Tim Vicary - A Game of Proof

‘Thank you, Chief Inspector. Wait there, please.’

When Sarah stood up, Churchill faced her with a polite, contemptuous smile. The trick in situations like this, as they both knew, was to put the police in as bad a light as possible.

‘Mr Churchill,’ she asked, refusing to dignify him with his rank. ‘What time of day was it that you arrested my son?’

‘At 3.47 a.m., madam.’ Madam was an exquisite touch. As he spoke he looked away from her towards the jury, to suggest that she was troubling him with trivialities.

‘Why?’

‘Why what?’ Reluctantly he looked back at her.

‘Why did you arrest him so early in the morning?’

A look of amazement crossed Churchill’s face. ‘He was the suspect in a serious murder case. I arrested him as soon as I could. The Scarborough police spotted his car late that night and I drove immediately to Scarborough to arrest him.’ What’s wrong with that, his look said.

‘So he was asleep when you arrived, was he?’

‘He was in bed asleep, yes.’

‘And did you make the arrest alone, or with other officers?’

‘With two Scarborough officers and DC Easby.’

‘I see. So at quarter to four in the morning, Simon Newby was asleep in his bed. Two minutes later, four policemen burst into his bedroom and arrested him. You told him why he was being arrested and informed him of his rights. In a loud, slow voice, I think you said.’

‘I spoke slowly. I didn’t say my voice was loud.’

‘While he was still in bed?’

‘Yes.’

‘And then you handcuffed him?’

‘Yes.’

‘And took him outside to your police car?’

‘We did, yes.’

‘What was he wearing at this time?’

‘His pyjamas.’

‘I see.’ Sarah looked at the jury to see what effect, if any, her questions were having. Most looked reasonably alert, at least. ‘So let me get this picture right. Here we have a young man, fast asleep in his bed at 3.45 in the morning, when suddenly he wakes up to find four police officers in his bedroom shouting at him. Before he can get out of bed they tell him his girlfriend is dead and that he is being arrested for her murder. Then they handcuff him, drag him downstairs and put him in a police car. Is that what happened?’

‘Madam, he was being arrested on a very — serious — charge .’ Churchill spoke slowly and clearly, as though explaining to a slow-witted child. Someone in the public gallery laughed.

‘And then you interrogated him,’ said Sarah coldly.

‘I beg your pardon? When, exactly?’

‘In the police car. You asked him questions in the police car, didn’t you? On the way back from Scarborough.’

‘No, madam, we did not. I’ve already explained that.’

‘I think you did. My client remembers very clearly that you asked him questions in the police car.’

‘No, madam, we didn’t ask him any questions until we got back to York.’

‘Well, you say that, but I put it to you that you did ask him questions in the police car.’

‘No.’

‘My client clearly remembers that you did. He will give evidence that you did.’

‘We did not.’

‘You see, this is a vital point, isn’t it, Mr Churchill? I suppose even you can appreciate the feelings of a young man who has been dragged out of his bed by four strangers in the middle of the night, forced into a car, and told that his girlfriend is dead. How would you expect that young man to feel? Confused, perhaps? Terrified? Overcome by grief? All of those things?’

‘He might be overcome by guilt.’

‘Not if he was innocent.’ She paused and glanced at the jury. ‘Mr Churchill, there are rules to protect suspects in these situations, are there not? Do you remember what they are?’

Churchill sighed, and spoke in a monotone as though deliberately reciting something he had learned off by heart. ‘A suspect who has been arrested should not be questioned further until he is in an interview room in a police station where the interview can be recorded on tape.’

‘Exactly. And one of the purposes of those rules is to protect the accused, isn’t it? From being unfairly harassed when he is handcuffed in the back of a police car, for instance.’

‘That may be one purpose, yes. Another is to protect the police from false accusations by unscrupulous lawyers.’

Touche, she thought. But Sarah was playing the game for real today. ‘I put it to you, Mr Churchill, that you knowingly and deliberately broke these rules in the most cynical manner. Not only did you arrest this young man quite unnecessarily in the middle of the night, in a way calculated to terrify him out of his wits; you then handcuffed him, told him his girlfriend was dead, and then interrogated him inyour car while he was overcome with grief and shock.’

‘No …’ Churchill shook his head.

‘You did all this deliberately to confuse him and get him to say something to incriminate himself. And you were successful, weren’t you?’

‘He made these statements voluntarily. There was no interrogation in the car.’

‘ Voluntarily , you say? When he was dragged from his bed in his nightclothes, and handcuffed in the car with two strange men? How was he handcuffed, Mr Churchill? With his hands in front of him or behind?’

‘His hands were behind him.’

‘Was he restrained in any other way?’

‘He was strapped into his seat, yes, for his own safety.’

‘And you call this situation voluntary ?’

‘His situation wasn’t voluntary, madam, no. He was under arrest. But he made his statements voluntarily, without any interrogation. As I have already said.’

‘So you handcuff a young man, in his pyjamas, in the middle of the night, with his hands behind his back, drive him fifty miles through the countryside with two strange men who accuse him of murdering his girlfriend, and then you call his statements voluntary?’

‘He made his statements voluntarily, and I recorded them in the normal way.’

‘Most people would call that intimidation, Mr Churchill. So now of course we understand why he made this foolish mistake of saying he hadn’t seen Jasmine for weeks. He lied because he was terrified out of his wits, because you had been bullying him ever since you woke him up at quarter to four in the morning …’

To her surprise, Phil Turner was on his feet. ‘My Lord, is there a question in all this?’

Judge Mookerjee peered at her. ‘Mrs Newby?’

‘I was coming to that, My Lord. How long is the drive from Scarborough to York?’

‘About an hour, at that time in the morning. But …’

‘So for all that time, while Simon was adjusting to the shock of hearing his girlfriend was dead, you were interrogating him, accusing him of murder. No wonder he was terrified, no wonder he felt he had to lie to save himself!’

‘We did not ask him any questions in the car. This arrest was conducted according to the rules, and his statements were recorded according to the rules as well. That’s why I showed him a written record of his comments at the start of the interview in the police station.’

‘When he immediately denied them, is that right?’

‘After he he’d had legal advice, yes.’

Churchill nodded at Lucy, to remind the jury of the implication that she had done something unethical. Swiftly, Sarah challenged him again.

‘That’s not true, though, is it, Mr Churchill? My son didn’t have time to discuss your notes with his solicitor — he denied them immediately you showed them to him.’

‘At first he did, yes. Then he agreed that he had made those statements, but changed his story to say that he had seen Jasmine Hurst on Thursday 13th after all.’