Allegation
Page 7
‘Nell’s got nothing to worry about. Doesn’t hurt to have a couple of friends in high places, though, especially where Len Cooper’s concerned.’
‘Who the hell is he anyway?’
‘Coopers’ Ltd. You must have seen the lorries? They’re a haulage firm, plus they’ve got all that warehousing on the business estate. They’ve got a few other interests now, of course. A couple of restaurants, and the last I heard, Len had built a residential home. God help any older people who land up in that. Haulage is what he knows and that’s where he made his money.’
This explained nothing, as far as Kit was concerned, but Vernon was on the move, so she gathered her papers and followed him out of the office, still pondering on why it was that Len Cooper had so much power. She did vaguely recall seeing the lorries now, with a garish red and black livery and orange flames painted around the wheel arches. She wondered whether the dismissive remark about one of the women being from the Coed estate had originated from Len Cooper, and she felt a hatred of him forming rapidly.
Kit could see that winning the fight had put Vernon in a good mood, but by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs his expression was already shifting to one of anxiety. As they crossed the reception, Kit spotted Matt and Annie Cooper standing on the far side of the car park, talking to Mandy Bruce. Her stomach lurched. All the legal meetings she had sat in on so far had been horrendous, with aggressive lawyers challenging every detail, not letting any of the proposed agreements pass without head-spinning levels of scrutiny. She fully expected this one to be the same. Or worse.
Vernon unlocked the meeting room and they arranged the chairs quickly. When their own lawyer arrived, Kit was glad to see that it was Sue Sullivan, the deputy head of Sandbeach Council’s Legal Services. Big guns once again, Kit observed, with mounting unease. Sue Sullivan was such an experienced lawyer that she came to every case with an air of boredom. Smart, silver-haired, easily in her mid-sixties, she had no discernible sense of humour. Vernon had worked with Sue Sullivan for years and thought she was fantastic. Kit usually found her terrifying, but she was glad to have her on their side. It left no room to doubt the Coopers’ ability to put the wind up absolutely everyone.
Vernon briefed Sue Sullivan while they waited for the Coopers to arrive. Kit handed her a copy of the proposed supervised contract agreement and she scanned it.
‘They’re going to want mother supervising contact. That’s going to be a major sticking point. Why don’t you trust her to do it?’
‘She’s arsey,’ Vernon replied.
‘Right. Or as we will perhaps put it, we don’t feel we can rely on her cooperation as yet.’
‘That’s it.’
‘All right, so we’re saying he can continue to live at his parents’ and have some scheduled contact with the children every day, supervised by appropriate family members. We’ll ask them for some names and Kit can set up the police checks and the visits. If mother’s attitude changes and she’s workable-with, we can review things. Better be ready for a long one. Ms Bruce had me in here for four and a half hours on one of these last week.’
‘I haven’t got four and a half hours to spare,’ Vernon said firmly. ‘I’d miss my lunch.’
After a loud knock on the door, Mandy Bruce entered without waiting to be asked. A small woman in a perfectly cut black dress, she wore a stern expression as a matter of habit. The sharp lines of her outfit emphasised the gauntness of her face, and her hair was pulled up into a tight bun from which no strand would dare to escape. It made Kit’s head ache just to look at it. She watched Mandy Bruce acknowledging Sue Sullivan with a neutral nod and no deference. With a twinge of fear, Kit saw that the Coopers had chosen their lawyer well. They were following her into the room now, both dressed for a formal meeting: Matt Cooper in a beige suit, white shirt and a striking rust-coloured tie, Annie in high heels and a fitted grey dress with matching cropped jacket. They sat down on either side of Mandy Bruce, who drew a pile of papers out of her briefcase and placed them on the table in ominous silence. Annie looked just as furious as she had when Kit had seen her last, just before she slammed the door in Dai’s face. Matt Cooper kept his gaze downwards and Kit couldn’t read his expression at all.
Sue Sullivan got the introductions over with and passed three copies of the supervised-contact agreement across the table. As Annie Cooper read through it, angry lines cut into the skin on either side of her mouth. Mandy Bruce scanned her copy and put it down on the table.
‘Right, let’s get started, shall we? We’re prepared to accept most of these arrangements.’
Vernon, Kit and Sue Sullivan all looked up in unison, such was their surprise. Mandy Bruce’s strained expression told Kit that her words were practically choking her.
‘Sorry?’ Sue Sullivan said, caught on the hop for the first time that Kit was aware of. ‘Could you just repeat that?’
‘My instructions are that my clients accept most of this document. We are confident that Mr Cooper will be cleared. In fact, we don’t even expect the prosecution to proceed, so that will be the end of the matter.’
‘Not necessarily,’ Vernon interjected. Kit knew that he was disappointed at missing out on a fight. ‘Whatever happens in the criminal case, we still have the option of care proceedings. We could go into court for a finding of fact. Our assessment will be ongoing, too. This case won’t close until we are completely satisfied that the children are safe.’
‘We are confident on that score, too, Mr Griffiths. My client has nothing to worry about here. The fact is that these allegations are quite ludicrous. That will soon become obvious. In the meantime, and for the short term, we will go along with this. But we have one caveat. Mr Cooper very much wants contact to be as normal for the children as is possible under the circumstances. I am sure we would all agree that is best for the children, particularly Lucy, who is finding her father’s absence very confusing. We would like Mrs Cooper to supervise the contact. Mr and Mrs Cooper will tell the children that Mr Cooper is having to live with his parents for a while because his mother has been unwell.’
Kit and Vernon exchanged glances. Sue Sullivan interjected. ‘Can I have a few minutes with my clients, please?’
Mandy Bruce nodded. She got up and left the room, the Coopers following after her.
‘Well, what do you make of that?’ Vernon asked Sue Sullivan, as soon as the door closed behind them.
‘Very strange. And Mandy Bruce doesn’t like it at all. Did you hear her? “My instructions are . . .” That’s a message between us lawyers. She’s doing as they’ve told her to, but she is making it clear she doesn’t agree. They’re going against their own legal advice. Why would they do that?’
‘Beats me,’ Vernon said. ‘Kit, what do you reckon? Do we let her supervise the contact?’
Kit thought for a few seconds. ‘They’ve got a fair point about the kids and they are doing their best to cooperate, I guess.’
‘Maybe that’s the whole point, though. Maybe that’s exactly what he wants us to think, that he’s willing to accept it, but the price we pay is that he still gets access to the children. Maybe he’s just being very clever.’
‘Maybe he is or maybe he’s genuine. How can we know? But perhaps it would help me to get somewhere with Annie if she felt that I was willing to give some ground, trust her a bit.’
Sue Sullivan frowned. ‘I wouldn’t advise it, Kit. It’s natural enough for you to be quite trusting at this point. This is your first serious-abuse case, isn’t it? With experience, I think you’ll become a little less naive about some of these people.’
Kit felt both patronised herself and offended on behalf of her clients, but she didn’t want to argue with Sue Sullivan; the very idea of it frightened the life out of her. She knew that it would be up to Vernon to decide which way to go, and Sue Sullivan was looking at him now, too, waiting for him to decide, clearly thinking that she
had dispensed with Kit’s role in the whole business.
‘We could specify that he mustn’t be involved in any personal care and we could ask for his contacts to be in the daytime only. Then we could get a schedule of his contacts with the kids and we could spot-check them to make sure they were complying?’ Kit said quickly, appealing to Vernon.
Sue Sullivan looked exasperated now, but Kit could see that Vernon was listening. ‘I don’t know, Kit,’ he said. ‘It looks like we are contradicting ourselves a bit if the police won’t have him living at home but we’re letting her supervise him with the kids in the day. Even with spot checks we’d be trusting her with an awful lot. We know what her attitude to the offence is. She’s adamant he didn’t do it. She won’t have it at all. How can we trust her?’
‘But what do you expect, Vern?’ Kit asked him. ‘He’s her husband. Of course she doesn’t think he did it, not right now anyway. What would Nell say if it was you? Just the same, I reckon.’
Vernon raised his eyebrows at her, an acknowledgement that she had a point.
‘But that’s not the issue anyway,’ Kit went on quickly, while she was winning. ‘What we need to know is, what will she do if he’s convicted, or if there’s a finding of fact that goes against him? That’s what I have to ask her, but I haven’t had a chance yet. It’s going to take time for me to have that kind of conversation with Annie, she’s so spiky. In the meantime, I think we need to give her a chance. Let’s be clear, Annie Cooper hasn’t done anything wrong at all here, as far as we know.’ She knew that appealing to Vernon’s sense of fairness was her best hope.
He was nodding now. ‘All right then. If that’s Kit’s gut feeling about it, I’m prepared to give it a go. But we have to tie the agreement up tight, Sue. I don’t want him alone with those kids for so much as two seconds.’
Sue Sullivan appeared to take the defeat with good grace. ‘No problem, Vern. Leave that to me.’ She got up and opened the door and ushered Mandy Bruce and the Coopers back into the room. This time the Coopers sat next to each other, to the right of their lawyer. Everyone waited for Sue Sullivan to start.
‘We’ve had a discussion, Ms Bruce. My instructions are that the local authority is prepared to find some middle ground. Ms Goddard feels that it would be beneficial for the children if we went along with your suggestion.’
Annie Cooper shot Kit a look. It fell short of gratitude by quite a long way. In fact, it looked rather more like triumph.
‘However,’ Sue Sullivan continued, ‘we are placing Mrs Cooper in a position of trust and we expect her to work with us and facilitate our role in working with the children and keeping them safe.’
‘Of course.’ Mandy Bruce had her eyes fixed on Sue Sullivan’s face, no doubt hoping for a sticking point so that she could create an argument.
‘We will need your clients’ agreement to some stringent conditions, Ms Bruce. Firstly, Mr Cooper is to provide no personal or intimate care to the children. This is especially relevant for Lucy, of course. But we would want it applied to all three children. Secondly, he is to visit the home at agreed times during the day only and is not to be left alone with them at any point, for any length of time. Thirdly, Ms Goddard is to be given access to the children to undertake some direct work. She will replace Mrs Collins as the children’s social worker for the time being. And finally, we will be spot-checking your clients’ adherence to the agreement. We will expect access whenever we make an unannounced visit, day or night, and if we find any instances of non-compliance, we will review the situation and that may well mean our taking further action.’
‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Annie Cooper burst out. ‘You mean that I have to put up with someone turning up at all hours to check whether I’ve left my husband alone with our children? That’s a gross invasion of my privacy. Surely I have some rights in all this?’
Vernon cleared his throat in preparation for a speech, but Kit got there before him. ‘Look, Annie, the reality is that we’re already cutting you some slack here. We need to safeguard the children, you need to have a family life. This is the best compromise we can come up with between those two things. The alternative is that we get a lot heavier and ask you to provide a list of other people to supervise contact. I’d have to interview all of them and they’d have to be checked to make sure they had no convictions. That all takes time, and while it was being done, contact would have to be supervised in a Child Services contact centre. We can go down that path if you like, but I very much doubt it’s what you want. We are really trying to help you here.’
Matt Cooper put his hand on his wife’s arm, settling her instantly in a way Kit recognised from her last encounter with them. ‘We’re prepared to agree,’ he said. ‘It’s very disruptive for us, I hope you recognise that. But all we want is to get this experience over with, and if we can move things along, and I can at least see my children, then that’s the most important thing and we’ll do anything to make that happen. Please just tell us what we need to do next.’
Susan Sullivan had been writing on her papers while all this was going on. ‘I’ve amended the agreement. It sets out all the points we’ve covered. We’ll get a copy out to you later today. If you could get it signed and back to me today, contact can start straight away. Ms Goddard will begin her assessment and her visits and the outcome of all that will determine what action the department takes next. We are putting you on notice that we regard these allegations very seriously, and we will not hesitate to issue care proceedings if we consider it necessary.’
‘And we will not hesitate to challenge them if you do.’ Mandy Bruce rose to her pin-sharp dimensions, keen to make a swift exit now the business of the meeting was done. Matt Cooper stood up too and motioned for Annie to do the same. The three of them left without another word, Matt Cooper ushering his wife out with a hand on her back.
After they’d gone, Kit ran out for a quick fag, then she followed Vernon up to his office where she found the door standing open for her.
‘What do you make of Mr Cooper then?’ he asked as she dropped into the armchair opposite his desk.
‘I thought he was arrogant when I met him first, all that name dropping about who he knows. But I guess I can’t blame him for that – he was panicking, he’s got connections, maybe it’s human nature to try to use them. And he put his kids first in that legal meeting, he was willing to cooperate. It’s all so positive, the Coopers, the family unit. It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?’
‘That he could be an abuser, you mean? You know it happens, though, Kit. You know it better than anyone, I would think.’
Kit nodded. He was right. But somehow, she still found it hard to get a grip on the possibility when it came to Matt Cooper. Every time she tried to see it, something snapped shut in her mind.
Vernon was watching her face. ‘Abuse happens in middle-class families too, you know. We don’t see a lot of it, but that’s just because they’ve got more ability to cover it up.’
‘Do you think he could have done it?’
‘Look, Kit, I can see you’re struggling. You’re just like the rest of us. You know full well that children get sexually abused, in theory, but when you’re faced with an actual situation, you can’t quite believe it. There’s always that little bit of you thinking it can’t be true, because it’s so bloody abnormal, it’s so far away from how the rest of us think. Plus, we’ve got an added complication with this one.’
‘Have we? What’s that?’ She sat forward, hoping for help.
‘These girls were teenagers.’
‘So?’ She shrugged, but she knew exactly what he meant.
‘Let’s be honest here. Are you telling me you haven’t wondered why they didn’t just walk away the minute he started touching them? Or why they didn’t tell someone?’
Kit wanted to deny it, but there was no point. Vernon was looking straight at her face and he would rumble her.
‘But you’re missing one crucial point there.’
‘Am I?’ She sat forward, genuinely lost now and hoping Vernon was about to come out with something to show her the way.
‘For God’s sake, don’t they teach anything on those bleeding social-work degrees? Grooming, girl, grooming. That’s the thing. Maybe he got close to them, got to know their problems, gave them things they wanted – it might have been attention or maybe it was more obvious than that, maybe he bought them stuff. That’s the first bit.’
‘OK, go on.’
Vernon got up from his desk and walked over to the window. He stared out into the car park and his voice was quiet. ‘He starts testing it out, touching them. Acclimatising them. This is what you have to understand, because most people don’t. By the time the actual abuse happens they are in the palm of his hand. They don’t know which way is up, they’re not even sure it is abuse. They can’t tell anyone because they think it’s their own fault. It’s a perfect trap. People just don’t realise the time and attention these guys will put into all this. It’s the main thing in their lives, their driving force. They are willing to spend months or even years grooming kids if need be.’
Kit felt shivery and a bit sick. ‘Inside the mind of a paedophile, eh?’
Vernon turned to face her, snapping back into the room. ‘A hebephile, in this case, on the surface of it.’
‘Which is what?’
Vernon tutted. ‘It’s someone with a sexual interest in children who are around the age of pubescence. With a paedophile it’s pre-pubescence.’
‘Why only “on the surface of it” then?’
‘It’s like a Venn diagram if you ask me.’
‘You what?’
‘Got your GCSE in maths, did you?’
‘A* actually. At A level. I know what a Venn diagram is, Vern, but what’s it got to do with Matt Cooper?’