A business letter to Mrs. Bolshaw, from the double glazing firm where John worked at the time (which was signed by someone else), and a business card bearing John’s name, were found in 5 Buffs Lane after Mrs. Bolshaw was killed. The letter gave a quote for glazing work. The business card bearing John’s details was found during the same search in 1983.

• Two detective constables visited Birkenhead Glass in November 1983 and John was spoken to about the letter, but not the business card.
  
  
• John had said no records had been retained following the quote being sent in the letter.
  
  
• A form completed by one of the officers at the time, although a statement was not taken from John, confirms this.
  
  
• Neither officer was able to refer to their notebooks as they had been destroyed, apparently in line with police
  policy. One of the officers could not specifically remember speaking to John. The other did recall the conversation, and that John had said no records had been retained following the written quote contained in the letter found at 5 Buffs Lane. After speaking to John the officer said he spoke to a manager at the firm to confirm that what John had said was correct. (Although none of the managers, when interviewed by the police in 1999, mentioned having been spoken to by the police in 1983. The police officer was relying on memory, not notes taken at the time.)
  
  
• It is clear that John did not tell the police of his involvement with Mrs. Bolshaw when they spoke to him about the business letter. He admitted this in court and said he had little recall of the brief conversation as he was so anxious at the time and was just glad for the officers to go away.
  
  
• John had previously told a manager at the firm, Mr. Beech, that he knew Mrs. Bolshaw and a brief conversation had taken place about this. Mr. Beech told the court that John had said that if the police should call to make enquiries, he would like him to say that he (John) ‘had only gone there to look at the windows’. However Mr. Beech was not spoken to at the time by the police.

The prosecution claimed John lied about not knowing Mrs. Bolshaw because he had killed her. John maintained he did not tell the police he knew her because he was frightened of the potential effects, which were his adultery becoming known to his wife and the fear of being ‘fitted up’ for the murder.

The prosecution said John had entered into an elaborate web of deceit to cover up his relationship with Mrs. Bolshaw, and the brief ‘interview’ with the police confirmed this because he had lied. However, he had already told Mr. Beech he had been to the house, and if Mr. Beech had spoken to the police, this would have come out at the time. Hardly, then, a very sophisticated ‘web of deceit’. It fits better with John’s explanation of panic and anxiety at being wrongly accused and his marriage being wrecked.