Only one of the defendants answered police questions in interview

Thursday 17 March 2016

Four of the five teenagers on trial for perverting the course of justice over the death of Morgan Huelin refused to answer questions from the police when interviewed.

All but one of the boys exercised their right to silence when questioned by detectives in the days and weeks after Morgan died on 5 July – just one of the suspects gave an interview with the police describing the events of the morning and the night before.

The fact that four defendants had refused to answer questions in two separate interviews was revealed as Advocate Howard Sharp concluded the prosecution’s case on day three of the trial yesterday.

He also said that the mobile phones of all of the suspects were seized and analysed – apart from the phone of one defendant, who provided a password to police that did not work. When detectives asked again for the password, he informed them that he could not remember it.

“There is no record of a 999 call from any of the telephones,” said Advocate Sharp, who went on to say that the passcode would not have been needed to make a call to the emergency services and that any call would have been logged on the phone itself, and on the billing for the phones, which has also been analysed.

The statements were made in a summary that Advocate Sharp – a former Solicitor General now in private practice - said had been agreed with the defendants’ lawyers.