One Flue Over The Shepherd's Hut - Discuss The Archers Here

[PseudoBadger]

I do hope Lynda has a carbon monoxide monitor in there...

When I was interviewed by the police they were utterly charming, very kind and drove me home afterwards. They had caught the man who stole my handbag and I'd had to identify him in the cells. Looking time ago.

I think Knob's performance with the police was entirely in character - this is what he has being doing all along in his relationship with Hellin, making sure he gets his version of events over first and usually in a fairly convincing way which is why so many people have been taken in by him. What he doesn't know of course is that the police know he was tracking Hellin's phone - when they first mentioned this to her there seemed to be a suggestion that they had got the measure of the situation. Hellin doesn't exactly appear to have helped herself by not backing this up - though who knows, possibly her traumatised state is a more believable reaction in an abused woman than Knob's polished performance. She is certainly not spinning them a line - she isn't saying anything. I'm hoping that the police won't be taken in by Knob's performance - the policewoman (and how great that it was a woman) sounded a bit sceptical to me. They have their suspicions - Knob is over-egging the pudding (an excellent expression from pp) when really the less he says the better he could just let his injuries speak for themselves - but of course being Knob he won't do that. We just need him to lose his temper and then the polic will have a full picture of exactly the way he operates.

God I hope you are right upthread about the police officer not buying it. I fear that arsehole is so practised in this shitty deception that he can pull the wool over anyone's eyes. He has rewritten history brilliantly. My hatred for him has surged to new heights as if that was possible. Found myself yelling 'he needs to die' at the radio (but, of course, that is sort of what has brought us to this sorry place).
ARGH!!!!!!!!

The problem for Helen is that whatever Rob was up to BC* the fact remains she stabbed him at least twice. Hopefully she won't be convicted of attempted
murder if she can show she didn't intend to kill him, but that still leaves an assault charge to defend.
I suppose self-defence is possible but I think that's going to be difficult. As far as I know diminished responsibility won't work as he's not dead.
The fact that he was mean to stuffed rabbits and hunt sabs probably doesn't help Helen.

• Before Custardy

There was a major contradiction in his evidence. On the one hand H insisted on them being together 24 hours- day; on the other she was having an affair with Kirsty

Okay, all that aside; when will the baby be born? Who will get to NAME Myson? What would Hell like to call Myson, we've never heard a word about that, have we? Any ideas? Post labour Will Hell snap out of her horror & start to function again? Else will they take baby off H and then who gets the bubba?

Would the police now go back to Hellin and tell her what Knob is saying? That might prompt a reaction. The being overwhelmed by her family is easily disproved - he gave up his job and then refused to get another one so he could take over Helen's job (thus ensuring he spent all day with her family). He then forced her to stop working and refused to let any of her family see her. They already know that he was the one tracking her phone rather than vice versa.

I don't think they will tell her what he is saying but I would expect them now to interview her again and see if any of her responses appear to back up his assertions.
Effectively he's the one saying she was controlling HIM and his tracking her phone would appear to undermine that straightaway.

Yes I like Before Custardy Annie Has anyone else called it Custard Gate?

The baby should be called Myson Custer

When will the baby be born?

lljkk - due 19 May, but we've no idea when it will happen. That doesn't stop us already having a whole thread dedicated to guessing. Come and add your guess, and you could win a prize*.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/2617513-Helens-Baby-Sweepstake

*winner must supply own prize.

Police gave Knob no clues as to what Hellin had said (or the fact that she and said nothing). He is trying to anticipate what he thinks she will have said and put his own spin on events. Hated listening to him last night, but in many ways this could be the best thing to happen for Hellin - she still stabbed him of course but listening to him in action last night it was easy to see why. I'm fact it was a slightly reworked version of the tirade if abuse he launched just before she stabbed him. It may have been my imagination but I got the impression the police woman wasn't entirely buying it. Still holding out hope that Kirsty's voicemail will have recorded the whole thing.

I don't think Rob willhave said she was leaving. Quite the opposite. He may even have said he had had enough and he was trying to leave her and take Henry with him for safety and that's when she stabbed him.

He'll say he was tracking her because he was worried about her erratic behaviour.

And although she only looked at his phone once, it will be very difficult for her to disprove his assertion that she did it more often.

And I think that policewoman sounds like she disbelieves everyone. I think weary and highly sceptical is just the way that character is played.

I would like her to question Pat. "So Mrs Archer, you claim to be Welsh. Do you have any evidence to back this claim up?"

But why would she have been leaving if things were as Knob describes? He can hardly say he was the one leaving when the packed bag belonged to Hellin. Another inconsistency in his testimony.

Pat has family in Wales doesn't she - in fact that's probably where Hellin would go in the unlikely event she got bail.

The Academic Archers conference had a very interesting talk on how voices change. His final example was the really unusual change in Pat, from an early lilting Welsh to RP. I was wondering if a brain injury could have caused the change, as MIL briefly went from RP to Yorkshire after she had a stroke. But that was "the other way round".
The Bridge farm lot did usually go on holiday to a caravan in Wales. It's only very recently that Pat and Tony have gone abroad.

As Annie says none of the contradictions in Rob's background really help Helen with the stabbing. Would those allegations even have been written down in the statement or just the events on the day? Would Rob's verbal statement even have been recorded?

If not, listeners will have heard Rob's version of Helen's behaviour before the stabbing, but not Rob's version of the stabbing itself. So we are no further forward with the storyline than we were. We've just been wound up again

Lill Hellin's bags were packed because she was fleeing the scene of the crime.

It's not what happened but Rob could easily try to play it that way as could the prosecution.

There isn't much Hellon can do to make herself look good but her story is easily discredited and she can be made to look bad.

Which is why I am betting on her either being on the brink of a long stretch or actually being sent down and only being let off when Rob gets caught in some incriminating act after the event e.g. abusing someone else.

I don't think Hellon's testimony will get her anywhere. Even if Henry backs up her story Rob could still say he misinterpreted Rob trying to grab him to save him from Hell.

(And as that case ongoing just shows little kids can be convinced to say all sorts even admitting to a crime they didn't commit if they feel guilty and confused)

Small There is DNA testing now, which would prove that there was no blood on the bags. It could also prove that the knife hd been held by both parties to Custard Gate.

I hope the SWs don't bleedin' string it out

Found myself yelling 'he needs to die' at the radio (but, of course, that is sort of what has brought us to this sorry place)

Me too. I was on the M25 yelling "Stab him!" at the radio. It really wasn't good for my driving, just as well we were going at 10 mph at the time.

I've got a vague feeling that the police can't interview Helen again now she's been charged. Any criminal lawyers or police around?

Lillian, I'm sure he'll claim she was leaving to be with her lesbian lover, because of said lesbian lover's malign influence. His problem will be, I hope, that the police won't be able to find anyone other than Arsula to back up his claims about evil gay tendencies.

K can confirm Hell wanted to leave to go to her parents & they planned for K to come pick H+H up. Presumably the police found Hell's bag packed (upstairs on the bed, Rob had a snit about it) with Hell's stuff in it, not Rob's stuff in it. It makes a lot of sense that Hell would panic if Rob was trying to stop her leaving. It'd be quite strange if she packed with a plan to stab him & then "flee scene of crime" only to go as far as her parents. But none of that gives her legal excuse for stabbing him.

Can anyone recall what Rob said when he threw K out of the house?

Apologies if someone else has posted this first, but I haven't trawled back through all yesterday's posts yet.

jobs.theguardian.com/job/6304310/editor-the-archers/

Though you had dropped me in it with the prize on the sweepstake lljkk!

Ooops, sorry MrsK. Found it on page 14.

me no comprendo (sweepstakes? dropped you in it?)

I'm not with it today. It was D3 replying to you LLJKK about the sweepstake. Finally got to the end of everyone's posts & I'm adding to them with 101 corrections.

ppeat dna sjowimg that two.people who lived in the same house had both held a knife in that house proves nothing.

DNA is only really helpful in cases where people don't know each other. We all shed dna all over the place all the time.