Some evidence against Stone was not able to be presented in court, such as his long record of violent crime and of severe mental illness. The statements from the psychiatrist and nurses who had named Stone as a suspect after the Crimewatch reconstruction, in which they told of Stone's threats to kill and of his irrational and dangerous behaviour only days before the murders, were also not heard by the jury. After the arrest of Stone, surviving victim Josie Russell had said that she recognised him from newspaper pictures in articles covering the story, but evidence admissibility laws prevented this from being heard in court. Police were also unable to present their suspicions that Stone was responsible for the theft of a lawnmower yards from the murder site on the day of the murder.
