TRACIE ANDREWS is not a monster but a person wrongly accused of an horrendous crime, a court was told yesterday.
Miss Andrews, who is charged with the roadside murder of her fiancé Lee Harvey, had no motive for murder but a motive for marriage. She loved Mr Harvey and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, Ronald Thwaites, QC, for the defence, said.
Mr Thwaites urged the jury to approach the case with an open mind. He criticised what he called prejudicial press coverage of the case, saying: “You may know of, or live with, one of the army of armchair detectives who . . . pointed to Miss Andrews when she appeared on the television screen, and, knowing nothing of her other than her bruised blonde looks, said, ‘If you ask me, I bet she did it’. And when days later she was arrested and charged with murder . . . all those television pundits no doubt congratulated themselves.”
Mr Thwaites, opening the defence, said that Miss Andrews was to give evidence on Monday so the jury could hear her side of the story. “The prosecution say she had a motive for murder. She says no, she had a motive for marriage. This is the man she had fixed upon to spend the rest of her life with. They had found glamour with each other, charm with each other. They wanted each other.” He said that the couple had twice postponed their wedding but still hoped to marry and had attended marriage guidance. “She was wearing his ring on the night he died and is wearing it still today. She was committed to him.”
He said the police had prematurely abandoned investigations into her claims that Mr Harvey was stabbed by a man who was the passenger in a Ford Sierra. This followed evidence from two people in a car which passed the couple near the murder scene who alleged there was no car following them. Mr Thwaites said: “You know that almost from the moment that those two witnesses were seen, the police investigation into the Sierra stalled and came to a complete stop, never to be restarted. Within 72 hours they closed the book on her account and never reopened it.”
He described Miss Andrews as a generally sensible, level-headed, practical young woman who could cope with her life as a single mother. “By contrast, Mr Harvey was a person who could not cope very well with his life.”
He said Mr Harvey hated his job at a bus garage which he had given up and gone back to before being dismissed. He did not get on with his family. He also had rows over maintenance with the mother of his young daughter who had taken out an injunction against him.
Mr Thwaites said: “He bitterly resented paying maintenance which was one of the reasons why he gave up his job, so that the CSA could not get money from his employers.” Mr Thwaites said that it was Mr Harvey's jealousy and insecurity that caused their frequent rows. “He was obsessional about her. He spent his time tracking Tracie.” Mr Thwaites disclosed that Miss Andrews had become pregnant by Mr Harvey but decided on an abortion because they were having problems. “She wanted to have his child, but they were having problems. She did not see the relationship surviving and saw the child as a burden Lee did not welcome. She did not want to be left with two children by two men.”
The termination was at 16 weeks and she immediately regretted it, Mr Thwaites said. “She was unable to tell him the truth about that until some weeks later, pretending she miscarried.” As a result of the abortion, Mr Thwaites said, Miss Andrews lost her figure and bust and Mr Harvey made unkind remarks which she found deeply hurtful. He later apologised and paid for breast implants.
Miss Andrews denies murder. The trial continues.