They are of course between a rock and a hard place. If they pursue their claim of not being guilty and get convicted they will get a substantially longer sentence than if they plead guilty.

That is not Justice; but faced with a similar situation I guess most of us would take the plea route no matter how innocent we were, especially in a country where we might suspect we would not get a fair trial.

Unfortunately some will use the fact that they were in effect forced to plead guilty, to justify their condemnation of the women.


As for jumping to conclusions about a person’s guilt on the ‘evidence’ of newspaper stores;

I see Christopher Jefferies, whom I have no doubt many condemned as obviously guilty at the time, has just got an apology .

Just shows how in hindsight the facts can be so different for instant gut feelings, which many freely express. Unfortunately, it often takes the passage of time to establish fact from fiction (and prejudice).

Guardian

Christopher Jefferies hails 'public vindication' after police express regret for distress caused by arrest as suspect in case

Christopher Jefferies won damages from eight newspapers after his arrest following Joanna Yeates's murder in December 2010.

The landlord of murdered landscape architect Joanna Yeates has received a letter from police expressing "regret" for the first time at the way he was treated after being arrested over her killing.