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A jury has been asked to use “common sense” when weighing up “differing accounts” given by a man accused of murdering two young women and burning their bodies.
Mark Brown is on trial for the alleged murders of Alexandra Morgan, 34, from Sissinghurst, and Leah Ware, 33, from Hastings, who he met through the same adult service website. He denies both charges.
[...]
A jury of 10 men and two women has been listening to evidence in the trial since October 18 at Hove Crown Court and is expected to retire to deliberate on its verdicts later this week.
Prosecuting counsel Duncan Atkinson KC asked jurors during his closing address today to apply “common sense” and their “knowledge of human nature” when considering their verdicts.
Mr Atkinson KC invited jurors to draw their own conclusions about whether Mrs Ware was still alive on the basis of the “medical, financial and phone [cell site]” evidence presented to the court and the abrupt end of contact with family and friends.
[...]
As the sixth week of the trial got under way, Mr Atkinson concluded his address by asking that jurors carry out a “cool, calm assessment” and to look at the “pieces of the jigsaw not singularly but together” .
“It is a picture of the one person, whether in anger or cold blood, who has caused each of these women serious harm.
“The one person for whom the timing, location and the destruction and fabrication of evidence and the illogical and inconsistent accounts given could have been of benefit.”
This afternoon, defence counsel for Brown, Ian Henderson KC, set out the start of his closing speech.
He warned jurors of the “danger of confirmation bias” and invited them to approach each bit of evidence “openly and fairly” and to dismiss “soundbites and theories”.
“You are a juror and not a detective,” he said. “Please remember it is you who decides the fact, not the Crown and not the defence.
“Just because the Crown suggests it doesn’t make it so. The evidence does.”
He invited the jury to dismiss the prosecution's “recycled” case that Brown feared he would be stopped from seeing his children as a motive for the alleged killing of Ms Ware.
Mr Henderson went on to invite the jury to carefully consider “circumstantial evidence” including cell site data and unconfirmed sightings of Ms Ware since her disappearance and draw “common sense conclusions”.
Turning to the alleged murder of Ms Morgan, he said: “We respectfully suggest there is simply no evidence of any issue, problems or bad blood between them.
“None of the material identified any issue, any argument, any fight and bad blood which suggested there was a problem between them.”
[...]
www.kentonline.co.uk
Mark Brown is on trial for the alleged murders of Alexandra Morgan, 34, from Sissinghurst, and Leah Ware, 33, from Hastings, who he met through the same adult service website. He denies both charges.
[...]
A jury of 10 men and two women has been listening to evidence in the trial since October 18 at Hove Crown Court and is expected to retire to deliberate on its verdicts later this week.
Prosecuting counsel Duncan Atkinson KC asked jurors during his closing address today to apply “common sense” and their “knowledge of human nature” when considering their verdicts.
Mr Atkinson KC invited jurors to draw their own conclusions about whether Mrs Ware was still alive on the basis of the “medical, financial and phone [cell site]” evidence presented to the court and the abrupt end of contact with family and friends.
[...]
As the sixth week of the trial got under way, Mr Atkinson concluded his address by asking that jurors carry out a “cool, calm assessment” and to look at the “pieces of the jigsaw not singularly but together” .
“It is a picture of the one person, whether in anger or cold blood, who has caused each of these women serious harm.
“The one person for whom the timing, location and the destruction and fabrication of evidence and the illogical and inconsistent accounts given could have been of benefit.”
This afternoon, defence counsel for Brown, Ian Henderson KC, set out the start of his closing speech.
He warned jurors of the “danger of confirmation bias” and invited them to approach each bit of evidence “openly and fairly” and to dismiss “soundbites and theories”.
“You are a juror and not a detective,” he said. “Please remember it is you who decides the fact, not the Crown and not the defence.
“Just because the Crown suggests it doesn’t make it so. The evidence does.”
He invited the jury to dismiss the prosecution's “recycled” case that Brown feared he would be stopped from seeing his children as a motive for the alleged killing of Ms Ware.
Mr Henderson went on to invite the jury to carefully consider “circumstantial evidence” including cell site data and unconfirmed sightings of Ms Ware since her disappearance and draw “common sense conclusions”.
Turning to the alleged murder of Ms Morgan, he said: “We respectfully suggest there is simply no evidence of any issue, problems or bad blood between them.
“None of the material identified any issue, any argument, any fight and bad blood which suggested there was a problem between them.”
[...]
Murder trial jury told to use 'knowledge of human nature'
The jury in the case of a man accused of a double murder has been told to use "common sense" when reaching its verdict.
