Clifford - The Murder of Mary Ashford

THE

MURDER

OF

MARY

ASHFORD

To the memory of Mary Ashford and all victims of sexual assault everywhere.

And for my sister Madeleine Klein, whose stories inspired me.

THE CRIME THAT CHANGED ENGLISH LEGAL HISTORY

NAOMI CLIFFORD

The Identity of the Killer Finally Revealed

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

PEN AND SWORD HISTORY

an imprint of

Pen and Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright Naomi Clifford, 2018

ISBN 978 1 47386 338 5

eISBN 978 1 47386 340 8

Mobi ISBN 978 1 47386 339 2

The right of Naomi Clifford to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

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The protagonists in this story understood the importance of the distances quoted in Abraham Thorntons alibi and set about surveying, measuring and recording them in order to prove that certain things could or could not have happened. Although some readers, particularly those of a certain vintage, will have no trouble with miles, yards, feet and inches, this ready reckoner might be helpful for those not brought up using these terms.

1 mile = 1.6km

1 yard = 0.91m

1 foot = 30cm

I have drawn the line at giving distances in furlongs, which are now totally obsolete, and have converted these into yards or fractions of a mile.

Early one morning I came downstairs to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and noticed, through the French doors, evidence of a crime. On the garden lawn were the remains of a barbeque meal: paper plates, plastic forks and meat bones half hanging out of a bin liner. Convinced that the party held by our neighbour the previous night had got out of hand and someone had lobbed the rubbish bag over the fence, I gathered it up and lobbed it right back. Later that day I found the remains of a bird at the back of the garden and it occurred to me that a fox had dragged the bin bag from next door into our garden and set about devouring it, until distracted by fresher, juicier prey. The neighbours were innocent. This small incident showed me how easy it is to draw the wrong conclusion. Circumstantial evidence, bias against a suspect (the neighbours party had kept me awake), pressure for a quick solution or simply the desire for a neat ending can lead to error.