Mistakes that trapped Jordan's killers

In one Facebook exchange with a friend, he hinted boastfully that he could get away with murder. 

He thought he could run rings round the police. 

At Carlisle Crown Court, 19-year-old Thomson's arrogant boast was forensically put to the test as he battled to dodge responsibility for his crime, portraying himself as a victim of coincidences and an elaborate conspiracy. 

Quietly spoken, and outwardly calm, he reinvented June 15 last year – the night he savagely murdered 14-year-old Jordan Watson. 

His accomplices – Brahnn Finley, 19, and Daniel Johnston, 20 - also cynically strove to lie their way out of jail. 

So what blunders trapped the killers? An obvious clue came from a selfie picture of all the three defendants, taken in Thomson's room just an hour before the killing. His and Johnston's clothes were never found. Why? 

The prosecution say the answer was obvious: those clothes were bloodstained. As the trial unfolded, George Thomson's protestations of innocence looked increasingly absurd. 

His other mistakes included:

THOMSON KNEW HOW JORDAN DIED
At around 8pm, on June 16, Thomson was with a pal at the McDonald's restaurant in Kingstown, Carlisle. 

He took a call from the police. The officer told Thomson to go into Durranhill Police HQ for a chat about the murder. 

At the time, even Jordan's parents – at that time preparing to identify their son's body at The Cumberland Infirmary - did not know how he had died. 

Yet after finishing the call, Thomson turned to his pal and said: “Whoever stabbed that Jordan, I hope they don't come after me.” 

It was only at 10.19pm that night that a police statement confirmed Jordan was stabbed. Why did Thomson know this? 

Because he was the killer.

OBSESSION WITH JORDAN'S GIRLFRIEND
Looking for a motive, detectives searched Thomson's bedroom – and found a stash of unsent love letter's written for Jordan's girlfriend. 

They revealed the killer was infatuated with her. 

In court, Thomson insisted he was over the girl. But the letters read like a statement of criminal intent. Three times, he said he would kill for her. One passage stated: “I would die to keep you safe and I would kill for you.." 

Enraged by her rejection, Thomson turned his anger on Jordan. While claiming to be the schoolboy's friend, Thomson revealed his true feelings in Facebook conversations. 

He hated Jordan - so much that he wanted him dead.

THREATS TO KILL
Rather than hide his contempt for Jordan, Thomson expressed it openly. “He's dead soon,” he said in one message. 

Another messages, sent just four hours before Jordan's murder, said: “Just getting some stuff sorted for tonight... it's getting done soon. Hahaha.” 

Thomson even threatened Jordan's life in front of the schoolboy's friends.

FORENSICS
This included physical evidence linking Thomson to the murder. Most obvious were the items owned by Thomson but bearing Jordan's blood. 

In the killer's room, beneath the bed, police found a large Ghurka knife, its cutting edge yielding tiny amounts of Jordan's blood. 

Thomson claimed the teenager cut himself while inspecting the knife. Just as damning was the blood found in Thomson's chain-link bracelet. 

Again, Jordan's blood was found in the clasp and at the bracelet's loop end. Equally compelling blood evidence was found on rubber wristbands worn by Thomson. 

One – a distinctive purple - was seen on Thomson's wrist in CCTV images of him at a builders' merchants on the afternoon of June 15. Thomson did not have it when arrested.

Yet police found an identical wristband next to Jordan's body, its surface covered in Jordan's blood. It also bore “minor components” of George Thomson's blood. 

Another of Thomson's wristbands was blood-spattered. Thomson suggested again it got there when Jordan cut himself on the Ghurka knife. 

An expert said the blood was not dripped. 

It had been airborne. The final forensic evidence was a safety glove, found on a gate in a remote corner of Upperby Cemetery where Jordan died. 

It bore Thomson's DNA. How did it get there? Thomson said it was planted there – part of a conspiracy to frame him. Yet in the builders' merchants video, Thomson is seeing buying identical gloves.

OBSESSION WITH WEAPONS
Fascinated by fantasy violence, Thomson claimed to have a mere interest in weapons. Yet his home collection - found in his bedroom - was extraordinary. 

It included dozens of blades – knives, swords, axes and crossbows. 

Telling Jordan he wanted to sell some weapons in the graveyard at night, Thomson knew the schoolboy would not flee on seeing his trusted friend armed. 

Tragically, the plan worked. 

As the trial judge said, Thomson's twin obsessions – weaponry and Jordan's girlfriend – were a “lethal cocktail of emotion.”

TELEPHONE AND INTERNET EVIDENCE
Within hours of the murder, Thomson had deleted hundreds of his phone messages.

They included four texts between him and Brahnn Finley, sent an hour after the killing. Police know they contained 18, 21, 6, and 43 characters, but what they said is unknown. 

The prosecution said they were about the murder. Neither Thomson nor Finley could explain. 

As Jordan lay dead, a false message was sent through his Facebook account to his girlfriend, dumping her. 

Experts say it was routed through Thomson's home wifi. He claimed it was sent by someone else.

Finley and Johnston tried to distance themselves from the killing. Desperately, the accomplices turned their fire on Thomson, saying he told them he had slit Jordan's throat. They said they had nothing to do with it. The evidence suggested otherwise.

PRESENCE AT THE GRAVEYARD
A dog walker saw Finley and Johnston leave the cemetery after 11pm on June 15. 

Their barely credible excuse for being there was that Johnston wanted to check on his father's grave. 

It was a dark and almost moonless night. The jury clearly rejected this.

“I'm soaked”

The same dog walker overheard one of the two accomplices make this incriminating comment. 

Yet it was a dry summer's night. Neither defendant could explain it. The prosecution said only one explanation made sense: one or both were soaked with Jordan's blood.

"PURE MINGING"
The day after the murder, Finley was overheard telling Johnston: “It's pure minging. I can't get it out of my head.” 

Johnston's reply was: “I know.” 

Again, they had no explanation. The prosecution view was that they could only have been discussing the memory of what they had seen the previous night in Upperby Cemetery.

"DAN AND I HAVE DONE SOMEONE IN"
In a conversation with a woman friend on June 16, Finley said this – a clear reference to the events in the cemetery, said the prosecution. Finley claimed that he was trying to impress the woman. Clearly, the jury clearly did not believe him.

Thomson, convicted of murder, was jailed for life, with a minimum of 27 years; Finley, also convicted of murder, was given life with a 14 year minimum; while Johnston was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 10 years.