I wonder how many jurors knew this information at the trial of Patrick Docherty and Brendan Dixon?

U Division MUST have had this information. U division certainly have a lot of questions to answer. I wonder how much of this information was made available to the defence teams at the original trial? Not only about this witness but many of the witnesses have criminal histories.

The man this article below is about, was actually a witness at the Killie 2 trial. He has been in court recently on other serious charges.


February 15th 2001

Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Police are following up leads in Scotland after a national appeal to find a man who failed to appear in court in connection with a violent attack.

Darwen Detective Sergeant Neil Hunter appeared on BBC TVs Crimewatch Daily, programme on Monday in an effort to track down Edward O'Brien, who failed to turn up to a Crown Court trial in Burnley on January 29th.

As a result, police are now following leads in Scotland, particularly in the Kilmarnock area, where he is known to have family.

O'Brien, 22, whose last given address was 15b Edmund Street, Darwen, is to face aggravated burglary charges in relation to an offence in Accrington last March. DS Hunter said, "Even before the programme had finished we recieved a number of calls. "It has given us some very postitive lines of enquiry and we are working closely with our colleagues in Strathclyde. We recieved more pertinent calls on Monday than I did when I appeared ion Crimewatch UK last August. "On Monday we got about 20 calls and all were relevant but on Crimewatch UK we got about 100, of which only about five were useful.

"O'Brien has shown in the past that he has a violent side and that he is prepared to use it as well. We believe he would not hesitate in targetting elderly members of the community and I would urge people not to approach this man, "he said.

Anyone with information is asked ot contact Darwen CID on 01254 353842