THE POLICE STATEMENT OF DAMIEN DALEY MADE ON 26th SEPTEMBER 1997 CONTAINING THE 'CONFESSION' OF MICHAEL STONE.

"I  tied them up with wet towels while their dog barked loudly.
One of them tried to run away."

All the national newspapers carried articles about the crime on the day of the 'confession':  The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Daily Star, The Express, and The Daily Mail. The fact that the "confession" merely reproduced what was written in these newspapers did not raise a single doubt in the minds of the police or Crown Prosecution Service that there might be something 'fishy' about the confession.

The Daily Mail - Mrs Russell and Megan and their family dog were all killed. Josie was tied up with strips from one of the towels the girls had been carrying home from a swimming lesson.

The Daily Mirror - The family were tied up and battered to death with a hammer.

The Times - Mrs Russell urged Josie to run away, but the man caught her.

Daley's statement alludes to one point of detail which was not published in the national press on the day of the 'confession', but was included in articles on other occasions: a shoelace. "Stone spoke something about shorts, or shoes, or shoelaces." (The murderer dropped a shoelace at the scene of the crime and also used the girls' own shoelaces to tie up the family.)

Extensive media coverage included hundreds of articles and also a BBC Crimewatch appeal in July 1997.

The Daily Mirror (9th July 1997) - Police found the family tied up with strips of towelling and shoelaces.

Daley's statement revealed no details which only the perpetrator could have known. Eg., the victims were made to sit on the ground and Josie was made to kneel; the murderer had taken off Josie's shoes after she had tried to run away; she had been tied to a tree with her own tights; they had been blindfolded as well as gagged; their mother Lin was hit first.

When Daley does attempt to embellish a fact with his own fantasy, he gets it wrong: Stone was alleged to have said that "the dog made more noise than them".  The family's dog however was a terrier puppy, and rather than making a noise, "it did not bark" according to Josie's testimony.