Tabloids Condemn ‘Oddball’ Chris Jefferies For Murder Of Joanna Yeates

JOANNA Yeates: Chris Jeffries is in custody. He’s the “strange” (Sun), “nutty” (Mail), good old “Mr Chips” (Express) figure suspected of murdering his blonde, 25-year-old tenant.

As for news of the case, well, Peter Stanley, 56, (pictured) says he was asked by Mr Jefferies to help jump start Greg Reardon’s car. He was Joanna’s live-in boyfriend. He needed his car to drive to Sheffield. It was while he was away that Joanna Yeates vanished. Says Mr Stanley:

“It was a non-event at the time, but absolutely poignant now – what if we didn’t get the car to start?”

Such are the facts. Small things can seem important after the event. Things like Mr Jefferies hair and his not being married. The media have his name. And they are looking at everything about him with sideways eyes.

One neighbour did call him a “pillar of society”. And he did hold down a job at Clifton College for 35 years? He rented out his flat to Joanna Yeates and her boyfriend Greg Reardon. He is the vice-chairman of his local Neighbourhood Watch team. What picture of him do such facts construct?

Attorney General, Dominic Grieve tells the BBC Radio 4 show The World At One:

“We need to avoid a situation where trials cannot take place or are prejudiced as a result of irrelevant or improper material being published, whether in print form or on the internet, in such a way that a trial becomes impossible.”

So. Mindful of that. Here’s the Mail:

A teacher who used to live in Joanna Yeates flat was jailed for sexually abusing a pupil there. Stephen Johnson taught French at Clifton College where murder suspect Jefferies also worked.

SWNS puts it as:

Chris Jefferies bought Jo Yeates flat from paedophile colleague

…Vile Johnston, now 57, was jailed for seven years in March 2008 after being found guilty of six sex offences.

There is nothing linking Jefferies to Johnston’s crimes. We do not know if Mr Jefferies is guilty of any crime. But the tabloid media is on a roll. Back in the Mail, we learn:

The teacher they called Mr Strange: He dyed his hair blue, idolised a poet obsessed with death, and threw books and pens in fury

And:

Described as a ‘nutty professor’, the bachelor used to dye his hair blue and has an obsession with Christina Rossetti, a 19th-century poet who often wrote about death.

The Telegraph had already told us:

“…has been described by pupils at Clifton College where he worked for 30 years as a fan of dark and violent avant garde films.”

A Jeremy Wayne told the BBC:

“He was always odd in his manner, turning pink at the least provocation. And I seem to remember he liked to wear a school scarf, which even in 1975 we though rather cheesy.”

But the pick of the bunch is the Sun, which delivers this: