Police Granted Extension in Yeates Murder Case

Bristol Magistrates have extended the length of time that Avon and Somerset Police can hold their Joanna Yeates murder suspect in custody without charge.

A brief statement on the Force's website says: "Police have today, Friday December 31, been granted more time to question a 65-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder on Thursday December 30, by Magistrates."

The man in custody is retired teacher Chris Jefferies, who was Joanna's landlord before her death.

So what does that actually mean? The legislation governing police custody is the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. For Magistrates to authorise a continued period of detention without charge they must be satisfied it is "necessary to secure or preserve evidence relating to an offence for which (the suspect) is under arrest or to obtain such evidence by questioning".

So the police must still think they have a chance of unearthing enough evidence to charge Mr Jefferies.

The police haven't given many details, but the Magistrates could have extended Mr Jefferies' period of detention without charge by an additional 36 hours. After that time, which would expire at 7 am on Sunday (2nd, January 2011), the police would have to either seek a second extension from Magistrates (taking Mr Jefferies' period of detention without charge to the absolute maximum of 96 hours since his arrest) or release him without charge.

I remain sceptical.

In fact, as I hinted yesterday, I'm not convinced it's him.

And So The Plot Thickens...

Yesterday I broke my blogging silence on Britain's most topical news item, the disappearance and murder of Bristol architect Joanna Yeates.

I concluded my article by saying: "So many questions but only a few plausible answers, which makes me think the police are quite close to making a breakthrough."

This morning's news would seem to bear that out, with the arrest of 65-year-old Chris Jefferies, Joanna's landlord, who lives in a separate flat in the same building.

Mr Jefferies, a retired teacher, entered the limelight yesterday with his announcement that he might have seen Joanna with two unknown people shortly before her disappearance on the night of Friday, 17th December 2010.

There are a few oddities surrounding Mr Jefferies, not least the fact it took him a whole week, police crawling around the flat downstairs, to remember that he may have seen Joanna on the night she vanished.

Just as I correctly said with the Suffolk Strangler case, we mustn't automatically assume that the first person arrested, in this case Mr Jefferies, is guilty of Joanna's murder. The police will have to carefully assemble the pieces of the evidential jigsaw, which will prove particularly difficult should Mr Jefferies be the right man.

I say that because as Joanna's landlord, should he (hypothetically) wish to hide his guilt, he would be able to offer a range of entirely plausible explanations to the police. Joanna's flat could, quite legitimately and innocently, be covered with his fingerprints and DNA. He could have used his vehicle to innocently give Joanna a lift to the shops. Joanna could have given him a hand loading items into the boot of his car, thereby explaining her presence in there.

Enough of playing devil's advocate.

My gut feeling is that a man as weak and weedy as Mr Jefferies, wearing his fluffy wool mittens and shuffling along with his woven nylon shopping bag, would not have been physically capable of strangling a fit and healthy girl like Joanna.

Time will tell.

The police can only hold Mr Jefferies for 36 hours without charge, before having to apply to Magistrates for an extension up to a maximum of 96 hours.

Joanna Yeates' Murder

Like most other people I've been following the Joanna Yeates disappearance now murder enquiry with interest.

For the benefit of my non-UK readers, I will quickly give some background details.

The 25-year-old landscape architect was last seen on the evening of Friday, 17th December 2010. Her disappearance was reported by her boyfriend on Sunday, 19th December 2010.

An ever expanding string of clues follows her home from the Ram pub on Park Street to Canynge Road in the Clifton area of Bristol. She stopped off at Waitrose, then the Bargain Booze off-licence, then Tesco before arriving home shortly before 9 pm that night.

CCTV and eye witness accounts have revealed that Joanna bought a pizza at Tesco and two bottles of cider at Bargain Booze.

Today, according to reports on Sky News, Joanna's landlord told police that he might have seen her leaving the flat with two thus far unknown people at around 9 pm.

Joanna's fully clothed body was found by dog walkers early on Christmas Day. Their gruesome discovery was at Longwood Lane, Failand, about 2 miles south west of Joanna's flat across the Avon Gorge. Heavy snow and hard frosts delayed post-mortem results on the body until yesterday, when it was revealed that Joanna was strangled.

Far be it for me to second guess the police investigation, but a few reasonable deductions can be made about the night of her disappearance.

She left the pub early at about 8 pm, bought a decent-sized pizza and two bottles of cider. Her boyfriend was away, so she was home alone at the time. Photographs have shown Joanna to be a slender girl, so is it likely she was going to eat the pizza and drink the cider by herself? I suggest not. It's probable she bought them because she was expecting company later in the evening.

If the landlord is correct with his observations and timings then Joanna left her flat very shortly after arriving home from the pub. In the space of that 15 or 20 minutes the two unknown people arrived, half a bottle of cider was consumed and Joanna was somehow coaxed back out of her home. Again, I don't think it's likely Joanna downed half a bottle of cider by herself in such a short space of time. I don't think it's likely that two complete strangers managed to get Joanna back outside, seemingly without struggle or disturbance, on such a bitterly cold and dark evening.

Her mobile phone and keys were left behind, as if she wasn't expecting to be away for very long. As she left her keys behind, it's a reasonable assumption that she left the door unlocked on the way out. A person would only do that if they were just nipping out, not going far at all. Was she lured outside on the pretence of briefly looking at something?

Whatever the ins and outs, the only possible conclusion is that Joanna knew her visitors and willingly left the flat with them. The fact that these two visitors haven't come forward implicates them in her disappearance.

Curiously the pizza box, empty or otherwise, has never been found. Did Joanna take it with her when she left with these two people? Did it even get as far as Canynge Road? If it didn't, why did the cider not get left at the same place?

So many questions but only a few plausible answers, which makes me think the police are quite close to making a breakthrough.

The police continued their detailed forensic examination of Joanna's flat today, with the outside door and intercom being removed for closer scrutiny.

God speed the investigation and I wish the police the best possible luck in identifying the killers and bringing them to justice.

Edit (@30/12/10): Police arrested the landlord on suspicion of murder this morning.

Cable: The Turd That Doesn't Flush

Mmm, this is embarrassing.

Just goes to show that you should take Daily Mail Reporter's Twitter feed with a pinch of salt. Turns out he's not a real DM reporter at all. The impersonator must be sat at home gloating that dim bint Kay Burley gave him the oxygen of publicity live on Sky News.

Contrary to our earlier post, apparently Vince Cable is not stepping down from the Cabinet. The exact details are still unknown, but it looks like Dr Cable has been severely rebuked by the Prime Minister (and his Deputy). He will be remaining as Business Secretary, but has been removed from influence over all matters pertaining to BSkyB.

It wouldn't surprise me if there was more news on this tonight.

Cable Gone

An hour is a long time in politics.

In reference to our earlier post Vince Cable has resigned from his post as Business Secretary.
Yet again the Lib Dems prove they are unfit for Cabinet responsibility.
First David Laws, now Vince Cable - such minor players in Government having such a high proportion of Cabinet resignations.
Bring on the election next year!

That'll be £45 please Ladbrokes!

Close the Door Behind You Vince

Sky News are breaking the story that the Daily Telegraph withheld key information from their covert recordings of the Business Secretary published earlier today.

Earlier today we reported that undercover DT reporters Holly Watt and Laura Roberts, posing as two Twickenham constituents, lulled Dr Cable into admitting he could "bring the Government down" if the Liberal Democrats were unable to win key Conservative concessions within the power sharing pact.

According to the latest reports Dr Cable also told undercover DT reporters that he was "declaring war on the Murdoch empire". Australian-born tycoon Murdoch owns the vast News Corporation group, which controls media assets around the globe.

Dr Cable explains: "I am picking my fights, some of which you may have seen, some of which you may haven't seen.

"And I don't know if you have been following what has been happening with the Murdoch press, where I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win."

Several News Corporation publications came out in support of the Conservatives at the last General Election. There is now the significant risk that Murdoch's goodwill towards the Coalition will be eroded by such a high profile Cabinet member making confrontational remarks.

Having embarrassed the Government could Cable be the next Cabinet scalp? His partiality as Business Secretary is seriously cast into doubt. Ladbrokes have him odds on favourite to be the next Cabinet departure. I'm sticking a tenner on at 7/2.

Turncoat Cable

Lib Dem big cheese Vince Cable has been forced into a humiliating climb down today, after being secretly recorded claiming he could "bring the Government down".

Undercover Daily Telegraph reporters Holly Watt and Laura Roberts visited Dr Cable's Twickenham surgery, pretending to be constituents concerned about proposed changes to the benefits system.

Dr Cable compared membership of the coalition to "like fighting a war" and said that he could use the "nuclear option" of quitting.

The entire transcript can be read in today's DT.

Stella English Wins The Apprentice 2010

Steady The Apprentice candidate Stella English has trumped rival Chris Bates in tonight's final.

The task was to design and market a brand new alcoholic drink, pitching their ideas to some of the sharpest minds in the industry.

Several rejected contestants from earlier in the series returned to help English and Bates with their final task.

Bates' team quickly seized on the idea of a pomegranate flavoured rum called Prism, while English's team eventually arrived at a spicy flavoured Bourbon called Urbon.

Bates' team encountered several problems along the way, including miscommunication over appearance of their drink and difficulty targeting their advertising.

Steady Stella adopted a characteristically methodical approach throughout, ensuring that even the finest of details were considered. Her product appealed to a more traditional market than Bates' sickly pink rum, which helped her edge to victory in the boardroom.

CCTV Mugshots of Student Protest Suspects

As Central London edges closer to normality, the Metropolitan Police Service has released images of fourteen protesters involved in the worst disorder at last Thursday's tuition fees protest.

The fourteen, pictured above, are suspected of violent disorder and criminal damage in the most bad tempered protests on the streets of London for more than a decade.

Det Ch Supt Matthew Horne said: "We want the public to help us identify these people who may have been involved in violent disorder, attacking police officers and smashing buildings, shops and windows."

Buildings targeted included the Treasury and Supreme Court, which had windows smashed and walls grafittied in a frenzy of public defiance. Photos published the following day show protesters desecrating the Cenotaph and urinating on Churchill's statue.

Protesters dispersing from Westminster targeted the Rolls Royce of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, who were en route to the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium. Photographers captured the Duchess's terror as the car was daubed with paint and had windows smashed.

Police are urging anyone with information to contact the Operation Malone incident room on 020 8358 0100 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

I hope that these thugs face the fullest consequences of the law. If it was up to me they would return to their Media Studies courses on Monday to be met by a burly security guard with the message to "f*** off and don't come back". Having demonstrated a complete disregard for the rules of society, they would also forfeit all state handouts for the rest of their pathetic existences.

Arriva North East - Public Transport from Hell

Arriva North East (image from FreeFoto.com)

Brace yourselves for another infomercial about diabolical customer service.

Arriva North East, for those fortunate enough not to know already, operates bus services in the North East of England. Unfortunately, from my point of view, that includes my stomping ground up in God's Allotment.

Sheer belligerence prevents me from buying a car, despite having passed my driving test many moons ago. As a consequence of this lifestyle choice, I tend to travel quite frequently by bus and train. Unfortunately this includes travel by Arriva North East.

Their level of service is atrocious to say the least. Their "Customer Service" people are not told of half the problems passengers encounter. Their drivers are not given any information to fend off disgruntled passenger complaints or enquiries. Quite simply, they would struggle to choreograph the running of a bath - let alone the running of an efficient public transport system.

A quick glimpse of their new Facebook site demonstrates that the Arriva North East arse doesn't know what the elbow is doing. So many contradictory reports on those pages. So many passengers complaining that the bus has missed their stop or hasn't even turned up. Coincidentally, if anyone dares to be critical on that public forum it is quickly airbrushed out or dismissed with the retort "take it up with Customer Services and not on here".

Despite being absolutely furious at the time, I chose not to write publicly about an occasion where an Arriva driver completely ignored a queue of us at the bus stop. Arriva will inevitably discover this blog post, which will remain here in perpetuity, so I will jog their memories: the incident involved Service 505 departing Alnwick at 10:03 hrs on 26th July 2010.

So livid was I at the time that I actually wrote to them to complain for the first time ever: "Despite there being four passengers waiting at the stop, two of whom signaled with their arms to the approaching driver, the bus continued straight past and failed to stop as requested.

"To make matters worse the driver had clearly noticed us at the road side, because he pointed in response to our arm signals. As the bus went past we could see several empty seats on the nearside, so the driver's failure to stop couldn’t have been in response to overcrowding.

"I also recognised the driver as one of the long serving regulars on the route, who would have been well aware where all the stops were."

Characteristic of their abysmal level of service it took them more than a fortnight to reply to that. Their reply, which I immediately discarded in disgust (sadly before scanning), told me that their Ashington depot manager had reviewed CCTV footage and found that none of the four people at the stop had signalled to the bus.

Furthermore, as all their stops are request stops, it is the responsibility of those waiting to attract the approaching driver's attention clearly. What come back could I possibly have when their Ashington manager, a person of some standing (if that's possible) in Arriva circles, fabricates a different chain of events to what actually happened?

Last night took the biscuit. I was returning home from work, having had a pretty long day already. I caught Service 505 at Morpeth on this occasion. The bus was scheduled to leave at 17:10 hrs, but it was 17:50 hrs before it started limping towards Berwick.

As my Twitter readers will already know, the driver couldn't even force a welcome smile - let alone a conciliatory explanation for the delay. That's common practice for Arriva drivers. They are so used to poor punctuality that they expect passengers to accept the same shoddy standards. Their drivers are so entwined by lateness, that they seem to forget people with important business haven't always got that luxury.

I was somewhat relieved to be making progress home when the bus inexplicably pulled over at the side of the A1 near Tritlington. An alarm could be heard in the driver's cab and ear wigging his subsequent phone call revealed there was a problem with the brakes so he couldn't continue. The bus stood disabled at the roadside, trucks flying by within feet, with our seats shaking in their wake. Ten minutes passed and the internal lights and heating stopped working, so we were left sitting shivering in the dark. The bus shook as another truck hammered by, his horn blaring with disapproval.

A concerned passenger asked the driver how long would we be stranded in this perilous position? The reply came: "How long's a piece of string? Don't ask me, I'm just the driver." Not a word of a lie, as was reported live on my Twitter feed last night. Another lady went to the driver for reassurance that the back of the bus was clearly visible to approaching traffic. His reply: "If you're worried you can always move to a seat further forward. There'd be something wrong if they (the approaching drivers) couldn't see a big double-decker bus."

A replacement bus came about 30 minutes into our roadside breakdown experience. We then had to struggle along the snow covered verge in the pitch black to board the second vehicle. Despite having my digital camera in my pocket, I somehow resisted the urge to take a snapshot of elderly walking stick users fighting along the icy roadside. It would have set this article off nicely, but with tempers already fraying I didn't want a thump for my journalistic endeavours. Pram users had an equally difficult battle, struggling to find their balance with the ice slipping between their wheels and feet.

At last we were again making progress. By the time we arrived at Alnwick the 20 miles from Morpeth had turned into a 2 hour nightmare. I pity the poor folk who were travelling all the way to Berwick and hope they made it safely.

I'm debating whether it's worth writing another letter of complaint, given the pitiful response I received last time. The Ashington depot manager would probably deny anything untoward had ever happened: "Just another day of quality Arriva service."

What they deliver is consistently pathetic, regardless of excuses like the weather. The majority of their fleet, particularly on the 505 route, is in an appaling state of repair and communicating with their drivers is like talking to a brick wall.

Arriva North East - absolutely woeful.

Noticed Again...

Traffic is up threefold today and closer investigation reveals why - Iain Dale chose us for his Daily Dozen list yesterday.

Le Monde, The Scotsman and now Iain Dale's Diary... who says we don't get noticed?!

Student Mentality

What was billed as a peaceful student protest has again descended into chaos, with police being pelted with rocks and flares outside the Houses of Parliament.

The Government's controversial proposal to raise university tuition fees is currently being debated in the Commons, with the final vote expected within the next hour. With the nation facing almost unprecedented economic turmoil, I fully support the Government's proposals to allow top universities to charge top fees.

Outside on the streets of Westminster thousands of students are in running battles with the police, with several officers hospitalised as the crowd becomes increasingly aggressive. The television news channels are carrying live coverage of the skirmishes, with police struggling at times to maintain order. At one stage a mounted policeman was thrown from his startled horse, which then trampled on him as he lay winded on the ground.

In the past I have been critical of the Metropolitan Police Service on this blog, although I have to commend them for showing such restraint this evening with a barrage of missiles raining down on their lines.

The BBC's Ben Brown asked one protester why he thought it was necessary to set a car on fire. The reply came: "Well, it's quite cold out here".

Jeremy Who?

Veteran Today programme presenter Jim Naughtie dropped a clanger live on air this morning when he accidentally mispronounced the name of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Quickly realising his embarrassing mistake, fooling nobody, Naughtie tried to cover his tracks by pretending to suffer a fit of coughing. Alas the damage was already done, with members of the blue rinse brigade having already regurgitated their muesli in disgust.

Here is the incident as it unfolded live on Radio 4:

Proving himself to be a good sport, Jeremy tweeted: "They say prepare for anything before going on Today but that took the biscuit. I was laughing as much as u Jim."

It might be the ideal opportunity for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to take a second look at the unique way the BBC is funded.