Posh loner who liked poetry but not sport “obviously did it”, say media
Posted on December 12, 2010Chris Jefferies may have committed the murder of Joanna Yeates – but as one of the fundamental principles of our legal system reminds us, he is innocent until proven guilty. It’s become a tradition in these cases for the media to indulge in heavy handed, nudge-nudge wink-wink implication when reporting the arrest of someone even before any charges have been brought.
Recall the case of the Ipswich Ripper, who murdered five women in 2006. The case is still notorious, but most of us have forgotten about Tom Stephens, the innocent but extremely odd man arrested wrongly for the crime spree. As soon as his name was revealed, numerous outlets started heaping increasingly peculiar implications on him – normally using anonymous comments from neighbours an acquaintances.
The most bizarre of these, which I remember made me laugh out loud at the time, was that he had been “digging in his garden with a small trowel“.
The smear was that if he was digging, he must have been burying something (or someone). In reality, of course, if digging ones garden with a small trowel was a crime then millions would be detained every Sunday afternoon and the panellists of Gardeners’ Question Time are veritable Moriartys.
The same is happening to Chris Jefferies. I am not attempting to go on some crusade to clear his name – for all I know, he may well be guilty. The police may know more that persuades them of this. What is certain is that the media do not, but are engaging in trial-by-tittle-tattle all the same.
Here are a choice selection of some of the reports about Jefferies so far, including some recognisable classics of the genre and some really weird ones:
“Oddball” – Almost all newspapers
“He showed no interest in cars or sport” – The Mirror
“The way he pronounced words and said his sentences was also weird”…”The things he taught us were really odd, he loved old English poetry.” – Small World News Service [NB it's not that odd to like old poetry...when you're an English teacher]
“Campaigned for gun range and prayer books” – Daily Mail
“A loner” – Almost all newspapers
“very posh, a solitary figure and very cultured” – The Sun
“An only child who has never married” – Daily Mail
“an active member of the local Liberal Democrats and knew the leader of Bristol city council, Barbara Janke” – The Guardian
“his students remembered him for his love of the poetry of the Pre-Raphaelite poet Christina Rossetti and idiosyncratic pronunciation of place names” – The Independent
If you spot any other corkers, put them in the comments and we can build up a full innuendo collection.
Tags: Chris Jefferies, Daily Mail, Ipswich Ripper, Joanna Yeates, Media, opinion, Small World News Service, The Guardian, The Independent, The Mirror, The Sun, Tom Stephens
“Neighbours have described Mr Jefferies, who sports a distinctive mane of straggly white hair, as a “nutty professor type” ITN website.
31.12.2010 11:21
I liked the claim (Mail I think) that he was elected Chairman of the Prayer Book Society…but resigned after only 4 months…
31.12.2010 12:36
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343021/Joanna-Yeates-murder-Landlord-Chris-Jefferies-quizzed-police-12-hour-extension-granted.html
He’s gay so he must have done it! But he didn’t weigh much so he couldn’t have!
It is pretty terrible of the papers to publish lots of titbits about the case, assertions from neighbours about what he did or didn’t do or say. Guilty or not guilty, it makes it harder for a fair trial (for him or anyone else charged) if and when we get to that stage. It also must make it bloody difficult for the police who might well want to keep information close to their chest for operational reasons and must have to spend considerable resources making sure some tabloid trash doesn’t blow everything.
31.12.2010 12:59
Hmm…isn’t it very rare for gay men to kill women?
31.12.2010 18:49
The bit that got me was the BBC headline that nailed him as a teacher at an exclusive fee-paying school. What a crime. Hang the bastard!
31.12.2010 13:07
Daily Mail: “has an obsession with Christina Rossetti, a 19th-century poet who often wrote about death.”
She also wrote In The Bleak Midwinter, but that don’t make him Santa Claus.
31.12.2010 13:15
Agree with every word you’ve written Mark. He may well be guilty, none of other than the Police will know if he is or not.
Other examples of appalling coverage:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/12/31/paedophile-colleague-of-joanna-yeates-murder-suspect-chris-jefferies-abused-boy-at-the-flat-where-jo-lived-115875-22816595/
Vile article that goes into graphic detail of Mr. Jefferies’ colleagues crimes but includes a the usual journalistic disclaimer that there is no evidence that he was involved in these crimes.
Not “he didn’t do it”, just “no evidence”.
31.12.2010 13:20
My favourite passage, from the Mirror:
A Clifton shopkeeper, who supplied Jefferies with hair dye, recalls: “It really was a most extraordinary look.
“He used to come in here and buy six packs of Henna at a time.”
The woman, who asked not to be named, added: “He came in recently and wanted to buy a black apron with the words ‘little black apron’ written on it.
“He was most insistent we get it.
“When the apron didn’t come in for a time you could tell he was bothered.”
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/12/31/the-nutty-professor-neighbours-lift-the-lid-on-christopher-jefferies-115875-22816644/#ixzz19hM9EySb
31.12.2010 14:09
Because this rather strange person popped up (Huntley-like) he has been found guilty already by the meejah. Posh? Crime. Ex-public school teacher? Crime. Proper diction? Crime. I hope they zip this up quickly; I have several female chums who live in the general area and they must be concerned.
He’s certainly strange enough, but the coverage is so prejudicial that a decent brief could get him off and, if he did it, that would not be good news. The plods need a confession (or concrete DNA evidence). But he owned the flat, so there will be plenty of that (and prints) all over the place.
Her Majesty”s Press should stand aside on this one…
31.12.2010 14:19
It gets worse. Jeffries wouldn’t let his tenants put up net curtains.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7758941-joanna-yeates-murder-suspect-jefferies-invaded-previous-tenants-privacy
31.12.2010 14:28
Some good ones from the Torygraph report at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8232412/Joanna-Yeates-murder-suspect-Christopher-Jefferies-let-himself-into-tenants-flat.html :
- Once or twice he let himself into tenants’ flats unannounced (but said tenants decline to be named)
- He has a set of keys to his tenants’ flats and wouldn’t let them fit a chain (true for most landlords)
- He’s described by pupils (again un-named) as ‘a fan of dark and violent avant garde films’; presumably if he owned the DVD box-set of Saw he’d be ok, but because it’s foreign and French-sounding he’s clearly guilty
- He’s a LibDem supporter.
31.12.2010 14:32
I’m not quite sure if “an active member of the local Liberal Democrats” is a slur as such! (Well, on second thoughts….)
31.12.2010 15:22
And the Mirror headline is:
‘Jo Suspect is Peeping Tom’ [their quotes]
I think that we should take the law into our own hands, storm the police station and string the bastard up.
31.12.2010 15:33
Love the cautionary note from current headmaster at Clifton school: ‘I think it is important to recognise no one has been charged with anything yet’. This comes buried at the foot of the Sun’s double-page character assassination headlined: ‘WEIRD, POSH, LEWD, CREEPY’
31.12.2010 15:40
I like how the BBC interviewed the current head of the school he taught at:
‘He retired several years before I became head and before most of the teachers here joined the school, so no-one here really knew him’
Bit of a wasted journey there then, eh Aunty?
31.12.2010 15:43
I have it on good authority that Mr Jefferies used to lie on his back and sometimes front for up to eight hours a day and remain practically motionless. During this time he would sometimes make strange and random creepy noises.
It makes me sick and I hope they throw away the lock and key him up forever!!!!
31.12.2010 16:00
This is part of the move to delegitimise juries in the eyes of the middle classes.
31.12.2010 16:00
one of the best is that some of his pupils called him ‘the strange Mr Jeffries’
if being a teacher and ‘a bit strange’ is a crime, there are several teachers in my old school police should be looking at.
And I suspect in most schools in the country.
thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3324998/The-strange-Mr-Jefferies-is-Joanna-Yeates-murder-suspect.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News
31.12.2010 16:06
The student added: “It’s all in his “It’s all in his eyes and hair. People were scared of him.” – Daily Star.
He has also known as ‘The strange Mr. Jeffries’ at the £30,000 per year school. Now I didn’t go to a public school, but I’m guessing they are no less equipped to produce fitting nicknames for teachers. The strange Mr.Jeffries is rubbish. I’m guessing A Flock of Seagulls, Bobby Charlton or combover
31.12.2010 16:07
Channel 4 News have someone saying;
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a social situation with a lady…. young or old. One would have said: confirmed bachelor.” (http://www.channel4.com/news/joanna-yeates-murder-landlord-still-being-questioned)
Prayer books, posh, cultured, no children, dyed hair, confirmed bachelor! Poor old Sir Cliff is looking dodgier and dodgier every second.
31.12.2010 16:11
Surely the best one is the insinuation that he helped her boyfriend get his car started to get him out of the way, run by several newspapers yesterday. Today, a sole paper quotes an apparently innocent 2nd neighbour who was also helping start the car:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/2010/12/31/joanna-yeates-murder-investigation-chris-jefferies-helped-jo-s-boyfriend-fix-his-car-hours-before-she-vanished-115875-22817900/
31.12.2010 16:51
“An active member of the LibDems”. That’s really odd, especially when all reports agree that he was a loner. I suppose he attended meetings by teleconference?
31.12.2010 19:29
Personally feel there should be a news blackout on arrested persons. Too many trials have been jeopardized by this sort of snowstorm of irrelevance
31.12.2010 19:37
Someone should set up a “Mediawatch” organisation as most stories are as bad as this. Much of the media has become a spoof as they try to entertain themsleves with their craft. Just go straight to the Daily Mash on the internet as it sends up the media perfectly. Sadly in this case it’s about a case in which someone was murderded and someone else will be hoping to get a fair trial.
31.12.2010 19:39
Indeed. Chris Morris’ parody has become reality.
01.01.2011 06:26
““He showed no interest in cars or sport” – The Mirror”
He owned a car – they took it for questioning. Surely you have to have a slight interest in cars to own and drive one?!
31.12.2010 19:54
I heard the car excercised its right to remain silent.
05.01.2011 14:56
Jefferies is obviously innocent. But neither you nor any of the comments touch upon the strange fact that, allegedy, he claimed to have seen Joanna leaving her flat on that fatal evening (at least, we assume that17/12 was the fatal evening) with two other people. Now, she disappeared on Friday 17th December. The search began on Monday 20th December. She was found on Christmas Day. The first report of Mr. Jefferies having “perhaps” seen Joanna with two other people was not reported in the media until a week later. In light of the nationwide publicity about the search for Joanna, why would not there have been an earlier report about the two unidentified people leaving Joanna’s flat with her? Did Mr. Jefferies tell neighbours but not the police, and if so. why on earth would that be so? Was it in fact one of Mr Jefferies’ neighbours who told the police about his allegeded sighting?
Comment on that.
Mr. Jefferies is most certainly innocent, unless and until anything is proved to the contrary. But assuming that reports in the “meeja” are meaningless is just as silly as Dominic Grieves’ assumption that jurors are not intelligent enough to work solely on the basis of evidence in due course presented in court.
31.12.2010 20:54
Try:
http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/
31.12.2010 20:58
Interesting site and admittedly the research and logging is impressively meticulous. However, I note that there is hardly a reference to Trinity Mirror/GMG titles – both equally as guilty as the rest.
I sense the whiff of another agenda.
01.01.2011 06:48
Despite Dominic Grieve’s warning the Telegraph couldn’t resist uploading this just as everyone was preparing to welcome in 2011.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8234571/Joanna-Yeates-murder-Christopher-Jefferies-was-meddler.html
01.01.2011 06:29
From the Torygraph :
“Neighbours of his late parents said he was especially keen on classical music as a youngster and had an organ in his bedroom as a child.”
Hmm. Playing with an organ in his bedroom as a child . . . weirdo – or perfectly normal.
Delete to taste.
01.01.2011 10:16
[...] but later released during the hunt for the murderer of Jo Yeates. The post was titled “Posh loner who liked poetry but not sport ‘obviously did it’, say media“. The point was that he was enduring an appalling trial by media, with papers heaping [...]
01.08.2011 13:17