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7,915 thoughts on “Not Forgetting the al-Hillis continued

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  • M.

    http://www.dictionarycentral.com/definition/banjaxed.html

    RIP TW, I never was a TOG, prefer LBC when available.

    I returned from the UK a few days ago, via the Tunnel, there was a VW Passat ahead of me, only as we left the train did I realise it was RHD.

    It was wearing a ’62’ plate, Pas-de-Calais, I wonder if Eurotunnel knew it was a RHD ?

    My car was new in 2014, to this day, ET does not pick up the make and model of my vehicle in number plate recognition, not registered ……

    I have to use my American Express or the Booking Number for access, my older car was recognised, that is now towing a caravan in Brittany !

    On the return journey, not a soul took my Passport in hand, I flashed it at the Frogs and the Rosbif.

  • Good In Parts

    LBC – Brian Hayes was the man – and Syd Burke was, er, the other man.

    Mmmmm, that sounds a bit sexist but as I had to explain to my mum, these days ‘the man’ is often not literally male, rather a shouty person of indeterminate gender.

  • michael norton

    “not ruling out the theory of a possible settlement of accounts.”

    http://www.leparisien.fr/espace-premium/actu/tuee-a-3-km-de-chevaline-12-11-2013-3307209.php#xtref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk

    The four-star campsite the Ideal was closed since September. Sought by the two men who broke into his home owners? Yesterday, prosecutors Annecy remained cautious on this matter.

    I suppose untill these local persons are seen in court,
    we too should not rule out a sttlement of accounts.

  • Good In Parts

    MN

    The alleged conspirators are ‘housed’ in seperate jails, presumably to isolate them and break down the cohesion of the gang.

    The prisoners dilemma, serve four years on remand, all keep schtumm, then they are out scot free.

    OK, if and it’s a big if, le proc is using a court delay to pressure the alleged NCT conspirators to break ranks, turn Queens, and dob out their mates, then this strategy has presumably not been effective, so far…

    The carpenter of Doussard was the (literally) unspoken ringleader, he probably won’t crack. He is also probably the gang-member who was closest to Le Martinet.

    Where exactly is his home and/or workshop? Is it near the route that SAH would have taken thru Doussard? Or the one SM would have taken?

  • michael norton

    Theses “alleged” serious criminals/tortures/kidnappers/murderers/gunmen
    have now been in custody for TWO YEARS.

    yet other than one is the “Carpenter of Doussard”
    two are from UGINE
    and two from the Gen du voyage community camped at the relevant time in the area of Albertville /Grignon

    we know bugger all about them.

    I wonder if the “Capenter of Doussard” is a real carpenter of if that is just how he is known in the underworld,
    maybe he makes coffins?

  • Good In Parts

    Peter

    I had a quick re-read of Parry and his quotatons of EM relating to the crime scene, ballistics etc. do not seem to support the idea that a fully detailed digital reconstruction has been made and is available to him.

    EM emphasises ‘uncertainty’ in who was shot first, movement around the scene, the order of shots etc.

    So EM could be deliberately ‘misleading’ for the sake of the investigation but I feel that as a lawyer he would be reticent to tell direct blatent lies when he could easily just tell Parry that he could not answer, or simply direct him not to print something because it would prejudice the investigation.

    My re-read does however lead me to conclude that the SSMCT are using HOLMES2 to support the UK side of the investigation as some of the terminology is mentioned.

  • michael norton

    Do we know if the legal spat between
    BMFTV etc and the relatives / Procurator EM / employers of Sylvain Mollier

    is now at an end

    the final conclusion being they did nothing wrong?

  • michael norton

    This piece of disinformation from Le Daphine Libre

    A trial in several months

    The five suspects were charged and remanded in custody pending trial, which should not occur for several months …

    Posted 04/19/2014

  • Good In Parts

    MN

    Eric is just phoning it in these days.

    The term limit means his days are numbered, so I guess he has started looking* for another role.

    I fully realise that ‘he’ is not the investigation however it seems to me that the transition to a new proc would be a good time to make significant changes to the investigation, if any were needed.

    It seems fair to say that if this were England then another force would have been brought in by now. Scotland have recently moved from the regional structure to a national police force. There being no independent forces, another major crime team could in theory be assigned but this has never actually been done.

    It would seem unlikely that an English force would now be brought in to Scotland or even if it would be legal for said force to operate there however the PSNI apparently ‘imported’ significant numbers of gardai when they needed to, so who knows.

    So could a french police force be brought in from a city to replace or augment the gendarmes? Would that be unconstitutional?

    Has there been any leaks from the reviews that have been carried out on the investigation?

    (*) there is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any rumour that he was seen trying on clown shoes.

  • Good In Parts

    Q

    Maybe he does, they would always fit, albeit loosely . . . . . .

    Just like his pistes!

    I was actually picturing the Simpsons episode where Homer spots the billboards advertising ‘Clown School’ and decides he wants to become a clown. The beginning is worthwhile viewing.

  • Peter

    @ Good In Parts, 19 Feb, 2016 – 12:56 pm

    Perhaps you overestimate what a fully-digital crime scene reconstruction can reveal. Of course it cannot tell investigators the order in which shots were fired, only in the sense that any shots that hit the victim while he was already down were probably later ones. Angles of fire can be calculated very precisely in many cases, but they can only determine the height of the shooter to within +/- 15 centimetres at best, particularly if there are no clear shoe prints and hence the firing distance is unknown. A single complete shoe print allowing investigators to determine the offender’s shoe size is a more accurate predictor of the offender’s height than all firing-angle wizardry. As to the offender’s movement around the scene, perhaps they could have reconstructed his movements if the attack had taken place on soft soil, but then it did not.

    The chief purpose of all this VR wizardry is to impress a court and help cement the case against a suspect already identified by other means. I think that the cases in which it has revealed information not obtainable with traditional methods are few and far between.

    I reckon that, from shoe print(s) found in the woodland near the Martinet, the gendarmerie have been able to infer that the killer is of average height and has an average body-mass index (within the height and BMI limits required by the Municipal Police, where Devouassoux served). If the killer were a giant or a dwarf or clinically obese, they would surely have revealed that information.

  • michael norton

    Peter,
    are you suggesting they have eliminated LMC and WBM solely
    because their feet are not the same size as the killer
    but Eric Devoussoux did have the correct size feet of the killer?

  • michael norton

    I thought I’d post this story for M

    gun nuts not just in SOUTH EAST FRANCE
    also in EAST ANGLIA

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-35361339

    Why did a parish council chairman amass the biggest collection of illegal weapons ever found in the UK? The man who supplied James Arnold has been sentenced to six years in jail, but Arnold himself died while on remand, leaving his motives a mystery.

    Arnold was a popular figure in the village of Wyverstone, Suffolk, where a friend said he was “at the heart” of the 400-strong community.

    Despite a well known interest in guns and the military, there was nothing to suggest he was more than simply an enthusiast. Police have confirmed he had no previous convictions.

    In April 2014, however, a complaint of domestic assault was made against him. Officers sent to arrest him at his home were surprised to find firearms “strewn around the house”.

  • michael norton

    and a bit more for M

    Wyverstone weapons haul: Firearms dealer Anthony Buckland jailed for six years
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-35611810

    An arms dealer who supplied some of the firearms that made up the UK’s biggest stash of illegal weapons has been jailed for six years.

    Anthony Buckland 65, shook uncontrollably as he was sentenced at Norwich Crown Court.

    Police had found more than 400 firearms at the home of another man, James Arnold, in Wyverstone, Suffolk, in April 2014.

    Arnold, 49, had faced charges, but he died from cancer before going to court.

    Buckland, of Stoke Holy Cross, Norfolk, was found guilty of 11 counts of selling a prohibited weapon and nine counts of fraud.

    Police uncovered rifles, machine guns and an anti-tank missile, along with 200,000 rounds of ammunition in a secret room at Arnold’s home.

  • Good In Parts

    Peter

    You wrote

    “As to the offender’s movement around the scene, perhaps they could have reconstructed his movements if the attack had taken place on soft soil, but then it did not.”

    My contention was that ‘further analysis’ could be worthwhile. At a minimum I mean by that, reprocessing the data with the latest toolchain. Preferably handing the data over to specialist teams in other agencies or research institutions.

    Specificly I suggested* that multiple scans in combination could
    rsolve imprints in the gravel not apparent to the human eye:-

    “Is there anything worthwhile to be had by further analysis?

    Maybe not, but the ‘premature abandonment’ of the crime scene was predicated on the idea that they had gotten the best possible picture of the scene. To then not look at it, seems negligent.

    Personally, I don’t think the laser scanner resolution was sufficient, but if they made multiple scans it might be possible to resolve for example footprints in the gravel or particularly the verge, that would not be visible to the human eye.

    Shoe type and size plus gait length could be useful. In combination with the ballistic analysis, height could be derived.”

    Sensor fusion, in this case combining multiple laser scans taken from different angles and multiple HD photos taken from different angles, may enable the resolution of features not easily discernable to the unaided human eye.

    Do you think that the gendarmerie nationale have even given the data to another french police outfit? Because I don’t.

    As to the order of shots, you wrote:-

    “Of course it cannot tell investigators the order in which shots were fired, only in the sense that any shots that hit the victim while he was already down were probably later ones.”

    I agree with you, up to a point.

    In a completely static, unreactive scene that would be absolutely true. But this was a dynamic crimescene and causality must be respected.

    You correctly identify the need to take account of a prone victim who may have already been shot. A non-exhaustive list of other factors would include the car moving in a reverse arc acting as a ‘wake shield’, autopsy data, blood splatter and clothing fold data etcetera, etcetera.

    The fancy ‘VR wizardry’ is the output, as you say ‘to impress a court’. It is the process of getting there that is revealing.

    (*)caveated with my opinion that the native scanner resolution was insufficient.

  • michael norton

    736 Route Arnand – 74210 Doussard

    Good In Parts
    17th February 6pm
    There is a Carpenter of Doussard who has an address on the very route that Sylvain Mollier would have cycled.

  • michael norton

    That would be a short distance before The Flat Iron Building, where the last known published photograph of the family al-Hilli was snapped.

  • Q

    There is an unsolved murder case I have followed where the investigators were able to determine that the killer wore one of two brands of boots sold at one store (based on the sole used), and in one of two sizes. This presumably came from footprints in blood on a hard surface. However, none of this has been helpful in finding the person responsible since it happened more than five years ago. Police also have DNA.

  • Good In Parts

    Q

    A lot, and not just in money. It may have pushed PM over the edge. It certainly denied* the two girls the care of their closest family at a time they needed it.

    Then there is ED and his family. That debacle led BMFTV to take it’s ‘gamble’.

    Others too, unnamed, some still under observation or suspicion.

    Short of a luck break, the cost is going to rack up for some time.

    (*) it is clearer now what the concerns were relating to family access. Sadly, at the time, the risk must have seemed too high.

  • michael norton

    Klick on the above map and tap in

    736 Route d’Arnand, it is the very large old building with the yard going back to the river.

    this is where a “Carpenter” is supposed to be based.
    Yet I cannot see any signs hanging outside, maybe the “Carpenter”
    only works for old families and they, of course, know how to find him?

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