On these grounds, and after concluding that the press may have influenced the trial, the Court of Appeal acquitted the Taylor sisters and they were released after spending one year in prison.

Evidence was also heard at the trial that the pair had an interest in violence: Lisa had once stabbed a dog to death in Southend-on-Sea, and Michelle had an interest in knives and other weapons which she slept by in her room at night.At appeal it transpired that the police had suppressed evidence making clear that key witnesses, including Dr. Bernard, having witnessed their trial, was convinced that a major miscarriage of justice had occurred and with his help their appeal was successful. Both girls were charged with murder and, eleven months later, in July 1992, they were convicted at the Old Bailey and sent to prison for life. Michelle - who had been having an affair with Alison's husband - had been found guilty of murdering Alison in a jealous rage, and her sister, Lisa, was convicted of aiding her in the brutal attack. A careful reading of the diary entries thereafter would have shown her growing disaffection with him, and sympathy with Alison.

But if Michelle had deliberately destroyed it (as they were insinuating), wouldn’t she have destroyed the 1990 diary as well? As the Court of Appeal was told, while ignorance and confusion may have been used as an excuse for not revealing evidence during the miscarriages of justice of the 1970s and 1980s, by the time of the Taylor sisters' Old Bailey trial last year there can have been no doubts.

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. alison shaghnessy murder - taylor sisters convicted; england: london: old bailey: two female friends/relatives of alison shaughnessy as screaming and. However, it was heard that Alison Shaughnessy's husband paid for the sister to attend the wedding ceremony and arranged for her to look after the clinic garden, for which he was responsible, whilst he was away on his honeymoon.

Lisa's motive was said to be that she was concerned at Mr Shaughnessy's shabby treatment of her sister. In the summer of 1987, when she was 16, Michelle got her first job, as a clerk in the accounts department of a private health clinic in Lambeth Road, south London.At that stage they were the only victims of a miscarriage of justice in the UK to have ever been denied any compensation.