Page 17 of Wanting Daisy Dead

Transcript from The Killer Question Podcast

Tammy : So, today we’re talking to someone who believed for a long time that David Montgomery was guilty of Daisy’s murder. But then, six months ago, she met with his family, and along with them now wonders if the police and the courts may have got things wrong with David’s case.

Here at The Killer Question we’ve always doubted David Montgomery’s conviction.

We believe it was unsafe and based on prejudice and assumptions about forensic evidence.

We’ve also heard from a close source who says that, at the time, other people in Daisy’s orbit had stronger motives than David Montgomery.

But as police interviewed David early in the investigation, and he was arrested and charged quite quickly, they assumed, like everyone else, that David was guilty.

So, a big welcome to the woman who has helped us to move forward on our journey to clear David Montgomery’s name, and find Daisy Harrington’s real killer.

Teresa Harrington, Daisy’s mother, has kindly agreed to join us to discuss the impact of her daughter’s death, and how a meeting with David’s family has changed her perspective.

Does she now think that the killer may have been closer to home – perhaps even a friend and housemate of Daisy’s? Welcome, Teresa Harrington.

Teresa : Thank you . . . I’m a bit nervous but . . .

Tammy : Please don’t be, Teresa – you are among friends.

We So want to help you find your daughter’s killer, and hopefully this weekend we’re going to do that.

So, let’s begin with you. A bright young woman, from a poor family, and despite doing well at school, you left at sixteen, when you discovered you were pregnant with Daisy.

Teresa : Yes ... I didn’t have much, but did the best I could for my girl.

Tammy : So despite economic hardship, your daughter Daisy thrived. In fact she was the first in your family to attend university. You must have been very proud.

Teresa : Very, very proud ... Yes. (Teresa sniffles.) I was on my own, and it was hard.

We lived in a damp bedsit for ten years, then in 1996 the council finally gave us a house and Daisy had her own bedroom for the first time in her life – she was ten years old.

I painted it purple; she said she was too old for pink.

(Teresa chuckles softly.) Daisy grew up fast – she had to as I was out working two jobs and she had to look after herself.

She was proper grown-up, she was, but still kept her Furbies and all the My Little Ponies, and she had a Tamagotchi too . .. Oh, and she loved the Spice Girls.

Tammy : Tell us about Daisy as she was growing up, Teresa. Did you have a good mother–daughter relationship?

Teresa : We did. She told me everything, and even at university she called me most days to tell me what was happening, who she liked, who’d annoyed her, what she was having for her tea ... It had always been just the two of us, you know?

Tammy : And you worked several jobs to try and give her everything she needed?

Teresa : (A pause.) I was a cleaner for two different companies.

It was bloody hard work ... Oh, sorry for swearing.

I tried so hard to give Daisy what she wanted, but as it was just me it was twice as hard.

Like, when she was twelve, Daisy asked me if I’d take her to see the Spice Girls for her birthday.

I said yes, but when I checked the prices the tickets were twenty-three pounds each – that was a lot of money then.

A lot of money to me, anyway. So I started putting money in a piggy bank, saving up every last penny, doing without food myself so I could give Daisy the birthday present she wanted.

She was so excited, she’d go around the house singing ‘zig-a-zig-ah’ and she invited her friends over to be Spice Girls.

They were all so envious that she was going to see them on stage and kept asking if they could come too.

(Teresa pauses.) Then, one day, I was telling this woman I worked with all about it, and by then I had forty pounds saved and only needed another six pounds to buy the tickets as soon as they went on sale.

She said she knew someone who worked at the venue and she could get me the tickets cheaper, and I could have them now.

So I gave her all the money I’d been saving for weeks – she took the money, and I never saw her again.

Tammy : I’m sorry that happened to you, Teresa – that’s appalling.

Teresa : Daisy was upset, of course, but she took it well.

She was used to disappointment. (Silence for six seconds before Teresa continues, her voice cracking.) But you know what?

When they called me to say they’d found her body, that was the first thing that came to mind.

All I could think was ‘She never got to see the Spice Girls.’ Weird what grief does to you. It plays tricks.

That woman stealing my money almost blocked out the horror of what they were telling me.

And instead of wanting to find out who’d done that to my girl, I wanted to find the woman who’d robbed me of giving her that gift.

Our Daisy had never had much, and now her life had been taken too . .. (Teresa starts to cry.)

Tammy : Please, don’t get upset. (Tammy pauses.) Let’s talk about the good things, the happy times in Daisy’s life – I’m sure you gave her some wonderful things. Daisy was a popular girl, and bright too. Did you ever imagine she’d attend university?

Teresa : It was a dream and she made it come true .

.. Not many working-class kids went to university where we lived.

But she was bright, and at school she was top in her class for English.

I remember going to parents’ evening when she was about fourteen and the teacher said, ‘One day she’ll be a writer. ’ I think she would have been too.

Tammy : If you could say anything to the murderer now, Teresa, what would it be?

(Silence for three seconds.)

Teresa : They took a girl from her mother, and they took a young woman’s future. If it wasn’t David who killed her, then I don’t know why it happened, what the killer wanted. I’ve tortured myself, Tammy, trying to work out why. I ask myself that all the time – why?

Tammy : I’m sure it’s awful for you: the constant wondering, the what-ifs.

We’ve dealt with a lot of victims’ families – and a lot of killers too – and sometimes you never know why, or what someone wanted from a killing.

It’s often something petty, something that mattered only in that moment.

It could be money, jealousy, lust? I don’t know.

But those few minutes of revenge or sexual pleasure – or hate – end with them taking away someone’s life.

And trying to work out how or why is impossible and won’t help you . .. That way madness lies.

Teresa : I agree, Tammy. I think I need to try and remember the good times, and how lucky I was to have our Daisy at all. But now David Montgomery has taken his life, leaving his children without a father.

Tammy : Yes, and his conviction all those years ago meant the real killer could breathe a sigh of relief and move on. They continued on with their own life, but the horror of Daisy’s death echoed down the years, and had an impact on those left behind.

Teresa : At the time, I thought the right man was in prison. It wouldn’t bring my baby back, but it was the best I could hope for. Once the trial was over, I just existed, and only the campaign to keep him in prison kept me going. It gave me something to fight for, a reason to go on.

Tammy : But recently, your opinion has changed?

Teresa : Yes. Earlier this year, I met with David’s wife and family, for the first time, and just talking with them, realising we’re all victims ... it’s helped me, it has.

Tammy : In what way?

Teresa : Well, I used to think that Daisy was just trouble for David Montgomery, and when his wife found out about them he had to get rid of her.

Tammy : Just to keep listeners up to date on this, the police report stated that David Montgomery was angry with Daisy because she’d told his wife about the affair.

He ended their relationship, but just a few weeks later they arranged to meet down on the beach – and that was the night Daisy died.

So it was assumed the murder was premeditated.

Teresa : And I thought the same, because I’d listened to the police. I’d been in court and heard David’s testimony, but I didn’t believe him. But now I’m not so sure ... Now I think that someone else killed Daisy ... and that the killer was one of her housemates.