:57:00
So the absence
of fingerprints in a robbery
:57:03
- would hardly surprise you?
- No, sir.
:57:05
Can't we surmise the burglar might have
entered a presumably empty house,
:57:09
suddenly encountered
Mrs French and struck her,
:57:12
then, realising she was dead,
fled without taking anything?
:57:15
I submit, my lord,
that it is entirely impossible
:57:18
to guess what went on in the mind
of some entirely imaginary burglar.
:57:22
With or without gloves.
:57:24
Let us not surmise, Sir Wilfrid,
but confine ourselves to facts.
:57:30
Inspector, when you questioned
the prisoner as to the stains on his jacket,
:57:35
did he not show you
a recently-healed scar on his wrist,
:57:39
- saying he had cut himself slicing bread?
- Yes, sir, that is what he said.
:57:43
And were you not told
the same thing by his wife?
:57:46
- Yes, sir. But afterwards...
- Just a simple yes or no, please.
:57:50
Did the prisoner's wife show you a knife
:57:52
and tell you that her husband
had cut his wrist while slicing bread?
:57:56
- Yes, sir.
- I will ask you to examine this knife.
:58:05
Just test the edge of it
with your finger. Carefully!
:58:08
You agree that the point
and the cutting edge are razor-sharp?
:58:12
- Yes, sir.
- Now, if such a knife were to slip,
:58:15
might it not inflict a cut
that would bleed profusely?
:58:18
Yes, sir, it might.
:58:19
Inspector, you stated that the bloodstains
on the prisoner's jacket were analysed,
:58:24
as was the blood of Mrs French, and
they were both found to be of group O.
:58:29
- That is correct.
- However,
:58:32
if the prisoner's blood
were also of this same group,
:58:35
then the stains on his jacket
may well have resulted
:58:38
from the household accident
he described to you.
:58:41
Yes, sir.
:58:43
Did you examine
the prisoner's blood, Inspector?
:58:47
No, sir.
:58:50
I have here a certificate
:58:53
stating that Leonard Stephen Vole
is a blood donor
:58:57
at the North London Hospital.
:58:59
And that his blood is group O.