Max has a sword dangling above his head

[John S]

Chis Balfe editor of PITPASS. com has a brilliant and fascinating take on all of the implications for your UK intelligence services from this couple and in particular from the husband and his intelligence cousins - prepare to be concerned and perhaps frightened:

http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_feature_item.php?fes_art_id=35634

He stops just short of accusing Michelle and Martin of a hand in the JFK assasination, he rants on worse than Max himself.

My rule of thumb is that conspiracy theory works in less than 5% of alleged cases, the simple c*ck up theory resulting from amatuer or ill thought through actions prevails the rest of the time.

[Steven Roy]

I have never read much of Chris Balfe's writing but if that last article is typical I won't bother to read any more.  Clearly he set out with an agenda and ignored all logic to get to it.  He makes a point about how Michelle was Ok to be interviewed on TV after pulling out of testifying in court.  Well who gained most from her not testifying?  I would say probably Max because as soon as she refused to testify it could not be proved that he asked for a Nazi theme.  From then on he was bound to get off.

You have to ask how a major witness in an expensive trial can just decide not to testify and the trial not get held up until a doctor decides whether or not she is fit.  You cannot have a legislative system where someone can effectively instigate the case, make a statement and then just decide not to testify.

[Scott]

Two things in my eyes make the conspiracy theory invalid. 

First of all, this is a couple who would obviously do anything for money.  So if someone told them (as I'm sure someone at NOTW or another rag has) that they would pay even more money if they exposed the supposed person who put them up to it, then they would certainly blab as much as needed to make that extra money.

Secondly, there is nobody behind the NOTW involved, since this couple went to them, not the other way around.

Balfe can minimalize the involvement of Max and Ms. E, but building his story on the security issues involved with a (probably) lowly MI5 officer makes me yawn.  C'mon, police and security officials are just like you and me.  Some with secrets, some without.  Having a wife as a dominatrix is no worse than Max hiring her.  Trying to make a few bucks off by exposing a hapless Max is quite a bit different pill to swallow than Balfe's suggestion that it could have been a terrorist cell paying for info.  Completely different moral level.

[Steven Roy]

If you follow Balfe's suposition that this woman would do anything for money then presumably she would have testified for the money NOTW paid her.  Alternatively the fact she didn't testify must be due to that being the more profitable route for her.  Who I wonder could have made it more profitable for her not to testify than testify?  Who could splash out £100k without batting an eyelid?  Maybe someone who allegedly received a $300 million pay off from someone he gave a very good deal to a few years previously.

[Scott]

Now THAT would be an account transfer worth flagging.  Lets hope there is a paper trail if it did happen.  It is pretty strange that she didn't testify - it doesn't make sense.  NOTW would certainly have given her the other half of her fee if she had testified and kept them out of hot water, but that certain someone you refer to on the other hand may have beaten them to it by ensuring that he won the case by having their prime witness drop out.

[Steven Roy]

The other thing that springs to mind is that if I was running a conspiracy against Max as soon as he stood in a witness box spouting off about how long he and his wife were together I would have been asking him how them being together tied up(oops) with them living in different countries.  Clearly whoever set up this conspiracy did not know much about Max.  They don't even appear to know stuff that is in the public domain and freely discussed in the F1 areas of the internet.  It seems odd that we all know Max's domestic arrangements yet the people running the conspiracy appear not to.  Of course there may have been a conspiracy but it must have been run by an ignorant incompetent.  That takes us back to Max again.

[johnbull]

I have never read much of Chris Balfe's writing but if that last article is typical I won't bother to read any more.  Clearly he set out with an agenda and ignored all logic to get to it.  He makes a point about how Michelle was Ok to be interviewed on TV after pulling out of testifying in court.  Well who gained most from her not testifying?  I would say probably Max because as soon as she refused to testify it could not be proved that he asked for a Nazi theme.  From then on he was bound to get off.

You have to ask how a major witness in an expensive trial can just decide not to testify and the trial not get held up until a doctor decides whether or not she is fit.  You cannot have a legislative system where someone can effectively instigate the case, make a statement and then just decide not to testify.

And I thought you had a good, fair and exemplary legal system in England.

[cosworth151]

I can't help but wonder if fear of perjury was involved in her decision not to testify.

If this case had been in the courts over here in the States, it would have drug on for years.

[SennaMan]

I have never read much of Chris Balfe's writing but if that last article is typical I won't bother to read any more.  Clearly he set out with an agenda and ignored all logic to get to it.  He makes a point about how Michelle was Ok to be interviewed on TV after pulling out of testifying in court. No he does not OK it but actually is most damning of this post-trial behaviour   Well who gained most from her not testifying?  I would say probably Max because as soon as she refused to testify it could not be proved that he asked for a Nazi theme.  From then on he was bound to get off.

You have to ask how a major witness in an expensive trial can just decide not to testify and the trial not get held up until a doctor decides whether or not she is fit.  You cannot have a legislative system where someone can effectively instigate the case, make a statement and then just decide not to testify.

heck SR, I think you must have read another article!

[Scott]

I have never read much of Chris Balfe's writing but if that last article is typical I won't bother to read any more.  Clearly he set out with an agenda and ignored all logic to get to it.  He makes a point about how Michelle was Ok to be interviewed on TV after pulling out of testifying in court. No he does not OK it but actually is most damning of this post-trial behaviour   Sure he does - 8th paragraph, on page oneWell who gained most from her not testifying?  I would say probably Max because as soon as she refused to testify it could not be proved that he asked for a Nazi theme.  From then on he was bound to get off.

You have to ask how a major witness in an expensive trial can just decide not to testify and the trial not get held up until a doctor decides whether or not she is fit.  You cannot have a legislative system where someone can effectively instigate the case, make a statement and then just decide not to testify.

heck SR, I think you must have read another article!

Steven is right.  The judge should have forced her to testify since she was the key to the entire case.  Nobody profited more than Max from her 'panic attack'.

[johnbull]

If I'm not mistaken, the law hear requires a witness to testify if so asked by the court, whether he or she likes it or not.

The testimony of that witness could have had a very important bearing on the outcome of the whole case.

Is that judge really one of Max's perverted friends?

So much for justice.

[Alianora La Canta]

The law in the UK does not oblige a witness to testify if they cannot do so (as distinct from not wanting to). However the usual convention is to adjourn the case until such time as the witness is capable of testifying, not to carry on as if nothing had happened.

[lkjohnson1950]

I think the fact that the Royals are already trying to use this decision to gain more privacy from the media may show where the judge was actually headed and who he was thinking about. A word to the wise from the power structure may have been sufficient.