Jo Yeates murder police in CCTV setback as Clifton Bridge cameras offer no clues
by Richard Smith and Andrew Gregory, Daily Mirror 10/01/2011
None of the 32 cameras on a bridge her killer probably crossed are likely to give clear pictures.
A Clifton Suspension Bridge source revealed yesterday: “They’re rubbish at night. They’re too dim.”
Yesterday Jo’s mum Theresa, 58, offered to play her daughter, 25, in a TV Crimewatch reconstruction.
It came as an MP said 250,000 Bristol men should be DNA tested.
But it yesterday emerged pictures from Clifton Suspension Bridge’s CCTV – one of the best hopes of a breakthrough in Jo Yeates’ murder hunt – could be too dim to show her killer or their car registration.
The tourist attraction provides the most direct route from the 25-year-old’s flat to the roadside verge three miles away where her body was dumped.
According to toll-keepers though, the bridge’s shoddy pictures will not identify the strangler’s face because the landmark’s 3,000 LED lights cause a glare which greatly reduces CCTV quality.
They will also be unlikely to pick out registration plates of every motorist. It will be a huge blow to desperate detectives hoping for their first major development in the hunt for Jo’s murderer.
The setback came as Labour MP Kerry McCarthy yesterday called for DNA swabs to be taken from 250,000 men in the area.
Speaking about the sub-standard CCTV shots, one toll-keeper said yesterday: “I don’t think you’d be able to see the driver of a car at night because of the glare – and it would be difficult to see the registration plate of all the cars crossing the bridge. But when they switch off the illuminations at midnight you can see everything.”
Another source added: “The CCTV is rubbish at night. After dark it’s a total no, no. All police will get is the shape of a car to show whether it’s a Ford Focus or a Vauxhall or whatever.
“They changed the illuminations on the bridge four years ago and it’s messed up the CCTV – the lights are now four or five times brighter than they were.”
Landscape architect Jo disappeared from her basement flat in Clifton, Bristol, around 9pm on Friday, December 17.
Her body was found dumped by a quarry eight days later on Christmas Day. But more than two weeks on, detectives still have not got a breakthrough.
They believe Jo’s killer may have driven over the suspension bridge on the night she disappeared.
Investigators wanted to check each motorist using the crossing from Clifton towards Longwood Lane, Failand, where Jo’s body was found – and all vehicles making the reverse journey.
But many of the bridge’s cameras are trained on pedestrian walkways to stop people committing suicide by jumping off into the Avon Gorge 245ft below.
Others focus on vehicles which stop at the 50p toll barriers at either end.
Just last week, Det Chief Insp Phil Jones stressed the importance of the footage.
Former Scotland Yard Det Chief Insp Peter Kirkham said the news would be a massive blow to the murder inquiry.
He said: “He would have thought ‘this could break the case for me’.
“If the CCTV is not worth bothering about then that is a huge disappointment, a huge setback. It explains why police say this inquiry may take a long time – it is like somebody has dipped their hand into your jigsaw puzzle box and run away with a handful of the pieces.”
The world-renowned bridge is run by a non-profit charity trust and costs £1million a year to maintain.
Avon and Somerset police spokesman said last night: “There are some pictures where you can’t see the driver very clearly but you can see the make of the car – and in terms of the bigger picture that can help us.
“Obviously the clearer the CCTV the better – we are still ploughing through, it’s a painstaking process.”
Police have now begun tracing the owners of mobiles in the area where Jo spent the last hours of her life. Officers believe the signals could help them track down her killer.
Labour MP Miss McCarthy wants DNA taken from Bristol’s entire male population. The mass testing would echo a case in 1995, which eventually led to the conviction of David Frost who raped and murdered 18-year-old Louise Smith on Christmas Day as she walked home from a club near Bristol.
Miss McCarthy said: “I understand some people think this is an invasion of privacy but it could catch the killer.”
Last night the agonised pal sent a final text by Jo spoke of his fears that she may have been killed before she got his reply. Matt Wood, 28, got her drinks invite at 8.20pm. But he was at a party and sent his message at 9.20pm.
He said: “It’s horrifying to think she might have been dead when I texted her.”
They believe Jo’s killer may have driven over the suspension bridge on the night she disappeared.
Investigators wanted to check each motorist using the crossing from Clifton towards Longwood Lane, Failand, where Jo’s body was found – and all vehicles making the reverse journey.
But many of the bridge’s cameras are trained on pedestrian walkways to stop people committing suicide by jumping off into the Avon Gorge 245ft below.
Others focus on vehicles which stop at the 50p toll barriers at either end.
Just last week, Det Chief Insp Phil Jones stressed the importance of the footage.
Former Scotland Yard Det Chief Insp Peter Kirkham said the news would be a massive blow to the murder inquiry.
He said: “He would have thought ‘this could break the case for me’.
“If the CCTV is not worth bothering about then that is a huge disappointment, a huge setback. It explains why police say this inquiry may take a long time – it is like somebody has dipped their hand into your jigsaw puzzle box and run away with a handful of the pieces.”
The world-renowned bridge is run by a non-profit charity trust and costs £1million a year to maintain.
Avon and Somerset police spokesman said last night: “There are some pictures where you can’t see the driver very clearly but you can see the make of the car – and in terms of the bigger picture that can help us.
“Obviously the clearer the CCTV the better – we are still ploughing through, it’s a painstaking process.”
Police have now begun tracing the owners of mobiles in the area where Jo spent the last hours of her life. Officers believe the signals could help them track down her killer.
Labour MP Miss McCarthy wants DNA taken from Bristol’s entire male population. The mass testing would echo a case in 1995, which eventually led to the conviction of David Frost who raped and murdered 18-year-old Louise Smith on Christmas Day as she walked home from a club near Bristol.
Miss McCarthy said: “I understand some people think this is an invasion of privacy but it could catch the killer.”
Last night the agonised pal sent a final text by Jo spoke of his fears that she may have been killed before she got his reply. Matt Wood, 28, got her drinks invite at 8.20pm. But he was at a party and sent his message at 9.20pm.
He said: “It’s horrifying to think she might have been dead when I texted her.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/01/10/jo-yeates-murder-police-in-cctv-setback-as-clifton-bridge-cameras-offer-no-clues-115875-22838073/
