Murder at the Cottage | Sky

What that means could well depend on inflexion and where any pauses are in the speeh

There's a difference between 

"It's a curious thing. A few weeks before, we had gotten a dog"

and 

"It's a curious thing. A few weeks before we had gotten a dog ..."

and even

"It's a curious thing a few weeks before we had gotten a dog ..."

you would need to listen carefully to the original speech to figure which it was.

About the dog, a comment elsewhere says "He didn’t own a dog but had been dog sitting for a friend. (Xmas week)" and had bite mark on hand "It’s mentioned in an early statement from Sergeant Gerard Prendiville"

But in the French clip he says they'd gotten a dog weeks prior.

Interesting. But that begs the question what happened to the dog. "We were minding a dog" if they were looking after it for a friend but "gotten"?

And this new info that Alfie had a hand injury from Schroedinger's dog...

Hopefully, for everybody’s sanity, this new evidence isn’t Jules, pissed as a kite, saying sarcastically to some auld lad at the bar: “yeah, I cleaned Ian’s blood stained clothes on a hot wash - with the new Fairy Liquid tablets …and they actually work great!”

In a weird way maybe it comes back to Alfie and Shirley …..

edit: I actually posted that before I’d seen EdHovens post above

they tick a lot of boxes; including capable of making sense of why she went outside dressed in the way she was; found the body so as much time as required to clean up etc; no forensics from gate/house etc as they would have had fingerprints on the gate etc; no independent alibis

Sophie did not have a good relationship with Alfie and Shirley. There was a long standing dispute over keeping the gate open.

I'd be very wary about anything attributed to anyone as everyone seems to have an angle for being less than truthful.

No, but they've kep them under close surveillance, trying to psyche them out.

Alfie says "we had gotten a dog several weeks, or a month, before this event" but his hand was still bandaged!

The dog minding seems very convenient. It explains the bandaged hand and also gives an alibi if his blood was found anywhere else in the forensic search.

Hypothetically - My blood was near the gate? The dog bit me near the gate. My blood was on the back door? Oh yeah I tried the door after the dog bite.

Alfie being involved was, to me, an interesting possibility.

Then Bannadidh, who was more familiar with the people involved ( Alfie, Shirley, Bailey) convinced me that neither were capable or the type who would ever be involved. And, I have to say, I believed her as it was clear that she was acquainted with the people, did not have a view on the IB question and was not pushing any agenda, so as the speculation was irritating her somewhat, I let it drop.

However, I was not aware of the dog bite issue - where is the source for this?

If he did have such a wound, it would, at the very least, make him of interest to the investigation, given the weight attached to the scratches on IBs hand?

So, if the bandaged hand report is correct, you would have a man, with a possible motive, definitely at the scene of the crime, with an injury that may be consistent with the known facts of the attack. And again, it would also explain why nothing was seen or heard.

Apologies to Bannadidh for once again raising this, but the reported hand injury, if true, is curious.

In 1995 Alfie had to stop accepting casual work (in my workplace) as a baker due to health issues. He could no longer knead bread dough without gasping for air, I saw this with my own eyes. TBH Alfie no longer being available was a pain for me as I ended up having to do it. I fail to see how a physically frail man could raise a concrete block several times over a short period of time when he literally physically couldn't knead a loaf of bread.

Alfie was also a very cranky individual known for having rants about people who irritated him. If he was going to murder everyone he had ranted about the death toll would be in the hundreds, and I'd be among them.

As for Shirley - apart from her relationship with Alfie what possible motive would an art teacher from Hackney who had only recently retired and moved permanently to the area have to be involved in the frenzied killing of a woman who might have not been the ideal neighbour, but was also rarely there?

The Alfie scenario calls for either a) Shirley's involvement and her later discovery of Sophie's body a set-up or b) Alfie being so callous as to murder his neighbour in a frenzied attack and leave her corpse where his partner would find it.

If Shirley was involved she is the greatest actress who ever lived. I saw her in August '96, she was lighthearted and looking forward to her retirement. In January '97 she was a broken woman who was in the absolute horrors and feeling trapped in a house she no longer felt safe in. She worried she could be next. Yet, at no point did she indicate any fear of Alfie. In fact they stayed together until his death a few months ago. They also stayed in the cottage but only because they could not raise the funds to move.

I don't know anything about a dog bite but I do know on occasion Alfie would mind people's dogs if they were stuck. Weren't many boarding kennels in the area at the time.

Noted Bannasidhe, (apologies for misspelling your poster name ).

As I said, I respect your views on this and attach much more weight to your insights for many reasons.

When we discuss evidence, particularly circumstantial evidence, it seems to me that there is more (assuming the "dog bite" report is accurate) of this against Alfie that there is pointing at Bailey. So, if Baily is "obviously the perpetrator" as many posters believe, based on purely circumstantial evidence, why isn't Alfie (again, with respect to your view) also regarded as a suspect?

The scratches on IBs hands are presented as firm evidence of his involvement - yet Alfie actually had a bandaged hand.

IB does not appear to have a motive -Alfie had a "fractious" relationship and it seems, an ongoing issue with STDP.

There is no evidence of IB being at the scene - AL was certainly there.

Once again Bannasidhe, I am not trying to take the conversation down the "AL is the murderer" road, but when viewing the evidence which is/was presented to support IBs guilt, the comparison is worth making.

Oh I get that.

It seems to me many people are experts based on what they read (and much of that is "a local said"/I read it "somewhere" or pure speculation) but don't factor in basic things.

For my part I don't know if IB did it, I do know the AGS investigation was not conducted with due diligence - as I said, it reminds me of the Kerry Babies case in many regards, and that any evidence against him is as best suspect and at worst circumstantial. If I were on a jury I honestly could not find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt based on the available evidence.

I agree an 'on paper' case could be made against Alfie - as nowhere 'on paper' does it say he had difficulty breathing in 1996 due to health issues and was physically incapable of strenuous physical exercise. But that was the case. Alfie the 'drug dealer' is another. Alfie was an old hippy who grew and smoked his own grass. He didn't sell it. By 1996 all his plants were gone. 'Drug Dealer' makes him sound like a Colombian drug lord.

Much is being made about this dog bite 'evidence' that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Yes, as a favour Alfie would sometimes mind a dog. Was he minding a dog in late '96 and did that dog bite him? I have no idea.

There were sometimes arguments over a gate, yes. Had been for years. On the occasions when Sophie was there - which were intermittent. Same time period I was having constant arguments with a neighbour constantly blocking my car in. Did I consider murdering them in a frenzied attack? No. I did consider clamping them so they could find out what it's like to block someone in.

Then there is the 'Sophie's house was/wasn't easy to find' bicker and what that might mean. All I can say is that on the one occasion I was there in Aug '96, our driver who was very familiar with the area and had been there many times, found it so difficult to find he couldn't find it. While sober. In broad daylight. People can take from that what they like. I'm sure if someone's cousin who lives in the next townland says it's easy then it is.