• John told the court that in October 1983 he had been employed at Birkenhead Glass.

• He maintained he had spent the evening of 8^th October 1983 with Mrs. Bolshaw at her invitation, but she was alive and well when he left at approximately 10.30/10.45pm.

• Mrs. Bolshaw was now living alone in the house for the first time in some months, following the wedding of her son and daughter in law. Barbara Taft was away in Sussex.

• This meant that Saturday 8^th October was a convenient time for them both to meet at Mrs. Bolshaw’s home
  
  
• During the evening consensual sexual intercourse took place, on top of the bed on the bedspread.
  
  
• Afterwards, Mrs. Bolshaw had put on the negligee which was later linked to John through a semen stain. (See Background information 2.14 & 2.23)
  
  
• During the evening he had a cup of coffee and a glass of brandy. (See 4.15)

• He had told his ex-wife he had been at the house in case he was questioned, and that he was there to undertake some work (‘a foreigner’) although this wasn’t true.

• He had initially met Mrs. Bolshaw when he delivered a letter from work regarding an enquiry about double-glazing. It was normal practice for employees to drop letters off on their way home if they lived near a client.

• As a result of this meeting a casual but infrequent sexual relationship began between John and Mrs. Bolshaw.

• Mrs. Bolshaw had telephoned his workplace about a week before the 8^th October to arrange a meeting (A witness confirmed that Mrs. Bolshaw’s name was seen in the works diary around the time in question and that John’s initials were next to it.)

• He heard about Mrs. Bolshaw’s death on Monday 10^th October 1983 over the car radio, and had been totally shocked.

• He believed the person responsible would be caught.

• The longer things went on the more difficult it became to even contemplate going to the police.

• He had not approached the police at the time as he did not want his adultery to become known to his then wife, and he was also concerned about being wrongly accused of murder.

• He admitted discussing the possibility with his ex-wife of her giving him an alibi, but they both agreed it would be easy to check out. John (as Barbara Taft agreed) did not press her on this after they had initially discussed the possibility.

• John adamantly denied that he had taken a stripe from his car, buried shoes and clothing, ripped pages out of a diary, or told his ex-wife any such thing.

• John told the court that, after hearing about Mrs. Bolshaw’s death, he obliterated her name in the works diary with an indelible marker pen.

• If he had torn any pages out of the works diary it would have been very obvious. Indeed, no torn out pages were ever mentioned by several people who had worked at the firm, and who were interviewed in 1999.

• John stated that Mrs. Bolshaw (who was fully made up) asked him if he could see a mark under her eye, but nothing was visible. When he asked about it she said something about ‘it being one of those silly things’ and that in the absence of a steak she had applied a flannel.
  
  
• The pathologist’s report stated that there was a ¼" bruise under one of Mrs. Bolshaw’s eyes, which could have been there up to 48 hours prior to her death and could have been easily concealed with make up. It was certainly not a 'black eye'.

• Other witnesses confirmed Mrs. Bolshaw would always be fully made up when entertaining a man.

• The police interviewed John in April 1999. John said he had been completely traumatised at his arrest especially as he had never been arrested before. Nine or ten policemen were at the house at 7.30am, and he felt he had been kidnapped. Prior to the duty solicitor arriving John voluntarily gave a blood sample.

• He said the duty solicitor had been the one person to cling to in what appeared to be ‘a sea of inhumanity’. He followed his advice and during interviews he made no comment other than to emphatically deny that he had killed Mrs. Bolshaw, destroyed clothing, or torn any pages from a diary.
  
  
• He was remanded in custody and all applications for bail were refused.