The Milly Dowler Murder Trial

While I have every sympathy for Miss Dowler's family, they cannot complain that they have not received justice. Our courts do not administer individual, retributive justice, but collective justice; The Queen's Justice. However badly they feel they might have been treated in its pursuit, and however low and wicked his character might be, Levi Bellfield still remained and remains as entitled to the fairness and transparency of the Queen's Justice as they are, and I hope that that will always be the case.

Their sister and daughter had the misfortune to encounter a serial killer, a shocking but rare event which does not by itself justify altering the methods by which the Queen's Justice is either pursued or dispensed in any way whatsoever; and our senior police officers would do well to remember that their function in the system is ended once the Crown has presented its case. For any of them to utter any word regarding any other aspect of the trial might be regarded as improper in some circles.