A Game of Proof

‘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.’

‘Yes. So as soon as he was in a proper environment, where he had a solicitor with him as was his legal right, and he was no longer handcuffed in a car being shouted at by two men who told him his girlfriend was dead, he began to tell the truth. Is that what you’re saying?’

Churchill smiled dismissively. ‘He changed his story, yes. After he’d seen his lawyer.’

‘All right. Let’s look at what he did after he had spoken to his lawyer. Not only did he begin to co-operate with you, Mr Churchill, but he actually did something quite unprecedented in your experience. He volunteered a written statement of the truth, isn’t that right?’

‘He gave me a statement that was partially true, yes.’

‘Partially true, Mr Churchill? Would you read the statement again, please, and tell me which parts of it you think are not true?’

To her delight Churchill fell into her trap. He picked up Simon’s statement and began to read through it. The court fell silent, waiting. After nearly a minute, he looked up.

‘I mean that the statement was incomplete. It missed a number of crucial details.’

‘So there is nothing in his statement that is untrue. Is that what you are saying?’

‘It’s incomplete. For example …’

‘But it’s all true, isn’t it? Every word of that statement is true?’

‘True as far it goes, yes …’

‘Thank you.’ For a second, Sarah thought that she had him. But she was wrong.

‘It doesn’t say that he had sex with her, which he is now relying on for his defence. It doesn’t say that he hit her in the street, leaving a bruise on her face. Those are pretty important omissions, in my view. It doesn’t say that he spied on her when she was with David Brodie, and had a fight with him outside his house. That’s true as well, Mrs Newby, you know.’

Shit! She’d had him on the ropes, but he’d winded her with three heavy blows to the body. Her mind froze and she reeled, eyes glazed, waiting for the knockout. Then she hit back.

‘That doesn’t alter the fact that everything in that statement was true. If I asked where you were last night, Mr Churchill, you might say you were with a young woman, but you wouldn’t necessarily tell me what you did in bed with her. You’d be embarrassed, wouldn’t you?’

As Churchill hesitated, surprised by the question, a smothered male laugh came from behind her in the courtroom. A look of fury crossed his face, followed, to her delight, by a faint but unmistakable blush. I’ve touched a nerve I didn’t know existed, she thought, delighted.

‘Perhaps I would, yes. But then no one’s accused me of murder.’

‘Nevertheless, that’s why my son didn’t write down that he had sex with Jasmine that afternoon. He had no idea it was important at the time, had he? He simply told you he’d been with her, which was true.’

‘Possibly.’ Churchill was looking daggers past her, at whoever had laughed. She longed to look round herself.

‘There you are then. As soon as my son was at the police station, he gave you information that was entirely true. And in the course of that interview, when everything else he said was true, did he at any time admit to killing Jasmine Hurst?’

‘No, he denied it.’

‘Exactly. He’s always denied that, hasn’t he?’

‘Yes.’

She had almost finished with Churchill. She glanced at her notes to remind herself how she had planned this last night. Surprise him now, keep him off guard.

‘When did you first tell him that Jasmine was dead?’

‘I … when we arrested him. We told him then.’

‘Pretty shocking news, wouldn’t you say? Especially when it’s brought to you by four policemen in the middle of the night. How did he react to it?’

‘He claimed he didn’t know she was dead.’

‘He claimed he didn’t know.’ Sarah let the words hang a little in the air. ‘I suppose it never crossed your mind, Inspector Churchill, that this claim might actually be true? In which case your manner of breaking this terrible news was — what shall we say? Brutal?’

‘I believed that he had murdered her.’

‘You believed that, yes, but what if you were wrong? What if you were quite wrong and he really thought Jasmine was alive? What sort of reaction would you expect?’

Churchill shrugged. ‘If he really believed Jasmine was still alive, I suppose he would have been shocked.’

‘And how did he behave?’

‘Well, he appeared to be upset, of course. He said he didn’t know she was dead and started screaming at us. But in my view it was all fraud. He was shocked to be caught, that’s all.’

‘He appeared to be upset, you say. Did he ask you how she had died?’

‘Yes.’

‘Was this in his room, or in the car?’

‘In the car.’