To think that justice was not done

Yeah that is pretty abhorrent

When I read that I genuinely felt sick. An abhorrent thing to say. Appalling.

Yes I agree that it’s not a good look to attack the defence barrister here. Everyone deserves a robust defence. You just cannot send people to prisons, potentially for the rest of their lives, without ensuring that they are properly defended. Believe me. And it’s always worse for a guilty person to avoid prison than for an innocent person to be jailed.

It is clear that Taryn Baird lied on various occasions about allegations. That damaged her credibility and I don’t think the jury could have reached a different verdict even if it seems that her husband was abusive.

I understand and admire your candour

I’m horrified by the conclusion of the case. They have besmirched this doomed young woman’s reputation for no other reason than she is no longer alive to tell the tale

Well speaking as a defence barrister if my client told me outright ‘I did it’ then went into court and lied and said they didn’t I have to recuse myself instantly and say that I am ‘professionally embarrassed’ all the legal staff know my client lied. That’s it,
trial over til new legal representation is found

If the evidence is pretty clear that they did it and they insist that they didn’t then I would say ‘my instructions are’ and again people would know that I’ve instructed my client appropriately and they are insisting we run this defence so we are.

As a barrister I can’t turn down defence work. It’s what’s called the taxi rank rule. You take the first case you’re offered, you can’t read the case and say ‘oh actually no I can’t do that’

I will defend my clients to the best of my ability and I sleep just fine because if I didn’t then they would probably get a retrial on appeal for ineffective counsel and if you were in prison waiting for your trial which the prosecution had only circumstantial evidence for and your legal representation decided you actually did it and got you years In prison I think you’d be pretty pissed off too

Im sure some of my clients are guilty and have got off and I’m sure some of my clients are innocent and have gone to prison. In some cases I am still working appeals. I feel far worse about the people who are in prison now that I am personally convinced are not guilty.

@DiamondRBD completely agree we will never know for sure, but based on the evidence in court the outcome did not surprise me.
I’m sure the prosecution also said none of his defence evidence had materialised during the investigation either which I did find odd - why would you wait for trial to bring evidence to defend yourself?

I've also listened to the trial podcast and I think it's more a case that the prosecution didn't really prove their case, as supposed to he definitely didn't abuse her. I'm sure some of the jury would have agreed he did, but the case was asking them (in one of the charges) to definitively conclude that he caused her death, when she was obviously desperately seeking mental health support she didn't get. I was thinking before that they might find him guilty of coercive control and rape but not manslaughter. I found the evidence about the fluffy collar causing bruising round her neck laughable. The jury seem to have been convinced by the dates when she says she was abused and he was out of the country. It's perfectly possible that she made some things up and he also did abuse her.

Yes it is very sad. And some people with MH conditions will fabricate abuse and it doesn’t help anyone to pretend otherwise. I used to work with someone like this and she would post pictures of her bruised body saying her dad or her boyfriend had beaten her up and that she needed somewhere safe to stay. The injuries were often self inflicted and on one occasion due to resisting arrest by the police. But someone seeing that and assuming she was telling the truth would be shocked and horrified.

Three investigations, I think he said. Three.

The police clearly thought he was worth scrutiny.

Thing is, we know how hard it is to get a case to court.

Having listened to the Trial podcast which goes into a lot of detail on the evidence heard in court, I was not surprised at the verdict. He was out of the country for long periods of time (proven with travel records and colleagues testimony) during which she claimed new episodes of abuse and bruising. She messaged people claiming she was being attacked by him while her phone location shows her on a train to a day out with another friend. Even the professionals involved with her had started to see where her story didn’t add up. She clearly needed a lot of mental health support due to PTSD and didn’t get that help unfortunately. While I don’t think he was a good husband, there was no evidence that he was abusing her - in fact quite the opposite. I don’t think she intended to kill herself though, I think it was a cry for help after a morning of calling round various services and being passed between them all. Very very sad.

It sounds as though there was not much evidence, and if he was out of the country when at least some of the injuries occurred it would be difficult to convict him. She had MH issues and took her own life, no one was murdered, how much he contributed to her death we will never know.

Hard to say, I haven't read beyond the news today. Perhaps some have no scruples, and on the flip side are there prosecutors who take cases suspecting a defendant is innocent? Taking emotion out of it, you say "blaringly obvious" but 12 normal people found him not guilty. Not innocent of course, but not guilty.

If it was proved in court that he was out of the country when the injuries occurred I presume that the jury were going with the evidence & that's why the verdict came back not guilty.
The verdict is only as good as the evidence given in court.

Saw this on the news and saw him speak. I totally agree with you OP.

I swore out loud in the office when I read the verdict. Women really are sub-human to some people.

yes but in cases where it is blaringly obvious someone is guilty and they have to spread vicious lies and rumours about a woman who was abused and pushed to suicide to win a case is surely something they sit and think about no?!

Don't want to take this off on a tangent but I don't really blame them. Their job is to defend their client to the best of their ability. Whilst they may have been guilty, we'd also want them to defend you or I if we were on trial of something we were innocent of.

How do the defence actually live with themselves knowing they are defending these monsters?? His new wife is clearly blind she will almost certainly suffer.

That’s really annoyed me. So if you murder someone and the trial takes a while to come to court, as it increasingly does, you should automatically be exonerated? Because it’s ‘a ghost’ from 10 years ago.

Something has gone very wrong with lawyers. They’re rotten as hell.

Another woman dead. Another abuser free and exonerated to enjoy his life. 😔

Was he found not guilty?

I thought that - but then that leads to him telling the truth at least in that respect. Just seems an odd phrase of reporting either way.