• The prosecution claimed John was seen by a neighbour, Mrs. Evans, digging a two-foot hole in the garden, by torchlight, at 11.30pm, early in October 1999. (The torchlight was said to be moving.)

• They claimed that John, prior to being seen in the garden, had killed Mrs. Bolshaw, taken her car and parked it on the verge of a dual carriageway. Then he had walked over a mile along the A540 Chester High Road, climbed over a fence, descended fifteen feet down a bank, and walked eight miles home along the Wirral Way. (A disused railway line and country park area).

• According to the prosecution, John was burying footwear and clothing worn at the time of the murder. This was clothing which had shed dark brown fibres in the house and on the driver’s seat of the car, which the prosecution claimed he had taken in an attempt to divert attention away from himself.
  
  
• Mrs. Evans said she was looking out of a small landing window, on a very dark night, alongside her daughter Sarah (then aged 14). Mrs. Evans said she heard a scraping noise, a digging noise, and a patting noise.
  
  
• Mrs. Evans said she saw John carrying a garden implement like a spade, and that she saw him dig a two foot hole in the garden. (If John was indeed digging a hole in the garden, how could he have also held a torch?)

• Sarah did not see John digging, and did not see any hole in the garden although she saw a moving light. She said she heard a digging noise. However, it was so dark that Sarah said she could only make out the figure of a man, not his identity.



• Mr. Evans had returned from the ‘pub at approximately 11.45pm to be told by his wife that she had seen John in the garden. He recalled that "She was upset".
  
  
• Mrs. Evans recalled holiday clothing on her washing line, which is one reason she could point to the date when she had seen John in the garden. It was early October and the family had just returned from holiday.

• The family were sure of the time of year because Sarah had injured her leg and the holiday had to be cancelled. When the injury was sufficiently recovered they had been able to go on holiday to France.

• John said that if he were in the garden he would have been putting out food for the various wild life that lived in the area of the Wirral Way.
  
  
• At the trial other neighbours gave evidence of John’s interest in wildlife, and stated that it was not uncommon for him to go into the garden late at night to put out food for wild animals.



• Regardless of why he was in the garden, the fact remains that he had been seen at around 11.30pm on 8.10.83, when Mrs. Bolshaw was still alive according to two pathologists. (See 4.5 Time of death)
  
  
• No evidence of buried shoes or clothing has ever been found in the garden at 23 Mostyn Avenue.



• A ground penetrating radar survey in 1999, plus the analysis of bags of soil taken from the garden, failed to find any evidence of buried clothing or shoes.
  
  
• The prosecution brought in Mr. Round, who had bought 23 Mostyn Avenue from John and Barbara Taft in 1984, to give evidence.



• He had told the police that a few years after moving into the house he was digging in the garden when he came across a piece of cloth about 6" x 8", along with building rubble, plastic and glass, at the site where an outhouse had been demolished.
  
  
• When he moved into the house the garden was completely overgrown and wild, and over the years he had completely renovated the entire area. He had never found any evidence of buried clothing or footwear.
  
  
• At the end of the gardens in Mostyn Avenue there is a field which was very wild and overgrown in 1983. If John had wanted to bury clothing, why didn’t he choose to do so where he couldn’t be seen, in the field. Why do it under the ‘noses’ of his neighbours. Why not, indeed, go to the shore which was a few minutes walk away and dispose of items there?

Mother and daughter were both able to confirm seeing John in the garden. However, although looking out of the same window together, they saw different things relating to John digging a hole.

The evidence of Mr. Round did not back up the allegation put by the prosecution that John had buried clothing, and the small piece of material found at the site of a demolished building along with building rubble was completely irrelevant.