Rolfe said:
It's a good question, but I have a small amount of sympathy. They had far less time than we've had to assimilate all this, and although they had all the evidence we've been dragging out piecemeal, that must have been quite overwhelming. They had to worry about Edwin, and the Goben memorandum, and Abu Talb, and all the other important things like the Gauci identification and PT/35b as well as a huge amount of stuff that now seems to us to be mere padding and distraction.
I also think they were far too keen to admit the possibility that Sidhu moved these suitcases, so they could claim he put the Bedford case back on top of the Coyle case. I agree that is such a cracker of a possibility that it should have been enough reasonable doubt to get an acquittal. However, reading Sidhu's FAI testimony in detail, it was dishonest.
Some bright spark (Miss Larracoechea?) asked him to explain, IF he had thought the case flat at the front wasn't suitable for that position, maybe too small or something, what would he have done with it? He said, he'd have chucked it on top of the row at the back. So if he had moved that case, it would have been in "some more remote corner of the container". Or at least, potentially high enough not to have been seriously involved in the explosion. He would not (as we thought he would) have put it back on top of the Coyle case.
This makes slightly better sense of the universal aversion to calling Sidhu. The prosecution knew they had to get those cases moved, or at least the front one(s). They didn't dare call Sidhu, because he had been so firm in his testimony that he didn't move them. The defence weren't thinking too clearly. They were being bombarded by forensics reports saying the explosion was on the second layer. Rather than think through, WHY don't the prosecution want to fix that case on the bottom layer, they seized the opportunity to claim it might then have been moved to the second layer. Thuis they couldn't call Sidhu either, because he would have explained that it was not possible for that to have happened. The left-hand Bedford case was either still on the bottom, or it was somewhere in the upper back of the container, possibly on top of the Carlsson-PD/889-Gannon array.
Why do they play these games? Seek the truth, and deal with it, you bampots.
Rolfe.
Indeed, seek the truth, wherever that may take you.
I’m still flabbergasted that the defence opted for a stratagem that would require speculative reasoning and a generous element of charity from their Lordships interpretation. This was two Libyans for goodness sake. And the court would also, in a sense retrospectively, find either in favour or in fault of the sanctions Libya had been served with for almost the previous decade.
With this, unsurprisingly as it turned out, ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ and any thought of a charitable repositioning of the luggage – in the favour of a Heathrow introduction – were in short supply at Zeist.
Okay, the defence knew that the forensic evidence posited by the AAIB estimated a height of 10” – which is really on the cusp of first and second layer – and that would be a matter of debating the strengths and weaknesses of each possibility. In conclusion, it was also thought that the base of 4041 didn’t exhibit damage wholly consistent with a bottom layer bag, but that this issue had also been a matter of some inconsistent determinations. Initially Hayes’ first examination noted that the largest piece of the primary suitcase, PI/911, had resulted from the bomb suitcase being supported from below by something relatively substantial, like the base floor.
The other evidence to be led by the crown in favour of a ‘second layer explosion’ is that other forensic evidence asserts that a blue Tourister bag from Frankfurt was on the base of the tin, and therefore the luggage must have been rearranged. It was the only other bag in direct contact with the primary suitcase.
So, fair enough. If you arguing that the Bedford suitcase was the bomb, it might appear you need to have it slightly higher, allow it to be moved, but the above argument on its own is hardly ‘beyond reasonable doubt’.
Alternatively, grounding your defence on available facts, and you do decide to call Sidhu, how does this potentially impact the crown’s case?
Well, you immediately call into question the crown’s forensic conclusion that a Frankfurt bag took the position of a previously accepted Heathrow interline brown Samsonite. Sidhu’s statements to the police and at the FAI are consistent and irrefutable: the luggage was not repositioned. The point about the blue Tourister being the only item in direct contact can then be plausibly explained by the defence, unlike the crown who can offer no explanation for their scenario being missing a critical piece of evidence: if the bomb bag was second layer, then what was directly above it?
Whether the Lordships find on balance in your favour or not, at this point, is neither here nor there. The point you’ve made is to raise strenuous questions and cast significant doubt on the forensic conclusions promoted by the crown. This then allows the defence to challenge the proposed estimation of explosion height and the damage sustained to 4041’s base and panels.
As said earlier, 10inches is just on the cusp between bottom and second layer of luggage. The defence have already provided a clear and consistent witness who makes clear that, if we accept that Bedford did witness a brown Samsonite in 4041, and we do, then we have no reason or basis to assert it left that position on the evidence heard. It is impossible for the blue tourister suitcase to have been in that position.
Accepting the proposition that the blue Tourister was the only bag in direct contact with the primary suitcase, then the defence have irrefutable reason and sound logic to infer this bag, arriving from Frankfurt, was placed at least on the second layer of luggage, and therefore above the bomb bag whose other substance of direct contact was with the panels of AVE4041.
The defence are attempting to assert that Bedford’s brown Samsonite, during the loading on luggage on top, or during the banking and turbulence experienced by the aircraft, it shifted slightly into the overhang section and exploded 38 mins later. Perhaps then the base of 4041 wasn’t the panel of the tin that felt the full impact of the explosion. This impact was primarily taken by the overhang and sloping section of 4041, which is why sooting and pitting are exhibited on the outer frame edges.
No other suitcase, or portions of suitcase matching a brown Samsonite were ever identified other than the suitcase containing the bomb.
Present McKee’s suitcase to back up your theory. Maybe Gannon’s. And finally, while leaving the court in little doubt that, not only was there a suitcase of mysterious provenance in 4041 before 103A arrived, it was not repositioned and so remained where it was last observed except for an inch or so right or left during take-off and so on – to the left means upwards too, slightly.
Then introduce DC Henderson to the Zeist court to illustrate that the primary suitcase could not be assigned to any passenger on PA103. And if no passenger whose bags should have been in AVE4041 were in possession of a brown Samonite, then accepting his evidence, whose bag did John Bedford see?
If the crown or anyone wishes to challenge this position, they need to first tell us whose bag this was that Bedford saw at 4.40pm? Two other loaders evidence also indicate this bag was there, and since no passenger has ever been assigned to be in possession of a brown Samsonite, whose was it?
Then tell us why the think Sidhu is mistaken or lying.
Then explain what must have been above the bomb bag.
Then explain how no other brown Samsonite was ever found.
The defence had a huge pool of mental resources, legal brains, academics, investigators, all at their disposal, and I find their collective reasoning to opt for some cunning scheme involving wild speculation, to be presented by both teams, and averting the true position in AVE4041, still utterly incomprehensible.