The Construction of Guilt on Timothy Evans and 10 Rillington Place Essay

The Construction of Guilt on Timothy Evans and 10 Rillington Place - Essay Example Brief facts of the case Timothy Evans, an illiterate but an able driver with mental instability made an unprovoked visit to Merthyr Police Station on 30 November 1949 and voluntarily confessed to having disposed of his wife’s body down a drain outside his home at 10 Rillington Place, North London. He made two revelations: 1) that his pregnant wife died after he administered to her abortion pills he had collected from a stranger in a cafe in East Anglia. The Notting Hills Police in North London who rushed to Evan’s place did not find any dead body inside the drain manhole cover of which was so heavy that it had to be lifted by three policemen with great difficulty. 2) On further interrogation, Evans informed that his landlord/ co-tenant, Christie disposed of the dead body of his wife who died after an unsuccessful abortion on her performed by Christie himself as allegedly informed by Christie to Evans who was not an eyewitness to both the abortion incident as well as the disposal of the body. Contrary to this, Christie actually strangled both Evan’s wife and his baby daughter to death three weeks earlier to his (Evans’) confession, of which Evans had no knowledge. ...   (Gudjonsson, 2003) Evans later retracted his confession after his mother met with him at the prison and asked him for the reason to commit the murders. He told his mother â€Å"Christie done it. Ask him to come and see me. He is the only one who can help me now† (Kennedy, 1988 p.141). Unfortunately, prosecution managed to fix Christie's and his wife as its witnesses to give evidence against Evans. at the trial. Although Evans’ defense was that he did not murder them but Christie, his own defense lawyers considered his second statement in Wales as reliable. At the time it was not suspected that Christie lied that Evans’ wife died due to abortion. Evans’ second statement precluded any motive on the part of Christie to the murder of Evans’ wife. Although the medical evidence proved that Mrs. Evans had been sexually penetrated after her death, the defense did not have the hunch that why there could not have been a third party involvement in the rape for a husband need not have to rape or to have normal sexual intercourse after her after death. Further, the forensic report of the presence of spermatozoa in Mrs. Evan’s vagina did not prompt the Defense to have it tested for DNA to find its owner was whether Evans, Christie or anybody else. Bereft of any evidence in his favor, Evans was found guilty of the murder of his daughter by the jury which was not asked by the court to decide on Mrs. Evans’ death.