In addition to Simon, there was a student who was the witness nearest to the scene of the incident that testified in court.

The student recalls the day of the 30th of July 2011. He walked to Liverpool Street to catch a bus home with his brother. He waited on the Hyde Park side of Liverpool Street at a bus stop, facing the Hyde Building. He recollects the time as being around 10am.

He states that he heard a sound coming from the Hyde building – diagonally, upwards and directly in front of him which caused him to look up. He could not recall specifically what the sound was, outside of it being loud, citing that it was too long ago. He states that he didn’t need to change where he was facing as he was already looking in that direction, again reiterating that he just looked up. He recalls seeing a body falling down and states he also sees a man without a shirt standing on a balcony above the body falling. The gap between the balcony that the man is standing on and the falling body is estimated to be 10 to 20 metres. If you apply the equation for distance traveled by a falling body, this would equate roughly to between 1.42 and 2.02 seconds after Lisa had fallen. For those interested, here are the equations used:

Distance equals one half gravity times time squared
d=1/2gt^2
10 meters = 1/2 * (9.8m/s^2) * (1.42seconds)^2
20 meters = 1/2 * (9.8m/s^2) * (2.02seconds)^2

The key point here is that he is already facing the building, all he had to do was look up. Note that he observes the body mid flight with a significant gap between the balcony that Simon is standing on and the falling body. This is a very important observation. The body is not in Simon’s arms. He estimates the falling body to be positioned at a minimum of 10 metres below the balcony that Simon is standing on. Unlike Joshua Rathmell, the “key” witness in the Crown Case, the student is significantly closer and is already facing the Hyde Building. To emphasise, he is positioned in front of the building on the opposite side of the road, when he hears Simon scream in anguish, he only has to look up. At most he has to make a minor adjustment to view the source of the sound, this coupled with the audio evidence presented here, has to cause a significant amount of doubt in Joshua Rathmell’s version of events. The two witness accounts are so conflicting that they are mutually exclusive. In addition, there were other nearby witness accounts, provided by two council workers. The council workers evidence is in fact, more supportive of the students rendition of events, than that of Joshua Rathmell. We assert that this, adds to the veracity of the students evidence.

The student also recalls making a statement to the police a few days later. Due to his age he wasn’t able to sign it without parental supervision. This statement has never been found. When it was requested by the Defence, the Crown was unable to produce it. It’s whereabouts remains unknown.