Miss Jones (2014 character)

Miss Jones was Peter Barlow's defence barrister at his trial for the murder of Tina McIntyre in October 2014.

On the first day, the prosecution witnesses were Roy Cropper, Leanne Tilsley and Steve McDonald. She cross-examined Roy as to why he said that Peter was distressed when he had seen him going in and out of Tina's flat on the night of the murder. She then asked if it was dark, if there was adequate street lighting, and how he could tell that Peter seemed more troubled when he came out than when he went in. Roy said that his years of train spotting, brought out by Miss Jones in an attempt to belittle him in the eyes of the jury, had developed an accurate eye for detail. She questioned Leanne as to her discovery of Tina's body on Victoria Street and got her to agree that Carla Barlow was on the balcony above looking down at the time. Leanne had to admit that then she had thought Carla had pushed her off and that she had seen nothing else to account for the fall. Steve was suffering from undeclared depression at the trial and reacted badly to his questions. He told her that when he had advised Peter to shut Tina up it wasn’t meant as a comment to mean her harm. He got stressed during the proceedings and shouted back at Miss Jones “how would you feel if your best mate killed his girlfriend and you thought it was all your fault!”

On the second day, she told Peter to relax but not too much as it would look arrogant, and not to worry about Carla and her evidence but to let her do her job.

Mary Taylor was the first prosecution witness on that day and Miss Jones got her to admit that she was not fully sober on night of the death and Peter's abrupt manner to her that evening just might have been because her nosey questions to him were in fact none of her business.

Carla admitted that she went round to "have it out" with Tina after she found out about Peter's affair with her and that she was shaken and angry. She also got Carla to admit that on the way out of the bar she said she was going "to kill" Tina and she agreed that she was seen on the balcony by Kal Nazir and Leanne. She did her best to raise doubts about the reason for Carla going on to the balcony and read out incriminating passages from her police statement when she had said that she had no idea what her intentions had been when she went to see Tina and that she wanted her "wiped off the face of the earth". Carla herself helped Peter's case by admitting freely that she didn’t think he was the killer.

In the third day she called Peter for the defence. He said that on the night of the murder he made no attempt to mislead the police about his fight with Tina and then he went to see Carla to tell her about the affair on his terms as he loved her and didn’t want to hurt her more than was necessary. He admitted he was weak to have the affair, that Tina had been fun and an escape from the realities of life.

After cross examination from the Prosecution Barrister, Miss Jones questioned Peter again and asked why he didn’t sugar-coat his admission of the affair. Peter said that he had to be truthful before Tina gave all the damning details to Carla in her own words and that he was shocked and confused when he saw Tina's lifeless body being put into an ambulance.

In the defence summing-up, Miss Jones put the question to the jury as to why Peter would confess to damning details of his affair if he knew that Tina was already dead. She discounted the prosecution arguments that Peter had a “grand plan” and an elaborate smokescreen to cover his guilt. She also pointed out that no trace of Tina’s blood was ever found on Peter’s clothes and that was because he didn’t take Tina’s life.

On the fourth day, Peter was found guilty and Miss Jones asked for delay in sentencing to allow for mitigation arguments although she admitted that the sentence was fixed in law. Peter was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of fifteen years but just a few weeks later Rob Donovan was unmasked as the real murderer and Peter was released.


 * Credited as "Defence Barrister", the character's name was given in dialogue in Episode 8491 (15th October 2014).

List of appearances
2014
 * Mon 13th Oct (1)
 * Mon 13th Oct (2)
 * Wed 15th Oct
 * Fri 17th Oct (1)
 * Fri 17th Oct (2)
 * Mon 20th Oct (1)
 * Mon 20th Oct (2)