The Strange Death of Innes Ewart

This was certainly worth a listen though a little anticlimactic but throughno fault of the podcaster / researchers etc. A tragic case regardless of the cause and I’d recommend listening to the whole lot of them.

Quality and Production appeared good Subject and story appeared interesting However, hoping it might have more insight into either suicide or murder theory, all it seemed was an excersise in police bashing. I spent two decades living not far from the scene. The police in that area have always been rushed from call to call, stabbings/murders/drugs/robbery. Being picky over minor issues, does not overcome the fact that the majority of the evidence available to police at the time pointed to Suicide. In a busy area like that police have to act like triage nurses. Use up 5 officers for 2 weeks to investigate every minor detail, means about 10 cases of life risking emergencys not being reached on time. They have to make triage decisions, if there was a serious hint of foul play, they’d have called in the big guns. The most frustraiting part of the podcast is the inclusion of two people he spoke to who made outragious accusations or trumped up information just get a few minutes of fame. Devoted literally an episode to each. Anyway my advice to anyone, avoid Newham and surrounding areas like the plague. It is still an absolute hole.

It’s interesting to listen to from a sociological perspective. Firstly, as a classic example of denial in the case of overwhelming facts. Secondly, as a case history of how journalists can procrastinate and pad out a rather tragic and closed case. Perhaps the victim had a secret life that he could not accept? All the events leading up to his demise seem to confirm the police’s theory. Tragically, unless there is a suicide note, families are never inclined to support the overwhelming evidence of self harm. Not surprisingly, journalists will always manufacture a conspiracy out of thin air. Particularly within the podcast medium. It’s getting rather annoying.

This could easily have been a 1 hr show. I thought the journalist was happy to stretch out a personal tragedy for the family for his own glorification. I actually feel quite cross that this podcast was made to be honest. Avoid.