In March 2014, about a week before Eleanor’s trial (and shortly before her death), her lawyers approached the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to ask whether she could plead guilty to the lesser offence of Wasting Police Time instead of facing the more serious charge of Perverting the Course of Justice.
This detail is important. A request to plead guilty (even to a lesser charge) is inconsistent with innocence. It is unclear whether this proposal came directly from Eleanor herself or whether her lawyers were simply testing the waters with the CPS. But if it was the latter, it strongly suggests that even her own legal team did not believe her story.
I have known this fact for some years. I even passed the information to David de Freitas’ lawyer, Harriet Wistrich. Yet rather than acknowledging it, she publicly accused me of lying.
At the time, I did not have any written proof of the 'plea deal', however, this has now changed.
In May 2024, ten years later, I contacted the barrister who had represented the CPS in Eleanor’s case (regarding a separate issue involving the misuse of trial documents).
During our email exchange, he confirmed in writing that Eleanor’s lawyer had indeed asked if the CPS would accept a guilty plea to Wasting Police Time. The CPS refused the offer, and the case proceeded on the original charge of Perverting the Course of Justice.
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