A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of landscape architect Jo Yeates.

 

Miss Yeates, 25, went missing from her home in Canynge Road, Clifton, Bristol, on 17 December after a night out with work colleagues in the city.

 

BBC News understands a flat being searched by police is occupied by Dutch national Vincent Tabak.

 

Avon and Somerset Police will not confirm whether Mr Tabak has been arrested.

 

Mr Tabak's flat is not the first in the block which has been searched by officers.

 

Police have also sealed off Aberdeen Road in Cotham, about a mile from Miss Yeates's flat.

 

It is not yet know if this is connected to the murder investigation.

 

Miss Yeates's frozen body was found on Christmas Day next to a country road in North Somerset.

 

A post-mortem examination revealed that she had been strangled.

 

Her father David said he was pleased with the arrest of a 32-year-old man.

 

Speaking at the family's home in Ampfield, Hampshire, he said: "We know as much as you do. We were told at 6am this morning that someone was arrested on suspicion of Jo's murder and their age."

 

Meanwhile, police have closed Canynge Road and put up scaffolding next to Miss Yeates's flat.

 

 

Officers closed Canynge Road and put up metal fencing at Miss Yeates's flat Forensic teams have begun a search at an area at the back of the block of flats which has been covered up with green sheets.

 

BBC correspondent Jon Kay said they were searching a new area that officers had not examined before.

 

Miss Yeates was reported missing by her boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27, on 19 December when he returned to their home from a weekend away visiting family in Sheffield.

 

Her body was found six days later by dog walkers on a country road several miles away.

 

Detectives have said there was no evidence that Miss Yeates had been sexually assaulted but they have not ruled out a sexual motive.

 

Her body was found with a ski sock missing.

 

Avon and Somerset police have not revealed where the man was arrested.

 

Mr Tabak's flat is not the first in the block which has been searched The reconstruction focused on what happened to her after she left her firm, BDP, in Bristol city centre.

 

She went to the Bristol Ram pub and then stopped at Waitrose and a Bargain Booze shop.

 

She then bought a mozzarella, tomato and pesto pizza from a Tesco Express store before returning home.

 

CCTV footage of Miss Yeates in all three shops was later released by police.

 

Detectives said she had made it home to her flat because her shoes, coat, mobile phone, purse and keys were found there.

 

The receipt for the pizza was also found there but no trace has been found of the food or its wrapper.

 

Tests have revealed Miss Yeates had not eaten the pizza before she died.

 

Miss Yeates's parents, David and Teresa, made a televised appeal for information on Monday in which they urged "armchair detectives" to help police.

 

The appeal prompted more than 300 calls to the force.

 

Miss Yeates's landlord Chris Jefferies, 65, was previously held for three days for questioning on suspicion of murder before being released on bail.

 

Source: BBC News

 

Well at a time of slow press and not many stories being about of Christmas, the news picked up heavily on this one, largely to do because she was a young middle-class girl and in a happy life! But even so the story has fascinated me, and it really does just show what Crimewatch can do. But one thing that annoys me greatly about the case was the treatment of Chris Jefferies who was the first person arrested. It is likely his whole life will be ruined now because of allegations made against him. The tabloid papers especially made false claims about him with no evidence - even if he HAD been guilty, surely the jury would be somewhat influenced by newspaper accusations, I thougt there were media regulations in place to stop this stuff from happening?

 

Of course it doesn't surprise me wit The Sun :puke2:

MBut one thing that annoys me greatly about the case was the treatment of Chris Jefferies who was the first person arrested. It is likely his whole life will be ruined now because of allegations made against him. The tabloid papers especially made false claims about him with no evidence - even if he HAD been guilty, surely the jury would be somewhat influenced by newspaper accusations, I thougt there were media regulations in place to stop this stuff from happening?

 

There are regulations in place against newspaper accusations, the only problem is that the Press Complaints Commission, the newspaper regulatory body, has no legal power bar giving the newspapers a slap on the wrist, unlike Ofcom, which has the power to impose fines and revoke licences.

 

The PCC is a voluntary organization which is run by the news companies themselves, so the chances of them coming down hard on themselves is unlikely That's why Jan Moir was never punished for her remarks by the PCC despite thousands of complaints. As long as the newspaper are allowed to regulate themselves, they will be allowed to publish what they want , as long as it isn't too libelous)

Nothing will happen until a judge throws out a case because of prejudicial press coverage.

Even if someone is named locally, I think the press should not publish the name of the accused. It is not beneficial to the judicial process as well as having implications for the person concerned should they prove to be innocent. If they are acquitted, there could be a nagging doubt in anyone's mind be it letting a flat to the person or hiring them within their company so this scenario is not ideal for anyone.

Have to admit I'm morbidly fascinated by this story as well... on Christmas Day, when we saw on the news that evening that her body had been found, our family actually spent about an hour of Xmas night speculating about how she died!

 

I do think the whole Chris Jeffries thing, where a man who it now seems obvious is completely innocent, had his character completely assassinated purely because he was seen as "weird", shows there needs to be much stronger regulation of the press, i.e. a proper OFCOM-style body.

The police have not yet said that Chris Jefferies is completely innocent. As Sky News pointed out today, he is still a suspect. If this crime is solved and he was no way involved then imo his life won't be ruined. It only would be if it remained unsolved.

Edited January 20, 201114 yr by Common Sense

The police have not yet said that Chris Jefferies is completely innocent. As Sky News pointed out today, he is still a suspect. If this crime is solved and he was no way involved then imo his life won't be ruined. It only would be if it remained unsolved.

Mud sticks, you know. He's now known around the country as the weird guy with the blue-rinse - he HAS been character assassinated.

 

For this reason I'd wholly back a ban on the media reporting about suspects...

I agree, suspects shouldn't be named in the press until charged at least.

Well at a time of slow press and not many stories being about of Christmas, the news picked up heavily on this one, largely to do because she was a young middle-class girl and in a happy life! But even so the story has fascinated me, and it really does just show what Crimewatch can do. But one thing that annoys me greatly about the case was the treatment of Chris Jefferies who was the first person arrested. It is likely his whole life will be ruined now because of allegations made against him. The tabloid papers especially made false claims about him with no evidence - even if he HAD been guilty, surely the jury would be somewhat influenced by newspaper accusations, I thougt there were media regulations in place to stop this stuff from happening?

 

Of course it doesn't surprise me wit The Sun :puke2:

YES! Thank god I'm not the only person who remembers be this.

 

Funny character features, a teacher, very old = THE MAN MUST BE A PAEDOPHILE WHO HAS RAPED EVERY GIRL WHO HE HAS EVER TAUGHT.

I do think it must be awful for Chris Jeffries, I felt bad for seeing his picture when the arrest reports came out and immediately thinking the case was a foregone conclusion. I also found it a little odd that he was so publically declared, is the press usually as forward? Usually you just hear "a suspect has been arrested" with no further details until they've been charged.

I agree, suspects shouldn't be named in the press until charged at least.

 

Of course they should. Allows us on forums to speculate. The Digital Spy threads ran in to many hundfreds of thousands of posts. Great stuff.

Edited January 22, 201114 yr by Common Sense

Of course they should. Allows us on forums to speculate. The Digital Spy threads ran in to many hundfreds of thousands of posts. Great stuff.

So idle speculation to while away boredom is more important than the long-term prospects of people's lives or fair trials? :mellow:

I know it is dreadfully sad and and her family must be going through hell - but I just think this whole case has been given far too much media coverage anyway. Anyone would think no-one else had been murdered, when I bet in London alone there were probably another half a dozen unsolved murders in the same week. I just think its the media's way of taking people's minds off everything else that's going wrong in the country now - sort of to 'focus' us all on one tragedy.

 

And this bloke should NOT have been named until charged. Already the sun calls him a 'beanpole' and his flat is owned by an 'accountant pal' ... the same way they said that the previous 'sure-fire' suspect was 'weird looking' and had 'friends' who were into pornography.

Edited January 22, 201114 yr by Kathyp

I do think it must be awful for Chris Jeffries, I felt bad for seeing his picture when the arrest reports came out and immediately thinking the case was a foregone conclusion. I also found it a little odd that he was so publically declared, is the press usually as forward? Usually you just hear "a suspect has been arrested" with no further details until they've been charged.

The press have been testing the boundaries for years. I'm sure the press coverage was a contributory factor in the (wrong) conviction of Barry George for the murder of Jill Dando a decade ago. They will continue to test the boundaries until a judge rules that a defendant cannot get a fair trial due to prejudicial press coverage. I do remember one case which was thrown out but that was because a photograph on a tabloid front page was shown to have been doctored.

 

The Guardian's coverage yesterday was quite amusing in its way. They named the suspect but only as the tenant of the flat being searched. They also gave his age - 32 - and said that a 32-year-old man had been arrested. They even said that the tenant wasn't in his flat. But at no point did they actually state that the tenant had been arrested. Not that you would need to be Hercule Poirot to work it out.

I know it is dreadfully sad and and her family must be going through hell - but I just think this whole case has been given far too much media coverage anyway. Anyone would think no-one else had been murdered, when I bet in London alone there were probably another half a dozen unsolved murders in the same week. I just think its the media's way of taking people's minds off everything else that's going wrong in the country now - sort of to 'focus' us all on one tragedy.

 

And this bloke should NOT have been named until charged. Already the sun calls him a 'beanpole' and his flat is owned by an 'accountant pal' ... the same way they said that the previous 'sure-fire' suspect was 'weird looking' and had 'friends' who were into pornography.

The number of murders in England and Wales is well under two per day and the clear-up rate is pretty high so that's a bit of an exaggeration.

 

There are two reasons this case has received a lot of coverage. First, the victim was a nice, attractive, middle-class young woman. Second, there is an air of mystery about the case.

The number of murders in England and Wales is well under two per day and the clear-up rate is pretty high so that's a bit of an exaggeration.

 

There are two reasons this case has received a lot of coverage. First, the victim was a nice, attractive, middle-class young woman. Second, there is an air of mystery about the case.

 

I think Joanna's case started out as a 'missing person' though - until her body was discovered. How many other 'missing persons' cases do you think there could be, that could actually now be murder, but the police and the press aren't pursuing them? As you say - probably because they're not nice, attractive, middle-class women.

 

Kath

I think Kathy is right, while the average is only 2 a day, there are some places that can go months upon months without a murder. [As far back as I can remember there has not been a murder in the area where i grew up.] Where as places like London, Glasgow, Birmingham etc can have multiple murders in a day [Drug/Gang related perhaps] quite a few of which can go unsolved.

We had a discussion about the case in English the other day, as the unit we're working on is crime & punishment. Most of us said the same as Kathy, my teacher said she also thought it was getting too much coverage. It's really sad, and my heart goes out to Joanna's family :( If I was them, I wouldn't want my daughter's death being splashed all over the media, I'm sure it makes the whole awful ordeal a lot worse for them :(

Kathy has a point actually - look at the middle aged woman who went missing in Scotland last year, and is now thought to be that skeleton they discovered in a Cumbrian quarry. I hadn't heard a THING about that case until the skeleton discovery.

I know it is dreadfully sad and and her family must be going through hell - but I just think this whole case has been given far too much media coverage anyway. Anyone would think no-one else had been murdered, when I bet in London alone there were probably another half a dozen unsolved murders in the same week.

Because it was a young, white female! :lol: Imagine if it was an indian, adult male, do you think the media would even give it any attention?