Soham Trial - Jury considering verdict.

[CerberusIV]

It seems the recriminations have started about who should have known what and told who else. The Chief Constable of Humberside walked out of a TV interview after being pressed on his force not logging "evidence" (not surprising as I can't understand why most people don't walk out on Paxman).

Huntley wasn't charged, much less convicted of anything before this. The system relies on people being picked up for minor offences before anything major happens and sometimes the first one that they get charged on is a major crime.

I would not like to see police records include notes of when a complaint was made or someone was questioned, the scope for harrassment by someone with a grudge is too great, and the police don't seem too keen on the idea either. The problem is that the media are whipping up a frenzy over what went wrong and looking for either a scapegoat or another Sarah's Law fiasco. I fear the lawmakeers will be obliged to do something and it will cause more problems than it solves.

[TheStinger]

The fault more lies with the inablility of humberside police and the CPS to charge Huntley previously. the records thing is IMHO a red herring. He had never been convicted of anything.

[duke o' york]

Were the life sentences concurrent or consecutive?
I know that consecutive sentences are very rare, but with all the hoohah surrounding this case it's possible.

The reason that charges were never pressed in any of his previous brushes with the law is that unless the CPS are convinced they will be able to secure a conviction upon the evidence they have then they will not even bother to take the case to court. There are some pretty smart lawyers around these days and therefore unless the police have a watertight case, sufficient and reasonable doubt can be proven. The CPS don't have the money to afford to pursue every case they receive on the off chance that they win more than they lose - they quite simply have to win them all so they'll hedge their bets and only take on cases with a near guarantee of a conviction.