Our Call To Editors Of London Magazine To Check Facts Before Propagating Crazy Nigel Scott Theories



[Above: Lib-Dem Haringey Town Councillor Nigel Scott, the writer of Liberator’s conspiracy theory piece]

Liberator Magazine
24 Alexandra Grove
London   N4 2LF

Attn: the Editors

Dear Sirs,

Before you accept an article concerning a far away murder investigation and trial (well, Italy is farther away than the Channel Islands), you should ensure that your writers,

1) have correct facts, and

2) are not being used by a foreign lobby which has basically stated that it will try to force an extra-judicial solution to said trial.

I have read the version of Nigel Scott’s Liberator article as is reproduced on a conspiracy theory website

I have no idea what brought Scott to become interested in this case, nor who briefed him on the content of his article, but he breezily and frivolously brushes over the very wide and heavy set of evidence against American Amanda Knox in the murder of her English roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, in 2007 (Scott doesn’t hide very well the fact that his article has little to do with Kercher’s murder, and much to do with the defence of convicted murderer - pending appeal - Knox).

When Scott says, “When Knox, who was by then locked out of her flat because it was a murder scene, bought clean knickers, this was interpreted as casual disregard for her dead friend”, well that’s not the whole truth. Knox was joking with her boyfriend in the policestation, hugging and kissing him, and also performing cartwheels there. While she has not been convicted for showing “casual disregard” for her roommate, if you are looking to talk about Knox’s casual disregard for her dead friend, it would be better to cite the best examples.

Scott says, “When police learned that Knox’s mother was on her way to Italy to support her, they arranged an all night interrogation session to break the pair”. This is absolutely not true. Only Knox’s boyfriend was invited to the policestation on 5 November 2007, not Knox. She voluntarily accompanied him and was in a public waiting room. Shortly after he admitted that Knox’s alibi did not coincide with his, police interviewed her since she was there, and she soon admitted (not in an overnight interrogation session) that she indeed had been at the scene of the crime.

Scott says (repeating well-known pro-Knox talking points): “Mysteriously, they (the 5-11-2007 interviews) were not recorded, although they seem to be the only interviews that were not recorded during the whole case.”  In fact, I believe that no witness interviews were recorded of any of this case’s witnesses. As soon as Knox and her boyfriend incriminated themselves and they turned from witnesses into suspects, the 5-11-2007 interviews were stopped due to their lack of legal representation. I believe that all suspect interviews were recorded from then onwards (the few that occurred .... both Knox and Sollecito quickly invoked their rights as suspects to not respond to questioning during the investigation).

Scott continues by deriding the DNA evidence. Contrary to what Scott writes in your magazine, the bra clasp contains abundant DNA of Knox’s boyfriend Sollecito. No special testing procedures were required to detect that. The “Double DNA Knife” which contains both the victim’s and Knox’s DNA did require special procedures, and independent specialists are currently reexamining the knife. Until they return their report, there is no reason to sell the idea that LCN DNA evidence - which is used in other jurisdictions - is inacceptable.

Pro-Knox writers have slimed prosecutor Giulano Mignini, not questioning his legal processes, but describing him as “mentally unstable” and other such personal accusations. When as a citizen (not in his role as a prosecutor) he has tried to defend his honour, the pro-Knox lobby seems to have arranged for the US-based “Committee to Protect Journalists” to write to the Italian authorities criticising the fact the Mignini defends himself.

Scott writes about “the real murderer”, Rudy Guede, as if Guede was a person totally unrelated to Knox and Sollecito. The same investigation and the same body of evidence which convicted Guede in his trial (he opted for the fast-track version, instead of participating with Knox and Sollecito in the long trial), is the body of evidence which convicted the two lovers. Although Scott holds up US private detective Paul Ciolino as some sort of holder of truth, even as Ciolino announced on CBS in the USA that Amanda Knox had never met Guede and didn’t know him (which for some time was the “official” Knox media posture), Knox was admitting in the courtroom what was already widely known to followers of this case: that she knew Guede, had smoked drugs with him and been to a party with him in the flat below hers.

The unsubstantiated accusations and garbage that Scott writes continues, mostly following the pro-Knox camp’s exact template to blow fog over this case.

Knox and Sollecito (together with co-accused Guede) were all found guilty of murder and sexual assault. Knox and Sollecito are in the middle of their mult-level appeals. Knox’s Italian lawyers have apologised for the vilifying noise which comes from the American lobby and which they state hurts her (it should be said that probably most Americans don’t care about this case, or if they have followed it, many believe that Knox is guilty). The only reason that the American people around her continue to partake in this campaign must be because they know the purely legal strategy is lost and an extrajudicial solution must be sought (i.e., the intervention of the State Department). Not-so-independent Paul Ciolino stated as much at a recent pro-Knox event in Seattle. Another explanation are the growing commercial profits arising from this case as pro-Knox personalities write books and sell screen rights. Either way, it’s sad that a magazine with a political vocation such as Liberator gets associated with such antics.

Scott writes: “The Kercher family employed their own prosecutor, as is permitted in Italy, who has joined in cross examinations and also briefed the media.”  It is indeed dreadful when a representative of the British public such as Nigel Scott suggests in Liberator that a berieving London family, the Kerchers, should refrain from representing themselves as a private party to this case as is their right, given that it was their daughter and sister who was brutally murdered. What has come over this man? Does he want the Kerchers to just go away and get over their grief?

Most importantly, does the editorial board of The Liberator want to be associated with the sort of gibberish that Scott repeats from the “Friends of Amanda” US-based lobby group?

I wish you well with your magazine. I hope that you are able to find the right sort of content in the future for the readership you really care about. I hope you do get concerned about your magazine being referred to on the “injusticeinperugia.blogspot.com” site and being associated with a text-book case of media manipulation (do a google search on: marriott “amanda knox” “paid media”

... Gogerty Marriott is the US marketing company running the Knox PR campaign. In fact, on their website, Gogerty Marriott use the Amanda Knox campaign as commercial example of their services).

Please, get worried. Please feel free to contact me with any issue concerning this email.

I remain, yours sincerely,

Kermit

Posted by Kermit on 06/22/11 at 05:10 PM in News media & movies,  Hoaxes against Italy,  4 No firm DNA hoax,  Hoaxes Knox & team,  16 Interrogation hoax,  Hoaxers from 2007,  More hoaxers

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Comments

6/22/11
Thanks to Kermit. He liberates The Liberator from the chains of Mr. Scott’s errors. 

Scott attacks TJMK and PMF when both sites seek the truth about Meredith’s death and want justice to be done in the courts. Scott should side with legitimate authority, the courts not the mobs outside. He blasts a wonderful prosecutor based on trivia and the natural hostility of a family whose daughter has been brought before him and his peers to prosecute.

The safest guide in a civilized country is the judge and jury who are hearing evidence, not the shouts of defendants’ friends.

Posted by Hopeful on 06/22/11 at 07:06 PM | #

Hi Hopeful,

What really baffles me is: what does Nigel Scott get out of this? Why publish in a UK magazine dedicated to political issues a biased article drafted following the dictates of PR talking points, about an American girl convicted in Italy of murder?

Will any The Liberator subscribers ask for their money back?

Posted by Kermit on 06/22/11 at 08:14 PM | #

Maybe he noted the attention a similar move garnered for Rocco Girlanda and decided to get some for himself.

Posted by Skeptical Bystander on 06/23/11 at 02:20 AM | #

As we expected, the all-too-typical syndrome emerges: an utter lack of any relevant qualifications, an obvious unhealthy fascination for Knox, and an obvious blaming of the lone black guy.

http://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=1223

Obviously one of Haringey’s finest.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/23/11 at 02:54 AM | #

Another wonderful rebuttal, Kermit!  These random authors are merely gnats in the evening sun and you effectively swat them away - one by one.  Reminds me of the Foo Fighters song:  “done, done, on to the next one…”

Posted by Fly By Night on 06/23/11 at 04:28 AM | #

I don’t understand the one-sided journalism; can’t these writers give equal time to both sides? It’s a disgrace for the victim’s name and rights to be swept under the rug as if they never existed, and certainly doesn’t reflect the whole story.

Posted by giustizia on 06/23/11 at 05:34 AM | #

Haringey Council spends every single year in the bottom 5 councils in the UK.  They couldn’t sort out a drinking session in a brewery. Google Baby P and see what Haringey are best known for in the UK, impressive aren’t they?  Also, google the Lib Dem approval rating.  The party that couldn’t get votes if they paid the electorate (again, Google Nick Clegg and free bank shares; he’s actually trying to give out free money and still noone will vote for him).  I think Nigel needs to get his own house in order before he starts pointing the finger at Italy.  Man’s a joke.

Posted by daisysteiner on 06/23/11 at 01:06 PM | #

No only shock sells magazines and so we have the victims family once again being victimized by this time a London magazine. What is their reasoning for making up half truths and printing it. Meredith is the victim but only speculation and untruths are printed on behalf of… you guessed it the murderers. Thank you Kermit for once again shining the light of exposure to this kind of ridiculous print.

Posted by friar fudd on 06/23/11 at 01:28 PM | #

Kermit’s Letter-to-the-Editors of Liberator Magazine re Councilman Scott, points out that LCN DNA evidence is used in OTHER jurisdictions, and that there is no [valid] reason for Councilman Scott to join-in to selling the idea that LCN DNA evidence is inacceptable.

Not only is LCN DNA evidence acceptable in jurisdictions other than Italy; not only is LCN DNA evidence acceptable in New York;  LCN DNA evidence is officially acceptable in Scott’s own jurisdiction – the United Kingdom!

See UK Crown Prosecution Service statement re the use of Low Copy Number DNA analysis:

http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/prosecution/lcn_testing.html

Yes, we should await the upcoming DNA review, as Kermit says.

Posted by Cardiol MD on 06/23/11 at 07:33 PM | #

Hi Cardiol,

It should also be pointed out that Sollecito’s DNA on Meredith’s bra clasp wasn’t LCN DNA. His DNA was identified by two separate DNA tests. Of the 17 loci tested in the sample, Sollecito’s profile matched 17 and out of 17. Luciano Garofano made the following observation:

“The RFU number is high enough. So the result is perfect.”

Posted by The Machine on 06/23/11 at 07:52 PM | #

Is it my imagination or are the media outlets for the tired old prepackaged conspiracy theories becoming ever more obscure? A Lib Dem councillor from Haringey?  It’s as about as dumb and obscure as you can get. Lets send him a David Icke book for Christmas. He’ll have all council employees wearing tin foil on their heads.

Do Gogerty-Marriott give rebates if the message is not high profile?

Posted by Dr_Faustus on 06/23/11 at 08:53 PM | #

Re: The Machine on 06/23/11 at 12:52 PM

Yes, of course.

No comments on LCN should distract readers from the damning, undisputable facts re Sollecito’s 17 HCN DNA samples!

As Kermit says above:

“the bra clasp contains abundant DNA of Knox’s boyfriend Sollecito”

Posted by Cardiol MD on 06/23/11 at 09:13 PM | #

The Knox supporters focus on the Low Copy Number on the Double-DNA knife, to keep people from discovering that the DNA tested was a match for Meredith.  Just because there wasn’t enough DNA left for a second test, are we really supposed to ignore the fact that Meredith’s DNA was there?  What a loophole the FOA crowd is promoting: if the DNA of the person you killed shows up on the murder weapon but can’t be tested twice, you should go free.  I don’t think the judges in the appeals trial will buy that argument.

Posted by Sailor on 06/24/11 at 09:32 AM | #

Thank you, Kermie.

I think we may know now how Nigel came to join FOA…his interest was possibly ignited by the massive cold sore on AK’s lip as she testified in court. Herpes simplex isn’t in the headlines very often.

Posted by bucketoftea on 06/24/11 at 06:55 PM | #
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