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PRE-TRIAL - Neil Entwistle: The Worksop Guardian editor's perspective
TODAY the jury will be selected for the trial of Worksop man Neil Entwistle, who is accused of murdering his wife and baby daughter at their home in America.
The 29-year-old former Valley School pupil has been in jail in Massachussets awaiting trial for over two years.
The case has been massive news on both sides of the Atlantic, but will the son of a Bassetlaw councillor be able to get a fair trial?
One of the things that has been most apparent since the story first broke in January 2006 is the stark differences in not only the US judicial system and our judicial system, but also how the American and British media have handled the story.
Although the trial has yet to start a stream of sordid details about the case have already been leaked to the media.
Some of the media coverage on the other side of the Atlantic has been verging on the rabid and in some quarters there Entwistle has already been tried and found guilty.
Certain news websites are inviting readers to give their views on whether they think he is guilty or not guilty and it is quite clear that a lot of people have already made up their minds before the jury has even been sworn in.
To coincide with the trial a book about the case is being published this week distastefully entitled Heartless: To Have, To Hold, To Kill?
It would defy belief that any of the potential jurors have not been exposed to any of this sensational and biased news coverage.
In the UK such coverage before a trial would leave a newspaper wide open to being found to have committed Contempt of Court, but it appears the same rules do not apply in America.
All this must be of concern too to Neil's parents - Cliff and Yvonne. Cliff, a Bassetlaw Councillor, and Yvonne, a dinner lady at Norbridge Primary School, are well known in Worksop and one can not begin to imagine what they are going through at this time.
They have lost a dearly-loved daughter-in-law and granddaughter and their son is locked-up thousands of miles away accused of perpetrating the tragedy.
The grief and pressure they are enduring must be immense yet they have managed to keep a dignified silence throughout.
We can only hope for their sake, and for the sake of justice being done, that the jury who are selected today go into this trial with an open mind, and remain unswayed by anything they read or hear outside the courtroom.
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Weather for Worksop
Sunday 05 February 2012
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