Prosecution Case
Angus’s Mark X damaged car, containing only his dead body, was
sitting just prior to Pesspool Bridge from 11:50pm on Jan 4th until it was found at 5:15am on Jan 5th.
- Contradicting Evidence:
P.C.1502 Grierson and P.C.1453 Hafferty were on motor patrol that night. PC Grierson stated that “had this car been in that
position when I passed at 11:50 pm I would definitely have seen it.”
Comment:
The police notebooks were not presented to the Magistrates Court in February 1967 or to the Jury and Judge in March 1967. - Contradicting Evidence:
12:02am: PC 319 Ainsworth saw a large Jaguar Car followed by a Red Mini Car with a WHITE ROOF go by.
Comment:
How can it be that another Jaguar was seen driving by with a RED Mini car following it at 12:02am by PC Ainsworth?
If Stafford and Luvaglio had committed the murder, they would have been well on their way back to Newcastle in order to be able to arrive at the Bird Cage Club between 12:20 and 12:30am to secure their alibi, plus, they weren’t driving a RED MINI. They were driving an E-Type that evening, which was seen parked at Chelsea Grove in Newcastle by witnesses at the same time PC Ainsworth saw a Jaguar and a Mini driving by him in convoy in South Hetton. This provides a strong contradiction to the
prosecution’s claim that Stafford and Luvaglio committed the murder.
- Contradicting Evidence:
12:10am: Mauro Ferry “There was no motor vehicle sitting
stationary under or near the bridge at that time.”
Comment:
How can there be no motor vehicle sitting stationary under or near the bridge at 12:10am when Mr. Ferry passed, if the car was supposed to have been abandoned there at 11:50pm by Stafford and Luvaglio with Angus’s dead body sprawled out in the backseat?
- Contradicting Evidence:
12:47am: Mr. Feather (Bus Driver) saw a Mark X under the bridge. He states that as he drove up behind it “an arm came out of the driver’s window and gave me a signal to overtake”.
Comment:
At 12:47am Luvaglio and Stafford were seen by many people in the Bird Cage Club in Newcastle and according to the
Prosecution, Angus was lying dead in the back seat of his Mark X at the time. So who was the person that Mr. Feather saw sitting in the driver’s seat giving him the overtake signal?
This information was never given to the defence.
- Contradicting Evidence:
Between 12:47am and 4:45am, 33 witnesses saw an UNDAMAGED Mark X under the bridge, not prior to it.
One witness said, “if you put another Mark X Jaguar in front of the position that I saw it in under the bridge, it would then be in the same position as the police photograph.” (referring to one of the police photographs provided in the exhibits for the trial)
Comment:
Several of the witnesses say when they looked into the Mark X the back seat was empty and all the windows were intact. If they had looked into the Mark X, surely they would have notice a dead body lying in the back seat, and they wouldn’t have been able to miss the driver’s seat window rolled down, or the back seat
window on the driver’s seat shot out with glass laying all over Angus’s dead body? - Contradicting Evidence:
At 1:30am when Mr. Gibson was walking to the colliery he did not see any cars at all parked, stationary, near or under the bridge. In fact, the Mark X was not there at all.
Comments:
The road under the bridge is a very narrow road. It would be
impossible not to notice a big Jaguar car parked there. How is it that Mr. Gibson saw nothing? - Contradicting Evidence:
At 1:50am Mr. Wood actually leaned over the bonnet of the
UNDAMAGED Mark X; he felt heat from the engine; the passenger door was open and the back seat was empty and all the windows were intact. There were pointed shoe prints in the snow leading away from the car (the miners did not wear pointed toe shoes). The footprints could not have belonged to Stafford and Luvaglio since at the time the murder was supposedly committed it was not snowing. Those prints were made much later by someone else.
Comments:
If there was no Mark X under the bridge at 1:40am and at 1:50am Mr. Wood was leaning over the bonnet of an undamaged Mark X Jaguar, the passenger door open, footprints leading away from the car and a warm engine, this can logically only lead to one
conclusion:
An undamaged Mark X Jaguar was driven to Pesspool Bridge
between 1:40 and 1:50am, someone had got out of the car in a
hurry, left the passenger door open and the footprints indicate that the person was alive and able to walk away from the car.
Another interesting point is that Mr. Wood’s fingerprints were not found on the Mark X taken into police custody on 5th Jan. Why? Who owned the undamaged car that Mr. Wood saw and touched? The real murderer perhaps?
- Contradicting Evidence:
Mrs Brady who worked at the garage where the E-Type was
frequently cleaned, saw the E-Type parked outside the Bird Cage Club at 12:35am when she entered the club with a friend. When she left at 1:15am, the car was no longer there.
Comments:
Stafford and Luvaglio were both seen in the Bird Cage Club from the time they arrived until they left at approx. 2:15am. The only person to leave the club before that was Stafford, who went out to collect some cigarettes from the car. This is when he noticed that the back of the E-Type had been slightly damaged by a car bumping into it.
This proves that the E-Type was taken from the Birdcage Club by someone else after Luvaglio and Stafford entered at 12:30am, and then returned before 2:00am when Stafford went to the car to get cigarettes. The question is who took it and why?
Click below to see the statements.
(click to enlarge):