Not guilty

It's no surprise that Ewen Macdonald has been found not guilty of murdering his brother-in-law Scott Guy. We are not going to link to any of the stories surrounding the verdict; there's wall-to-wall television, radio and internet coverage.

And the only comment we are going to make on the verdict is this; the Crown's case was weak. Circumstantial evidence can be enough to prove guilt, but in this case, the Crown simply did not have enough evidence. When we heard extracts from Justice Simon France's summing-up, we were pretty much convinced that a not guilty verdict would result; his instructions to the jury carried a heavy judicial hint that the burden of proof had not been met.

Did Ewen Macdonald do it? That's between him and his maker. We believe that it's entirely conceivable that he did, but as always, the burden of proof rests with the prosecution. He has been found not guilty, and unless new evidences emerges which allows the Crown to apply to try him again. Macdonald is innocent in the eyes of the law. He is still to be sentenced on lesser charges though, but that will come as no comfort to anyone.

We will be watching comments on this post closely, and will delete anything which we consider to be defamatory. In the meantime our thoughts and prayers are with the families involved in this tragic set of circumstances, especially Kylee Guy and Anna Macdonald. We hope that the media now gives them the space to grieve, to mourn, to reflect and to rebuild lives which were irrevocably shattered on the morning of 8 July 2010.

RIP Scott Guy.