Final Conclusions and Inquest

Hello there and welcome to Murerm Most British. I'm Zach I'm Rachel. Hier, welcome back Well today we're heading to the Isle of White, where a late night call took police to a flat on George Street in Ride Well they had the right building, the right door, and the right flat. but The anwer was still hidden behind a shower curtain. What's behind the shower curtain? We will find out in a little while, but Yeah, it's u I think there's going to be a good case. Yeah We are doing our island month still. traveling around our summer our this is our summer holiday. Yeah. We're just going to go place to place, hop islands and ye bring you all the cases that we found there. so Yeah. Well, before we begin the episode If you enjoy what we do, Please give us a like, a follow of the show, and leave us a five star rating wherever you listen It genuinely helps other discover What we do here So this episode contains discussion of murder, knife violence, and drug use Some listeners may find the content distressing, so listener discretion is strongly advised. Now. Let's get to the story t T ten to three on January morning, police entered a flat on George Street and Ride The rooms were cramped, untidy and difficult to read in the dark Officers searched quickly, found nothing, that make them stay and left. Paul had not been wrong taken them to the right building, the right door and the right flat They were not far from the answer Not across town Not in another street Not even in another room, really But somewhere inside number seventy four Hidden in plain sight George Street was already holding its secret. The Isle of White has always been a place apart Water cuts it off from the mainland, but history has never left it Untouched Romans left their villas there Fortz watched the solent Queen Victoria made Osborne House her retreat. And for generations They came there for beaches, campsites and summer air But an island is not only what it shows visitors In winter away from the postcards and seafront light It has the same closed doors the tired rooms, the late night calls, and private violence as anywhere else. Yep, but no't matter where you go. there's always going to be Give me something. Something going on. that shouldn't be going on George Street was not remote And number seventy four was not hidden away It sat between Anglesseey Street and Cross Street Close to the ordinary movement of ride pavements, doorways neeighbourors behind thin walls. passed in and the small night sounds most streets learn to ignore It was the kind of place where someone could move from one flat to another without drawing much attention But on Monday the third of january of twenty twenty two Those ordinary movements began to gather into something darker. The man at the center of that night was Scott Edward Cooper He was thirty three years old from Newport and had been born in Derby By twenty twenty two His life had moved through the island's close geography Newport, Ride familiar streets, familiar doors, and people never quite as distant from one another as they might have seemed. On the mainland, towns can feel separate On an island, lives have a way of circling back through the same names, the same places and the same narrow streets Yeah, I think hviously being an island, you're very much everybody knows everybody. I think type of situation o Oh yeah. Just like a small village. like everybody knows it Yeah Because most people ask just on the island, they don't venture off or yeah yeah you know. So That night, CCTV showed Scott moving between addresses on George Street. Enter in flats, knock in, kick in and try ind doors. drugs sat somewhere in the background. They didn't make the sequence easier to understand If anything, they made it harder. Late movement between addresses, strrained calls, fear, suspicion and people trying to work out who was where This was not a neat sequence anyone could easily follow. It was a night already fraying One small action leading into another until the shape of it became harder to read One of the doors on George Street was number seventy four flat number three It was the home of thirty eight year old peiers Carl Brazier By the end of the case, almost everything would come back to that small address The entrance, the bedroom, the hallway, the bathroom and the shower curtain But at around eleven o'clock that night, it was still just a flat on an ordinary street. The rooms had not yet become exhibits The floor had not yet become evidence Cooper was still alive. Well at eleven o four PM, CCTV showed Scott going into flat three with Brazer It was the last confirmed sighting of him alive After that, he disappeared from the street Whatever happened next happened inside number seventy four pray Behind the door of Brasius flat In the small spaces between one room and another In a place like that, distance was not measured in miles It was measured in steps do wte corners And what could be hidden just out of sight? Yeah, like one of them little one room flats Yeah. It' just like a smart I had one of that. Well to be fair, so we're bit saying, you know It's a number seventy four and then flat free it's more than likely Um, you know, like a big house with multiple bedrooms that have been turned into individual flatts. So You know, it could be a little studio flat or something where it's just I remember my little one room place in M when was. didnn't even have a cooker in it. Good God Yeahay, I don't think you had a proper kitchen, did ya? Noope I just a that man Pizza Hut had this pasta bake thing that you could buy and that's why I got down a few pounds. You Yeah a year of living on Not so great food, takeouts and stuff. Oh, not good But before the police arrived, there were messages and phone calls Amy Beasley, Braiseer's ex girlfriend. was asked to come to the flat so he could see her one last time He was crying He was not making sense She thought he might hurt himself So she got in her car and went to George Street What she found inside didn't make sense at first becausecause the mind sometimes reaches for the least terrible explanation before it accepts the truth conur. Well, inside the flat, Amy saw someone lying on the floor For a moment, she thought it was a joke, some grotesque wind up staged to frighten her But then she noticed the massive pool of blood His face had been covered Brazier kept repeating the same words It was him or me The room was no longer confusing Because it was strange It was confusing because it was beginning to make sense What it seemed to mean was almost impossible to take in Yeah, seeing something like that, you're just trying to process what's going on. you're like what going, you know You're like, she fiding what? Rampant question in, you know, it's like, what do you mean? It was him who who, who? you know? It's like He just kind of go a bit rampant was like, what in the hell is going on? What's happened? Yeah Yeah. Well, Amy, she left and texted her boyfriend He made the call to the police But what reached the control room still did not carry the full horror of what was waiting inside Flat three. Officers arrived at George Street at around ten to three in the morning of Tuesday, the fourth of January They were looking for a woman following what they understood as domestic concerns They entered the untidy flat searched quickly. and didid not find Scott. So number seventy four held on to what had happened Behind a closed shower kern body remained unseen. blood staining on the bedroom carpet was missed Blood on Brazer's hand was explained away as a nosebleleed Then the officers left Outside, George Street was still dark, ordinary Quiite enough to look unchanged If you're not getting the right information You don't get a clear picture of what's going go in and do a massive search because you're, you know, you have a kind of flicker project ground of your eyes in my opinion with with the bl you do have a a duty Oh ye to clear every room and clear every space in every corner to go, Okaykay, I've looked everywhere, there is nothing And they just kind of came in and looked around and said, well, I don't see anything. I actually didn't pull the curtain back on in the bathroom. Yeah M will also they were probably thinking, well Maybe this was some sort of weird call. There's nothing really happening We are thinking this is a woman in distress and there's nothing there's nothing here. Just an untidy flat. Yeah After the police visit, the morning did not settle Amy Beasley kept trying to make clear that officers needed to return to the flat Cows continued after Dawn, carrying the same fear back towards people who had already stepped inside the flat once and left without finding what was there. Around five o'clock Brazier was seen away from the flat, riding an electric scooter through ride and going into a convenience store for groceries Pick up some groceries at five in the morning, That's craz No, it's a bit early, I mean? asleep, bro. I would be asleep at that time of day Well, by lunchtime, the concern could no longer be treated as confusion around ten to one in the afternoon Officers returned to George Street This time, they looked where they had not looked before behind the shower curtain they found body Now the violence inside the flag could no longer be hidden by clutter, darkness, or misunderstanding Scott had been killed sometim between His last confirmed sighting at eleven o four PM and ten to one the following morning. He had suffered more than twenty injuries. including stab wounds and grazes across his neck, head and body The worst wounds were to his neck Th mattered most. And one was the principal injury That's crazy ', you know Obviously the neck. Yeah quite frensied by, you know, by the amount of injuries caused. Yeah. It feels like it was kind of like a bit overkilled to be f Well, the injuries pointed to a brutal attack and later accounts described Scott as having put up and no defense body had not stayed where he fell bled out in the bedroom before being dragged through the flat down the hallway and into the bathroom When officers finally found him, he was in the shower cubicle slumped upside down He had not been taken to woodland, waste ground, water or anywhere remote He had remained inside that small flat hidden by the shower curtain. outside George Straight changed really quick Cordon went up around the footway outside number seventy four Witnesses described officers arriving in riot gear. and holding shields And the building became a place of white suits Heaviness bags sealed pavement and neighbors watching from the street had suddenly become Unreachable The ordinary address from the night before was now a crime scene in every doorway, movement and stain had to be read again Most documentaries I've watched it they've never turned up with Rriot Gear and and Sields, you know, for u something like this. They were eager. They dusted them off. They't worry. a person would come back all. Well, it just reminded me of like hot fuzz. When they go to the riot gear section, it's all got dust on it and shit. they're like, here's all their you know swatter out these. We haven't worned them yet.. It's like, wait a minute Need it. Yeah Well, inside the flat, the work slowed down. Anything that might have been touched or moved had had to be treated carefully Forensic examiners came over from the mainland and remained at the address for about eleven days long time to process and You know, They carried out fingertip searches while flowers were beginning to appear outside for Scots The flat that had first been searched and left behind was now being taken apart inch by inch familyam and friends left messages of love on the same street where the Cordon kept to them at a distance That afternoon, Piers Brazier was arrested Scott's family were notified and specialist officers were assigned to support them By the end of the week, his name had been released publicly The man who had gone into flat three On Monday night was no longer a missing person No longer a concern hidden inside confusion He was the victim of a killing the investigation was given a name, Operation amorillist It was led by the major crime team, and in those first days the work moved quickly Detectives had the flap. blood, the missed first search, the witnesses, the calls and the movements around George Street. before and after Scott had died Brazio was questioned during that first week and within days he was charged with murder On Saturday the eighth of january, he was remanded in custody to appear before magistrates. From the beginning, he denied killing Scott But the inquiry didn't stay fixed only on Brazier. Police were still trying to understand who had been in and out around George Street that night and whether the violence inside the flat three had begun and ended with only one man Two other men were arrested on suspicion of murder in those early days A one twenty eight and one twenty nine The twenty nine year old was released on conditional police bail The twenty eight year old initially remained in custody before also being released on conditional bail, while the inquiries continued Officers went to other dresses in Ride, Binsteed and Newport. including Jellico Road. in Ride and New Street in Newport Even nearby doors were pulled into the edge of the cate Door two properties down from flat three forced open and the occupant returned Saturday after speaking with detectives Police appealed for anyone who had seen or heard anything unusual on the Monday evening or the Tuesday morning to come forward While that wider work continued Brazier's case moved through the courts By March, he had appeared at Winchester Crown Court where he pleaded not guilty A further preliminary hearing was listed for the twenty seventh of M Before the trial was set down for the Isle of White Crown Court on the twenty seventh of June serious cases from the island had often been heard on the mainland This one. would remain close. where Scott had died Then in mid March, Operation Amarillis widened again. Warrants were carried out at addresses in George Street, Warwick Street Star Street and Quarry Road in Ride. Two men aged twenty five and forty one were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. The other two men already arrested on suspicion of murder aged twenty eight and twenty nine, were re arrested this time on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. One of them was also arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs. Whoops H Well all four were bailed with conditions until the twelfth of April Yeah, they're not You know, the police ain't screwing around. They're like, we're arresting everybody God dang Well, for a while, it seemed as though the case might become larger than the scene inside the flat There were more names, more addresses, more searches, and more possible routes through that night bought by late Hpril That wider line of inquiry had begun to fall away The four men arrested in March were released with no further action over the offense The twenty nine year old man was also released with no further action in relation to the earlier Murder, suspicion. Well, the twenty eight year old remained on bail until the fifth of July, but no charge followed against him either By summer, the investigation had widened out and then narrowed again The extra arrests, the searches across Ryide, Binsteed and Newport, and the questions around other men had not produced another defendant What remained was Brazio One man G back to him. Well, his trial opened at the Isle of White Crown Court in late june twenty twenty two Be Judge Garnam And even the setting made it unusual It was described as the first murder trial held there since the court building had opened more than thirty years earlier That's crazy. I mean a great place if that, you know You've not had any murders to deal with anything Yeah We need to go We need to go hang out over there. Jeez Well, after a preliminary hearing, a jury of seven men and five women was selected Adam Feast QC opened the case with an electronic presentation CCTV, call logs, audio recordings, maps photographs and timelines all used to bring the rooms of Flat three into the courtroom Oed up with a PowerPoint presentation. I mean that's pretty cool. Electronic presentation. everything's all li here to go click. Cick in. Next slide, nexte slide, nexte slide. Well, he seemed very Ped let' us take Well, the prosecution case didn't rest on a confession It rested on timing behaviour blood, witness evidence and the different accounts from Brazier. given after Scott died The jury were told Scott and Brazer knew each other So this was not presented as a killing between strangers The crown's position was direct Brazer was the only person with the opportunity to inflict what prosecutors described as a savage determined and sustained attack Brazier had denied killing Scott from the beginning. At first, his account was that he had left the flat to get drugs then returned and found Scott's body in the shower He said he had not seen who had killed denied stabbing him and denied any physical altercation whatsoever By the time he gave evidence, that account had changed It was no longer simply that he had not been there Now, he said, he had seen another man Stabs Scott Well, that change became one of the central questions of the trial Brazier said that he had not named the other man earlier because he had been threatened at knife pointint and fit for his family and his girlfriend In interview, he had pointed to another man's photograph but would not say the name aloud He told the court his head had been all over the place, Drug adult withdraw in or as he put it, cluck in and he was convinced that Scott's death would be blamed on him no matter what he said Yeah, sometimes that does happen The amount of like miscarriages of justice, like we must have been if he's using the word clucking You must have been on some hard drugs, not just like some weed. They were on some hard stuff. Yeah So but there was another phrase From the interview, they carried its own weight Brazier had made reference to helping dig a hole In court, he said he could not clearly remember saying it but accepted that if it had been written down, then he must have said it. He described those words as part of the same drug addled confusion that shaped his early answers The prosecution though wanted the jury to see something more deliberate inside the confusion But his version went further than the stabbin Brzier claimed that the other man had abused Scott's body afterwards kicking and punching it and laughing The CCTV showed Brazier outside the flat, speaking and gesturing with that same man And the prosecution used that footage to press at his claim of fear. If he truly believed that this man had threatened him and could harm his family, Wh did the footage not show the terror his account depended on Yeah, if you're if you're saying, oh well, you threatened me But then you're outside joking language. And if you're having a laugh, you know, and ye you don't look very, you know, like you're trying to end the conversation back away and trying to you know, get out of this person's foriny But also on the other side, you can say, well, he was on drugs and he's going to be a bit weird and ye, you know, his body movements are going to be weird And he's going to be afraid and, you know, trying to put up a facade of Yeah,ah, everything's cool, man. Yeahah, yeah, yeah, ye. But this is this is where I come to, you know, in every case You know, when they're being interviewed in beginning You can't chop and change your stories Because that does home in and make you look guilty. You know, if you're going say a story make you look worse you say one story and S You know I This is where people know, the police know that you're lying because you come out with some other random shit. You know? and like, Oh hanging on me. You didn't tell me that before and you know me Well, Then there was Jacob Evans Hn evidence hey Yeah. Well, his evidence pulled the courtroom Back inside the flat at the moment Scott was attacked No Evans said he had seen the stabbing. He described Brazier putting a finger to his lips making the shush gesture. Before Scott was attacked from outside Evans's line of sight He said Scott was stabbed in the chest fell onto his back and was then stabbed in the eye Evans claimed Brazier mounted him and stabbed him three or four more times holding the knife with both hands Wow Well, it was a brutal count notot one that the jury could simply accept without testing Like everything in this case, it had to be measured against the physical evidence The time in. the movements in and out of the flat. and the possibility that people around George Street themselves as much as telling the truth The prosecution said Evans had seen the killing The defense pushed the jury to ask what else mightight he have seen done or chosen not to say Yep because they're all on drugs was the was he stabbed in the eye though? you know, Is there evidence that he was actually stabbed in the eye? you know, it's like h Well then you have a better account becausecause Amy Beasley's evidence mattered differently She was not describing the killing itself She was describing the aftermath The jury heard that she repeatedly tried to contact Brazier between around ten ten PM and eleven PM after receiving what she described as a warning in a roundabout sort of way She went to the flat because Brazier was crying, wanted to see her one last time, and told her all would become clear when she arrived because there was no hiding what had happened Well inside the flat, Amy's mind reached first for the least terrible explanation thought it might be a wind up and that what she saw on the floor might somehow be jam and jelly She even nudged Scott with her foot before the blood made the truth impossible to mistake Brazer asked for a cuddle in the hallway holding her as if it was the final goodbye and kept to repeat in It was him or me Well, the defense asked why she had not mentioned the other man in the first police interview If someone else had come into the flat and see the body, they argued That was not a small detail to leave out H evidence still placed Brazier inside the aftermath repeating words that sounded deeply incriminating. But the defense wanted the jury to hear the omissions as carefully as the words that she remembered The defeense also pressed hard on the world around flap through drugs, fear, unreliable witnesses in accounts and pressure all became part of the picture that they wanted the jury to see. Frasios describes Scott as a runner. Everyone's runner Placing him in a small and dangerous world of errands favors dependency and people use in one another The defense asked whether another man's account might be self serving and whether the prosecution had made the scene cleaner than it really was. prosecution answered by pointing to the physical limits of the flat There had been questions about whether someone could have entered through the rear bedroom window. Moved through the rooms and Lynn left again Body worn footage showed the window latched from the inside Crown also asked why anyone would need to use the window at all when people had already been moving in and out through the front door The defence found places where doubt could gather A knife found near the threshold to the kitchen became part of the uncertainty Partial DNA on the blade was matched to Scott and another man and the defense asked how it had got there. There were questions about whether the knife had been cleaned. why DNA might be found on the blade rather than the handle whether the absence of blood proved anything either way. That is a bit fishy You've got another another dude's DNA on there. Yeah. The other man's phone became another thread And we keep saying the other man and because they were never outded or named. Yeah The defense focused on how it had fallen Why he would have returned to the flat moreore than once if he had only witnessed a killing and whether he might have been placing his own actions onto Brazier By then, the trial was no longer asking whether something horrific had happened that was beyond dispute The question was whether the prosecution had proved whose hands Paused it Well when Brazier gave evidence himself, the picture didn't become simpler He admitted lying to police and accepted that earlier answers had been untrue He said he had been taking heroin and cocaine. and that after Scott had died, he injected what he described as ten times more cocaine than usual becausecause he wanted to kill himself Geez I mean I did say that you know, they're on hard drugs. asked why he had not called police He said that he didn't trust them, claiming that the police had previously broken his nose and collarbone He said, I'm a drug addict, he told the court It's us and them So ye, I think, you, it's His mindset is well, you know, I'm a criminal. These are like the good guys trying to catch me, you know, I saort of situ. there is a lot of people with that attitude. They don't, you know, they're like f to police and You know, they don't want tos a song called Funpl. They don't want anything to do with them. until they need them. Yeah. That's true Yeah. But I mean, this is the thing criminals, they don't want they want to avoid the police out all yes, you know So I do get that, you know, but What can he really remember from it if he's fueled on heroin and cocaine? in his words ten times the dose that you know, youd usually take you know, but Let's get back to it. Yeah His evidence asked the jury to believe that panic, drugs, fear, and mistrust blamed his lies He said he thought there was no way out either taking it on the nose or bringing trouble to his family because Scott's death would have landed on him anyways. He later said he came round while police were inside the property arresting him and realized he was Still in a ton of shit Well the details of the room were put to him one by one He was shown a photograph of a bloody hand prrint on a wall. and asked whether he had left it while moving Scott's body Racius said he would not know Asked whether he tried to remove blood from his hands, he denied it Saying the blood on his fingers came from injecting and from moving the rug. He remembered turning the rug over because the blood on it was lumping up and he didn't want to see it. It know I mean, if you've walked into somethingomething like that like somebody being killed, You don't touch stuff. you don't move things. You don't flip things over, you know? Back out, vt the police, and that's that Well, he is impaired Well, I still wouldn't turn the plate surely he won't be able to see the bloody stuff properly, you know have it. Will youd be surprised You do see some stuff. Maybe he was hallucinating on the drugs thinking it was some like little tiny goblins or something and he was like, oh, I've gott flip this bloody rug over because the goblin's not gonna get do Well he was also asked how Scott's coat had come to be over his face Brazier said he didn't know He didn't remember throwing a duvet cover over him as well That answer gave the prosecution another point to press How could he remember moving a bloodied rug and throwing a cover over him but not clearly remember whether Scott's body was in the living room or in the bathroom. Very true, very true. How would you How would you remember one specific thing? But nothing else Well, the prosecution pressed him on strength, size and motive too. Scott was described as around six foot and much heavier, while Brazier said he had only weighed about eight and a half stone at the time prorosecutors explored whether Brazier had begun to believe Scott was connected to a break in at Amy Beasley's flat Frazier accepted it was possible he was learning Scott may have been involved and that he was angry. but he denied that anger anything to do with Scott's debt Oh, one stab to the neck. you've you've You know, you're going to mess someone up. And they're not going to know what's going on and then you just start keep stabbing them. you know it doesn't matter how. I don't think, you know, it doesn't matter where you stabing somebody in the neck. That's going to be absolutely Mm. Horrendous. U So it doesn't matter how big you are. N. reallyally? No and you know, whether you're doing it from behind Yeah when they don't see it coming. And like I said, he had no defensive wounds. He just got him and then he fell and then he stabbed him some more. So that first blow must have incapacitated him. Yeah. The guy could have been behind him and just kind of stabbed him in the side of the neck, back of the neck You know, that was it. And he wouldn't have had defence, you know, trying to ticked to himself The crown also challenged what Brazier had been able to do after the killing He had been seen moving around ride of riding on an electric scooter whichich is not going to be easy But then he went to a shop made some purchases, us his bank card And he spoke to people prorosecutors asked how he could be too smashed off drugs to know whether Scott's body was in the room or the shower Yet still capable of riding with Amy on the back, buying groceries, withdrawing money and entering his A you kindless in enough to that. I've been drunk and I still know what I'm doing, for you know what I mean? I've been so drunk that I feel like I'm going collapse you still try of get yourself home, don't y you somehow? Somehow you get yourself home. You're putting your car in the car machine Yeah It might take you, you know, because you're trying to steady your finger, but You know, you'll get there, but Well Then there was the first placeice visit come back into the courtroom. Bodywm footage was shown, and Brazier accepted that when officers first arrived, he knew Scott's body was in the shower He was asked whether he had deliberately stood in the bathroom entrance to block them He denied it. saying it was simply just a small flap The floor was seldom visible The bathroom was not entered And one officer even apologized for disturbing him after saying that they only needed to make sure no one was lying on the floor in a pool of blood I mean, what a comment to make and then this poor guy without them realizing It in a pool of blood, you know Yeah if I was that police officer, I would I would I don't know I'd be so like ashamed But then that takes me back to where earlier in the case when we was talking The They obviously didn't check the bathroom. because he's standing in the doorway. Yeah. Obviously preventing them from getting in there. Well, that moment carried a grim force because everyone in the court now knew what the officers didn't know then The prosecution used the footage to show Brazier's knowledge and behavior The defense could point to the same small cluttered space and the failure of the first search asking whether the case had been shaped by assumptions made after the body was found The flat itself became both evidence and Uncertainty. Bracie's past was brought into the room as well The jury heard about previous convictions including two robberies onene involving nine hundred thousand pounds. So a lot of money is, you know, good God Very, very high value robbery. Well, and that he served around seven years in prison. prison nickname had become Zoro. o Hm I mean prison nicknames touh God. Yeah. Well when asked whether that came from being known to use knives He said he had been found to have used a knife in a previous burglary but insisted the nickname came from his looks and long dark hair Yeah, come on. Zoro used a sword. Well, at times, Brazier's evidence was not calm He became angry in court and was told by the judge to curb his language He told the court he didn't care whether he was found guilty or not guilty, and when questioned about Amy Beasley, he said he would rather burn to death bad mouth her The jury had to weigh all of it Anger lies Fear, drugs, a changed account and evidence from a flat where more than one person had a reason to protect themselves. Yeah That's a hard one for the old jury Why t I But if was if I was out here now as the jury on this case I' be like listen here You know, this guy's outb angry outbursts in the court stand, he's clearly, you know, he's got it in him prerevious situations of rimes that he's done, Yep On the fifteenth of july, after three weeks, the jury could not reach a verdict th. Well yeah, that jury didn't. The twelve jurors were discharged A retrial was listed for Monday the fifth of december of twenty twenty two again on the Isle of White and was expected to last up to four weeks It began on the seventh of December. with the case placed before a second jury The same unresolved question returned to the same island court Now, the prosecution had another chance to prove that Brazer was the killer Well, On the fifth of January of twenty twenty three Telve months and two days after Scott's death. The answer came back Not guilty Jes. I haven't read the rest of this so yeah. Oh my god. notot guilty. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy, isn't it n't I couldn't come to it Well, Brazier had denied the chargge through two lengthy trials and the second jury concluded that they could not be sure beyond a reasonable doubt So he had killed Scott After the verdict, the official response was careful and restrained Officers had brought the case before the courts and were disappointed. But the jury's decision had to be respected Other people had been arrested and examined during Operation Amarillis But no one else was charged or tried for Scott'sath Well when the courtroom emptied, George Street didn't simply return to what it had been Chording could come down. The flat could be cleaned People could walk past number seventy four again on their way through Ride The law had reached an answer But it was not the kind of answer that closed her story It left the street with a death an acquittal and a silence where certainty should have been Crazy I'm still like can't believe they found him not guilty But anyways, outside the flat Flowers and messages had been left to by Scott's family and friends They turned the pavement into a place of grief When the police finally left and the Cordon came down, those tributes were left exposed Within hours they were torn apart and scattered across the pavement And whoever did that? you're a bunch of scumbags. L house. It was a small, ugly aftermath. But one that landed heavily Even the place where people had tried to mourn him was disturbed. Yeah, that's I mean comb. Highly likely probably a bunch of bloody kids too, you know Unfortunately it does happen. Look what I'm gonna do my buddies I'm gonna kick these flowers. Yeah well yeah, I think do you remember one Halloween flipping the kick your bloody pumpkins off your off your doorstair? like hang on C't kids or their egg indoorsking kids anyway, it's just You know, it's horrible but Kids will be kids. The police handling of the early hours left its own shadow Hampshiire Stablary. had referred itself to the watchdog because officers had been inside the address before Scott was found. The watchdog later passed the matter back to the Force's prorofessional standandards department for a local review Three members of police staff from the Contact mananagement Center The control room were issued with practice requiring improvement. There was a formal outcome for matters falling short of expected standards, but not reaching the threshold for misconduct Yeah, I don't think they'd be misconduct. I think they just overlooked it and it was, you know ye. it didn't lead to anyone else being like hurt or anything like that It just ye it didn't lead to a further crime. Yeah. The only thing is obviously you know, going forward learn from it. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's everyhere That's exactly where they went down. They said, Hey we all everybody's getting training. everyverybody we're going to do drills and that You know, So hopefully they all learned from it. Well, four months after the not guilty verdict, Piers Brazier was found dead. W He was thirty nine years old During the case, he had been described as a heroin addict, but the circumstances of his death were not confirmed His death didn't prove or undo or settle anything It simply closed off one more living voice connected to George Street, leaving the case with fewer answers than the Kight already had W I mean, you know, obviously all the shit going on. I I'm with addicts and people, you know, like It's just it's not good Yeah, no. that's horri Well, nearly four years later, there was one final public conclusion Coroner Caroline summary recorded that Scott Cooper had been unlawfully killed Postmorton confirmed that the stab wounds to his neck and chest were not self inflicted And the inquest was held in writing after the related proceedings had ended and it gave a name to the manner of deeath. After the trials, the reviews and the inquest Number seventy four return to the ordinary life of the street Doors opened, pavements cleared, People walked by The address became an address Again att least from the outside Behind that door was still the thing no verdict had fully settled A man went into flat three and never came out alive The rooms had been searched once before the body was found The truth had been close enough to touch And for hours is stayed behind that curtain Well, that was the story of the killing of Scott Cooper Wild Matter, Matter how they they two trials and he was found not guilty And then obviously nobody else has been You know I charged and arrested and Sentenced for the murder of Scott Cooper. And then four months later he dies. Yeah wild But and there's no confirmation on his manner of deb I you know, could been It leaves you a bit questioning, isn't it? Was it suspected overdose? What with his drug history Um, Or did the person that actuallyally did accom and get him Yeah Crazy Weird. I don't know Itosts kind of like a bit of a cliffhanger for you guys. Yeah Wh this c. What brought What a crazy case. Yeah. obbviously As always, our thoughts go out to the Scott Cooper's family and that, you know, Yeah, very much so. Nobody should lose their life by another's hands in our opinion no matter what the situation I Yeah. Yeah, so thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to support the work we do here in the archive You can join us on Patreon for ad free main episodes early access, exclusive bonus cases, Q and A's, live streams and access to the Dcord community. 's go over to patreon. com for it slash Murdermost British podcast. Yep, you'll find a lot of stuff there. so come over there and join us. Yeah. Well from the first of June until the first of July. We're running our summer Founding members offer So new members can enter the village crypt for just two pounds for their first month with the code. in capital layers C R. C R Y. tea Tpe that out check out and you will get it for just two pounds for the first month I wanted to do my announcer voice. Oh you should do it, Yes. PT You'll find our Patreon Dcord and socials and everything else in the link tree below And if you enjoyed this episode, please like the video, subscribe on YouTube, follow the podcast, and leave us a five star rating wherever you listen You can drop us a comment as well. Yeah. Let us know what you think to the casees. It genuinely helps others discover the stories that we tell here So until next week, stay safe And stay curious. Stay curious guys Bye bye And with our Raven's Council, our top tier W We have Ruby Tucker nineteen fifty six Cler extxtreme plunge. Whiskey forty five Kelly and candy Thank you guys for joining us. Thank you very, very much for listening. 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