(1) It is exceptional but by no means unprecedented for an accused to be granted bail on a murder charge.
(2) Letter from legal correspondent Tim Crook, published in the Journalist, August/September 1995, page 5.
(3) Silcott was convicted of the murder of Keith Blakelock on March 19, 1987, (while Ram was awaiting trial for the murder of Clarke Pearce). As well as a life sentence for murder, Silcott received 10 years for riot. Both convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal on November 15, 1991.
(4) Silcott claims he has not been paroled because although he was convicted of the Smith murder he is still doing time for Blakelock.
(5) Ram’s original claim, to his (gullible) solicitor and to the police, was that he had stabbed Clarke Pearce in self-defence. He was persuaded by his experienced and competent Counsel that due to the weight of evidence (eyewitness and forensic) such a defence was untenable, and opted for provocation at trial.
(6) According to a report in the Times of July 22, 1997, two witnesses are said to have told police that the fight was started by Smith, who was armed with a knife.
(7) The full credits are A CLIMATE OF FEAR The Murder of PC Blakelock and the Case of the Tottenham Three by David Rose, published by Bloomsbury, London, (1992).
(8) Rose, A Climate Of Fear, page 230, (ibid).
(9) A particularly unflattering photograph of Silcott was circulated far and wide; this is one of the oldest tricks in the book and can be used equally well to install either loathing in or to elicit sympathy from, the public.