Mark Wallace, Chris Jeffries - and media reporting

by Paul Goodman

2.45pm Update: Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, has said that if necessary he will issue a notice to remind the media of their obligation to coverage the murder inquiry fairly.

Mark Wallace has written a superlative post on Crash Bang Wallace about the media's reporting in relation to Chris Jeffries.  He rightly doesn't take a view on whether Jeffries is or isn't guilty of any crime.  He no less correctly notes that a principle of our legal system is that people are innocent until proved guilty, but that the media is prone to assume otherwise if it doesn't like the cut of someone's jib.

It's worth reading Wallace's piece in full.  But I can sum it up by reporting his view, namely that - according to the media - the posh, solitary, oddball loner only child who's never married, pronounces words idiosyncratically, loves poetry, shows no interest in cars or sports, and has campaigned for a gun range and the prayer book "obviously did it".

Wallace also refers to the arrest of Tom Stephens in relation to the Ipswich prostitute murders.  Readers may remember the story of Colin Stagg.