Jefferies ‘getting on with life’

The landlord of Jo Yeates has said he is reaching the point where he can get on with his life again.

Christopher Jefferies, who lived in the flat above the Bristol landscape architect, was the subject of lurid newspaper headlines after his arrest on suspicion of her murder.

Miss Yeates’s neighbour Vincent Tabak was last week convicted of murdering the 25-year-old on 17 December 2010.

Mr Jefferies also expressed dismay at plans to change laws on legal aid.

Miss Yeates, originally from Ampfield in Hampshire, was found dead on Christmas Day last year.

Substantial damages

Mr Jefferies, who lived above Miss Yeates and her boyfriend Greg Reardon in Canynge Road, Clifton, was arrested on suspicion of murder on 30 December.

He spent three days in police custody and was eventually released from police bail in March.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about his ordeal with elements of the press and the police, Mr Jefferies said: “It has taken up a whole year virtually of my life, that period of time has meant that everything that I would normally be doing has been in abeyance.

“But, fortunately, I think I’m approaching the point at which I can start to take up the reins from the end of last year.”

Mr Jefferies accepted an apology and “substantial” libel damages from the Sun, Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Record, Daily Express, Daily Star and the Scotsman for their coverage after his arrest.

The former English teacher told the programme of his dismay at government plans to change laws on legal aid, which ministers say will end for most family cases, clinical negligence and employment disputes in England and Wales.

Currently anyone with disposable assets of less than £8,000 can qualify for aid, but that could be lowered to £1,000.

Mr Jefferies said: “I think there is absolutely no question that I wouldn’t have been able to take the action that I did because at the moment, one is able to take out a conditional fee agreement [no win, no fee] and that means that the lawyer’s success fees, which are a percentage of the total legal costs of taking the action, will be paid by the other side and one won’t be responsible for those.

“Because these cases can be dragged out over considerable periods of time, particularly if they go to court, then legal fees are astronomic.

“One couldn’t begin to potentially expose oneself to the risk of having to pay tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds in advance.”

‘Tissue of fabrications’

Mr Jefferies, who taught at the Bristol public school Clifton College for 34 years, said he only learned about “lurid” press coverage about him “considerably after” he was released from custody.

“During the time that I was in custody, the solicitor who was representing me had very wisely decided that it was certainly not a good idea that I should be made aware of that.

“Friends, after my release, protected me a great deal from it,” he said.

Mr Jefferies added that he only learned of the details when he was staying with friends and decided to go to Bristol to pick up some clothes.

“It was at that point that the solicitor emphasised in no uncertain terms that this would be an extremely bad idea and that, if necessary, he would come down from London to dissuade me in person.

Vincent Tabak was convicted of murdering Miss Yeates on Friday

“It was at that point that I realised just how much of a household name, for all the wrong reasons, I had become.”

He previously said he had been so violated it felt like “rape”.

“When I was talking about that I was referring to the extraordinary tissue of fabrications and misrepresentations that appeared in the press – that didn’t refer to my treatment at the hands of the police,” he told the programme.

“I was merely drawing an analogy and saying that when one is arrested one is in a particularly defenceless position and it is then made doubly worse if on to that defenceless person is imposed the entirely defamatory and the entirely unreal personality that was imposed upon me.”

Tabak, the 33-year-old Dutch engineer who was Miss Yeates’s next door neighbour as well as being Mr Jefferies’ tenant, was found guilty of her murder by a jury at Bristol Crown Court on Friday.

He was jailed for a minimum of 20 years.

In July, the Daily Mirror and the Sun were fined for being in contempt of court by the High Court over their reporting of the investigation.

The Daily Mirror was fined £50,000 and the Sun £18,000.

Mr Jefferies is also pursuing a civil case against Avon and Somerset Police for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.

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