roving, I agree with you when you say
the QC would have been acting strictly in accordance with his instructions.
After the hearing I asked the defence barrister, Richard Matthews QC, if he had known about the 2002 QinetiQ report (the one that included the words “… failure of the main parachute system to deploy due to ... scissors shackle … [was] successfully eradicated by … GS drogue bridle release system …” (the so-called ‘gas shackle’)), and he said he had seen it. But it had not been mentioned in the hearing.
I had sat through both days of the hearing, the prosecution on the Monday and the defence on the Tuesday, and the judge’s summary remarks when she said that this had been a most unusual sentencing event. Indeed, she admitted she wasn’t sure how she was going to progress. Which was presumably why she is taking ten days to decide on sentence.
May I take a little diversion here? If, like me, you sometimes look at the pages of PPRuNe and despair of your fellow aviation professionals, then this page of this thread is exactly the thing to renew your faith. It is packed with thoughtful and experienced expertise, the like of which you would be hard put to find in the same place anywhere else.
Keep up the good work, troops!
airsound