The Trial: A Murder in the Family ***warning - contains spoilers***

[NapQueen]

Anyone watching along? Starts tonight, 9pm, C4. Runs for five nights. I loved Broadchurch, and have been on a Jury, and love anything like this.

Hope its good!

radip times link

At the moment I have no clue if he did it but I don't feel that the prosecution have enough evidence to make me think they have proved without unreasonable doubt that he is guilty. So I'd have to go not guilty based on that fact.

I'm finding it fascinating! Love that the cheat sheet mentioned that the victim is an actor!

Hated the way those two jurors rolled their eyes and we're dismissive of the woman with masses of experience of working with abused women. She was right - women don't fall for controlling, violent men; they fall for charming, kind men who then turn violent further down the line. I'm suspicious of men who can't talk about male violence without taking it personally. And the almost obligatory 'female are just as bad as men'. Well no, actually, no they're not. And they're women, not 'females'.

They wound me up!

So far there seems to be very little in the way of evidence. Hardly any physical evidence. Just relying on the barristers trying to sway the jury in terms of character.

Posted too soon.

Highly disturbing that the men were eye rolling etc. But not very surprising at all, sadly.

Enjoying this so far and I think it shows that nothing is ever black and white.

The key phrase is "beyond reasonable doubt" - based on what we heard from Lewis last night, there is enough reasonable doubt that the husband did it, the barristers raised enough questions that it could have been Lewis. So he'd have to be acquitted.

the bloke that moaned about 'all the sexist comments flying around' had me shouting at the TV!

Me too holdback. It's not 'sexist' to point out that men are more violent than women. It's fact. And putting hands around a woman's neck is a real red flag. Very serious domestic abuse.

I also hated his presumption that a woman who's suffering domestic abuse would be 'timid'.

I'm starting to get a crush on the defense barrister.

The whole point of the programme is to show the jury experience - put together 12 random people and yes you're going to get a sexist numpty and other people with different life experiences.

I love crime stories and find this show really gripping but where the heck is any forensic evidence? Are the local police that incompetent that they haven't managed to uncover DNA evidence on the victim's neck, or matched fingerprint marks with strangulation bruises, etc. Especially with two obvious suspects, and supposedly very little time between the death and reporting of it (even factoring dodgy ex's 8 minutes delay to 999...)

is this actually based on a real crime ,i realise the defendent etc are actors but is there a real story behind this ? My dh was due to have a trial last yr which was for assault it was fortunatley resolved in court on the day the trial was due to start, the CPS accepted my dh was telling the truth its scary what goes on in my dh case the CPS based the whole trial on one persons account there was no since whatsoever and all their other witnesses were not actually present at the incident they had just been told what had happened, the CpS eventually admitted their main witness was completley unreliable

no evidence*

Vagndidit (hope I've spelled your UN correctly) the defendant's DNA was recovered from the back of the victim's neck but I think they discredited that, saying it could have come from him just leaning over her or something?

I watched the first three episodes of this, back to back last night, and I thought it was very interesting.

I have served on two juries, and as far as I can recall, it was made very clear to us that we could only discuss the case when the whole jury was there - so I was a bit surprised to see some of the jurors discussing the case round a table, without the rest of them there.

I agree with pps about the 'sexist comments' bit - and I was really cross that no-one pointed out that the retired health visitor had said "...all ABUSIVE men..." not "...all men..." - she was making a very valid point about how abusive relationships don't start off abusive - it grows and develops over time - but she was shouted down by that horrible ex Army bloke. He is a fine one to preach about sexism when he is shouting down a woman!

I think the retired health visitor is too intelligent for most of the other jurors. Also if she was 25 and model blonde they'd probably treat her differently. But not necessarily more seriously.

Dh says they defence barrister sounds like a pilot i.e. that public school type of "reassuring" tone. I say he's rather fond of his hair styling.

So.....guilty or not guilty????
I'm going with guilty...the phone calls just don't add up to me. And he can't explain it himself. Why the fuck would he ring a friend? Also his history of violence... yep, guilty

I think he did it. I reckon the wife's news was that she wanted an abortion and it was over and that caused him to flip (previously thinking they were getting back together). I'm really enjoying it, as a former solicitor, I'm finding it pretty accurate so far.

I think guilty too - he said in his police interview he stayed with his wife the whole time until the paramedics got there, but the neighbour saw him in the garden.

I stopped watching when I wanted to punch Army man through the screen. The retired HV clearly said "abusive men" not "all men". They leapt down her throat.
Idiots.

I think he is guilty too but they are throwing in the curve ball about the boyfriend. If the boyfriend was a suspect how comes they are only addressing this now - wouldn't the police have investigated him?

I think guilty. But beyond reasonable doubt? Not sure if that be proven

I think that the boyfriend is a more likely culprit.
He lied about where he was, disabled the GPS on the phone, is physically fitter and stronger to subdue the victim. He is also more aware of forensics and police procedure.
Motive wise : she was cheating on him and i suspect about to end the relationship. pregnant by another man.
He also has a history of violence / short fuse.

Was this based on a real case?