I read it this morning and thought it was a very harsh thing to say, even if it was understandable in her grief.
Could you imagine how dreadful these years have been for Barri as well as for Rachel's mother?
First of all you have a drunken row with your girlfriend and she disappears off. After a few hours of not hearing from her you get worried and go out looking for her to no avail. You think the worst has happened when your girlfriend is found dead and the gut wrenching guilt of letting her go off on her own starts to eat you up.
But it turns out that you haven't hit rock bottom yet because soon enough you're suspect number 1 and you're dragged through the hell of police interviews, of people genuinely thinking that you could have done something so horrific to the girl you love. You hold on to the thought that you're innocent because this is England and we have fair trials here and the rule of law and you didn't do it and you were with Keith anyway the whole time so people have to believe you.
Unfortunately the idea of a fair trial seems to have become somewhat mangled, and before you know it you're listening to a fake expert claiming to have proof that Rachel's dead body was in Keith's van. You hear testimonies saying that this evidence and that could only have happened because you murdered your girlfriend and you want to shout at them "I DIDN'T DO IT" but they're not listening to you - they've already made up their minds and they will see you go down for this crime.
And the jury believes it and they look at you with hatred because this man killed his girlfriend and then plotted to cover it up with his friend and isn't that the lowest of the low. And he's still pretending that he's innocent which makes things all the worse.
And so you're sent down to rot, for a crime no-one believes you didn't commit. And you're so angry and you're so broken because no-one believes you, and every time you try to protest your innocence you get a look of disbelief, or a jeering "yeah right mate" as if your innocence is a joke, a game played as part of the system.
And above all rests this sense of guilt of what happened, of what could have happened if you'd gone after her, of how it could have been difficult. And of all the lives that have been ruined because you didn't go after her, not just hers and yours, but all of her friends and family and you have so much guilt about that but you're also angry because SHE went off on her own - it wasn't your fault. But that doesn't matter to anyone except you anymore. So you're grieving instead, for her, for your freedom, for a life you could have had together...
And finally, after 3 years in prison, someone does believe you. Someone who actually understands the court system and questions the evidence and you see a light at the end of the tunnel and it must be ending soon. And it will end, but it takes 2 years to gather the evidence to quash a wrongful conviction, and another year and a retrial before you're free to go. Six years in hell for a crime you didn't commit but you're free.
But it's not the end of it, not really. Six years inside and you don't have the first clue what to do now. You have nowhere to go, and all around you people are whispering "Well if he didn't do it, how come they haven't caught someone else?" And who's really going to give a job to someone who's just spent 6 years in prison for murdering his girlfriend, even if he's found not guilty in the end?
But you get on, for 5 years you try to get along, trying to forget what happened to Rachel, trying to forget what happened to you, dealing with the trauma, and the nightmares, and the sheer paranoia that comes from being falsely charged. And when someone is finally caught for what they did, finally convicted for Rachel's murder you're not angry, you're relieved because now you can put a face to what you've been through, now you can put ghosts to rest and try to come to terms with what happened, rather than trying to guess.
But Rachel's mum doesn't agree - you didn't save her and so you killed her. You're guilty by default. It doesn't matter that the murderer has a name, you didn't look after her little girl and you abandoned her to be killed so you will always be guilty and 13 years after this whole nightmare began, you believe her.