A WOMAN accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death was the victim of “lynch mob” justice because police and journalists pre-judged the issues before her trial, a court heard yesterday.
Tracie Andrews, far from having a motive for murdering Lee Harvey, had a “motive for marriage”, her defence counsel said. Ronald Thwaites, QC, told the jury at Birmingham Crown Court that Mr Harvey was her true love and “soul mate”.
Mr Thwaites protested that the 28-year-old mother has been branded a monster because of the closed minds of detectives who early in the investigation “closed the book on her account and never reopened it”.
That prejudice was emulated by the Press and broadcasting media who had turned her prosecution into “one of the worst examples of lynch mob journalism you are ever likely to encounter,” he said.
Mr Thwaites opened the case for the defence at the end of the second week of the trial in which Andrews, 28, from Alvechurch, Hereford and Worcester, denies murdering Mr Harvey, 25, by stabbing him on Dec 1 last year. He urged the jury to dismiss “shallow opinions” on the case that may have stemmed from what they had read or discussed outside the courtroom.
Mr Harvey was stabbed more than 30 times. Mr Thwaites reaffirmed Andrews's claim that the true murderer was a passenger in an unidentified car which pursued her and Mr Harvey through the lanes near their home as they returned from a visit to a pub.
Mr Thwaites said the police search for the second car - said to be a dark-coloured Ford Sierra - had “stalled and come to a complete stop, never to be restarted” when two witnesses came forward to testify that no such pursuit took place. In fact, the route the couple took is open to question, he said.
The prosecution case was founded on “conjecture” that she and Mr Harvey argued and fought on the homeward journey, Mr Thwaites said. But it was extraordinary to suggest that a relationship which, while having its ups-and-downs, was basically a loving one, could end in “this horrendous bloodbath”.
He added: “The prosecution say this defendant had a motive for murder; we say she had a motive for marriage. They had found glamour with each other, charm with each other. They wanted each other. She was wearing his ring on the night he died and she is wearing it still today.”
Mr Thwaites described Andrews as “a sensible, level-headed young woman of the 90s who could cope with her life and her young daughter.” By contrast Mr Harvey, an unemployed bus driver who had moved into her flat, was an immature, pathetic and jealous young man who had given her a hard time. He also had a child by a previous relationship.
Mr Thwaites said Mr Harvey was not a bad man but was insecure and had an obsessive nature. He spent hours tracking Andrews, keeping a dossier of her friends, and destroying photographs that pre-dated their relationship.
Mr Harvey also objected to her wearing short dresses and once ordered her to remove a white blouse because he could see the outline of her bra through it. Mr Thwaites said when Andrews found herself pregnant by him she had an abortion because she was uncertain about the future of their relationship, telling him she had miscarried.
While he hit Andrews “once or twice,” he usually vented his anger and frustration on property, kicking doors and smashing his own hi-fi. She threw him out of her flat several times but he sent her flowers and apologetic notes until she let him return.
The trial continues.
11 July 1997: Mystery road rage killer was a drug dealer, court told