Murder of Alison Shaughnessy
Vardens Road, shown in 2013. Shaughnessy's flat, the site of the murder, is the one to the rear of the lamppost. | |
| Date | 3 June 1991 |
|---|---|
| Time | Approx. 5:45 p.m. |
| Location | 41 Vardens Road, near Clapham Junction station, London |
| Coordinates | 51°27′35″N 0°10′27″W / 51.459804884443805°N 0.17406374766395452°W |
| Cause | Stabbing |
| Deaths | 1 |
On 3 June 1991, 21-year-old Alison Shaughnessy (née Blackmore; born 7 November 1969) was stabbed to death in the stairwell of her flat near Clapham Junction station. Shaughnessy was newly married, but her husband was having an affair with a 20-year-old woman, Michelle Taylor. A witness reported seeing two women running from Shaughnessy's building after the murder, and fingerprints found at the scene matched those of Michelle and her sister Lisa Taylor, who claimed never to have been there. Michelle's diary included an entry that read: "My dream solution would be for Alison to disappear, as if she never existed."
The Taylor sisters were found guilty of the murder in 1992, but one year later their convictions were overturned by the Court of Appeal because the prosecution had failed to turn evidence over to the defence, and because the sensationalist media coverage may have influenced jurors. Reinvestigations by the Metropolitan Police did not identify any other suspects, and in 2002 it was decided to no longer formally investigate the case.
Filmmaker Bernard O'Mahoney, who had originally campaigned for the release of the Taylors and who then had an affair with Michelle, has since claimed that she confessed to the murder to him and has campaigned for the sisters to be re-convicted. The case led to discussions about the role of press and media in relation to criminal cases.