The missing ingredient in the Alesha/Aaron case is drugs. I've always been against use of drugs including nicotine - only recently have I allowed myself the odd tipple of alcohol and that's for taste reasons - as one gets older a glass of beer or wine with food tastes better than water. But I've never advised people not to do drugs because I don't - they are simply not right for me - for others, they add creativity or enjoyment (Mick Jagger was a prime example of someone who used drugs but never let them use him). Every single one of my false accusers (both times) had drugs history. Even cannabis, frequently harmless, can affect some people very badly - causing paranoia and even more serious mental problems. Drugs can make some behave like the devil. Alesha's murder had many aspects of Satanic influence.

"Satanic influence" seems to me a bit of a stretch, but there are certain plenty of examples of cannabis-induced psychosis unfortunately. Not necessarily the 'soft drug' that many seem to assume.

I smoked pot and had several LSD trips but stopped all such activity when I was 20 (now aged 89).

# On one trip I was in a park when Michael Winner arrived in a fleet of cars scouting a location. I thought it was an invasion and hid behind some flower beds.

I also took endless Purple Hearts as my best friend was a Shrink and he brought home boxes of them.
But I started to hate the comedowns and stopped by age 20.

My Psychiatrist pal (who sometimes did operations the day after a trip and said the colours were sensational) was considered the most brilliant of his era but ended up as a patient in the hospital he once ran.

I used to be the LSD "guide" in the 60s - they knew I could deal with any problems like raids, as I never partook; once John Lennon insisted I take him to the toilet and help him pee; "the colours are fantastic JK". I replied that was why I didn't do drugs - wasting my life admiring my own pee. He thought my comment hilarious and laughed for hours!

tdf wrote:
"Satanic influence" seems to me a bit of a stretch, but there are certain plenty of examples of cannabis-induced psychosis unfortunately. Not necessarily the 'soft drug' that many seem to assume.
Would someone suffering delusions have the presence of mind to Google "how do police find DNA?" then again be on-the-ball enough to lie to police and in court? Having once experienced psychosis (out of the blue and not drug- or alcohol-induced, a state I can best describe as a waking nightmare, when scary thoughts become real and you lose touch with reality) I have my doubts.

"Individuals with psychosis are rarely violent and, in fact, they are at much greater risk of causing harm to themselves than to others."
www.earlypsychosis.ca/pages/curious/concerned-safety

Another consideration re cannabis is the potential for generating false memories:

www.iflscience.com/brain/smoking-pot-cou...rone-false-memories/

If someone believes that something happened - even if it didn't - their passionate and determined insistence that it did might just be enough to convince a jury.

Absolutely and paranoid schizophrenia is a very common result of constant cannabis use. But denied by the many who have no problems with it. Since they aren't affected they refuse to believe it can happen - a bit like cigarette smokers and cancer.

I see a lot of people with psychosis that appears (to me) to coincide with heavy cannabis use.

This is not the same stuff that people smoked at Stonehenge.

JK2006 wrote:
Absolutely and paranoid schizophrenia is a very common result of constant cannabis use. But denied by the many who have no problems with it. Since they aren't affected they refuse to believe it can happen - a bit like cigarette smokers and cancer.
Most people with schizophrenia are not violent. More typically, they prefer to withdraw and be left alone. In some cases, however, people with mental illness may engage in dangerous or violent behaviors that are generally a result of their psychosis and the resulting fear from feelings of being threatened in some way by their surroundings.

On the other hand, people with schizophrenia can be a danger to themselves. Suicide is the number one cause of premature death among people with schizophrenia.
www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/qa/are-peopl...izophrenia-dangerous
Though I'm no expert in mental illness or drug use, I doubt it was psychosis or schizophrenia that caused Campbell to torture and kill animals, express a desire to kill people and ultimately rape and murder a little girl. It is a ghastly crime, though, and natural to want to search for logical reasons for why it happened. Maybe he just did it for the thrill.

Maybe though I cannot see what thrill anybody would get from it unless affected by serious outside influences. Either way, surely we all need to know the facts - especially the Judge and before sentencing.