAUGHTER!' pleas and (this one doesn't half rankle with me) pleading with Bernadette to 'please come home, darling, no one is cross with you' etc. etc: at every turn, she knew that Scott had killed her daughter.

Where was the heartbreak? The shock? The utter horror at what Scott had done? The desperation to get all of her children away from the monster who had killed her daughter?

It was...nowhere. Life went on.

Because - imoo - she knew exactly what Scott was going to do before he did it. I cannot reasonably believe otherwise. In which case, joint enterprise, surely? He was despatched to kill Bernadette, and Sarah calmly went through her doomed daughter's social media accounts, knowing darn well that poor Bernadette wouldn't be using them again.

Having been found guilty of murder, if Scott cracks and admits something akin to this, can joint enterprise charges be brought afresh on the basis that Sarah was never tried on them?

I don't believe for one moment that Sarah and Scott did not plan Bernadette's murder together.

All imoo, obv.

 

[worth2]

After listening to the call this morning I’m so convinced Sarah knew from the beginning. I know not everyone will act the same but when my family member, an alternative girl aged 16, was missing, after two hours her mother was constantly ringing the police, was out in her own car, crying her eyes out and beside herself. Sarah is just cold on the phone. I might try and transcribe it for people who don’t have time to listen if anyone wants that.

Edit: She also says Bernadette has no mental health issues but Bernadette repeatedly references depression and anxiety in her posts and calls herself “panicky”

 

[jackal67]

100% agree with everything you have said. The thing that rankles me the most is the £5000 reward given by mum on the missing poster!!!

 

[jackal67]

After listening to the call this morning I’m so convinced Sarah knew from the beginning. I know not everyone will act the same but when my family member, an alternative girl aged 16, was missing, after two hours her mother was constantly ringing the police, was out in her own car, crying her eyes out and beside herself. Sarah is just cold on the phone. I might try and transcribe it for people who don’t have time to listen if anyone wants that.

Edit: She also says Bernadette has no mental health issues but Bernadette repeatedly references depression and anxiety in her posts and calls herself “panicky”

That would be helpful to me as couldn't hear most of it