by Neil Wild
“Well she told me her story. Perhaps it’s a woman thing, but I thought that I ought to give her a chance. After all it must have taken a lot of courage to come back to Chambers and seek me out. I expect you’ll miss her though.”
“Can’t take her with me.”
“Are you going to leave the firm after this case?”
“Don’t know, Rosie. I sometimes think that I don’t know anything any more.” He sighed.
“Shame if you lost contact.” Lappin smiled at him. “Well we’d better see what’s happening.” She picked up her wig and stood up.
chapter forty two
“Regina versus David Peter Newberry, Jonathan Joshua Levy and Simon Roger Greenford Simmons” intoned the Clerk of the Court. “Do you want them in the dock?” she asked the Judge.
The Judge shook his head. “This is only a directions hearing; they can sit with their solicitors.”
The Court Room was an unusually large one. It was used for major fraud cases where there were several defendants and commensurate stacks of paperwork.
The three Defence teams were all travelling light, as far as the case papers were concerned but the Crown Prosecution Service, who seemed to have brought at least two solicitors and two clerks, had theatrically brought in two heavy trolleys with wire mesh sides in which were stacked the papers and exhibits which had filled the cupboard in Brakespeare’s office.
“May I begin by apologising for keeping you all waiting, “ said the Judge. “As you may know a 3 week trial which was due to begin today underwent a change of plea.”
There was a murmured gracious acceptance from the assembled Barristers.
“Mr Edwards- Mitchell?” invited the Judge. The Prosecution Barrister rose to his feet.
“May it please you my Lord, I appear for the Prosecution. My learned friend Miss Lappin appears for the Defendant Newberry; my learned friend Mr Brownwood appears for the Defendant Levy, and Mr. Winterman for the Defendant Simmons. My Lord the facts in this case are that…”
“Yes, yes” interrupted the Judge. “I’ve read the outline of the Prosecution case and the witness statements, but I have not read at this stage the rather large number of exhibits.” He gestured towards the trolleys.
“I’m obliged to your Lordship for that indication. I think that your Lordship will be aware of the application to be made on behalf of the Defendant Newberry to dismiss the transferred charge. In respect of that the Prosecution wish to make an application to amend the Indictment.”
He handed a piece of paper to an usher who handed it to the Clerk, who handed it to the Judge.”
“Ah, I was wondering where this was. Is this the only indictment that has been drawn?”
The barrister looked behind to where the C.P.S. solicitors were sitting. One of them nodded.
“My Lord, I am instructed that that is the case, in which case I don’t of course need leave to amend.”
“Very good. Now what’s this application. Miss Lappin, I have read your skeleton argument, but not having read all these papers, of course I do not as yet understand the references to the exhibits.” He obviously knew Lappin and smiled warmly at her.
“No, my Lord. The Skeleton submitted at this stage is to give your Lordship an idea of the thrust of the application.”
“And the amendments to the Indictment, do not affect your argument.”
“Only as to the deletion of any reference in my skeleton to my clients alleged involvement in the company Clearfield Limited, as all reference of this has now been abandoned by the prosecution.”
“Can you abandon a reference? I don’t know,” said the Judge smiling still, “but no matter. Now how long will this application take? Do you want any Prosecution witnesses called? I assume from the many references to him in your skeleton argument that you will want Mr. Black.”
“Indeed, and I think the witnesses Dover and Baines.”
“Who I see say that they were put under no pressure by your client in their own valuations.” The Judge looked directly at Edwards-Mitchell who declined to make eye contact, and looked steadfastly at his papers.
“Do you intend to call any evidence for the Defence.”
“My Lord at this stage I anticipate not.”
“It depends on how you get on?”
“Quite so.”
“So how long do you think this will take.”
“Well a pessimistic view would be 5 days.”
“Mr. Edwards-Mitchell?”
“I would tend to agree with that My Lord.”
“Are there any other applications to be made on behalf of any of the other Defendants?”
The two remaining barristers half stood and murmured negatives.
“Very good, I propose to list this starting next week with an initial estimate of 5 days… Mr. Edwards-Mitchell?”
The Prosecuting Counsel had leapt to his feet. “My Lord I don’t know if that is convenient to the Prosecution.”
“It’s convenient to the Court, and I expect the Prosecution to be ready. I presume that those instructing you have obtained details of witness availability.”
“May I take instructions My Lord.”
Edwards-Mitchell sat down and turned round to the C.P.S. solicitors. There was a fumbling among files, and eventually, one, a plump dark woman pulled out some papers which she showed to Edwards-Mitchell, who, reading them as he did so, stood up once again.
“My Lord it appears that the witnesses have either taken their holidays or are not taking their holidays for some time.”
“Good, then that’s settled. I take it that your client has no objection to coming back next week Miss Lappin?”
She turned with a smile to Newberry, who shook his head.
“No objection My Lord.”
“Good. It does have the advantage for the Court that it quickly fills the trial fixture which we have just vacated ,and if we do overrun beyond the five days, then we shall be able to go into the following week. The other Defendants and their solicitors need not attend if they do not wish to. Are there any other matters?”
“Bail?” said Edwards-Mitchell.
“I’ll come to that. Firstly I’ll make some ancillary directions.”
The Judge took out a fountain pen and opened a book in front of him. He wrote for a few minutes, and then paused to read out what he had written.
“Firstly, all matters which can be admitted by schedule should be. Secondly Counsel should agree any matters between themselves that can be agreed. You have in effect 3 working days to do this, and I am sure that in this case, where as I understand it from your skeleton Miss Lappin, that the facts are not in dispute; that this is sufficient time.”
“My Lord” both Lappin and Edwards-Mitchell mumbled from their seats.
The Judge leaned over to the Clerk beneath him. “Don’t list anything substantive for me until say the Thursday of the following week. Only list anything which can be cancelled if this application goes over.”
“Very good, My Lord.” The Clerk acquiesced in a loud enough voice to concentrate attention on herself.
“Now, while in no way do I want to seem to prejudge the issue, should we fix a trial date in case the application is unsuccessful?”
Lappin shook her head, but looked across to where Edwards-Mitchell was sitting. He caught her eye.
“My Lord, from the Prosecution point of view, the outcome of this application in whatever way, may well shorten this case..”
The Judge tapped his pen on the desk in front of him, and thought.
“Very well. I’ll leave any trial date until the outcome of the application. I don’t suppose that putting the decision off for a fortnight at the most will alter the date much.” He leaned over to the Clerk.
“Madam Clerk what sort of listing dates are we looking at now?”
“It will be April next year, My Lord.”
The Judge raised his eyebrows. “Really. Perhaps everybody will bear that in mind.”
“Is there a
nything else?”
All three defence barristers rose to their feet. The other two looked towards Lappin.
“My Lord, Mr. Newberry is on unconditional bail. I ask that that be extended until next Monday.” Lappin asked.
“Very good. Mr. Newberry?” The Judge looked at him.
“Stand up” hissed Brakespeare.
“Mr. Newberry your bail is extended until ten o’clock next Monday when you must be here in this court. Do you understand?”
“Yes”
“My Lord.” Brakespeare hissed again.
“Yes, My Lord.” Newberry stuttered.
“Very well. Next”
The other two barristers went through the same procedures with their clients, but with bail extended to such time as they should be notified to the Court to attend.
“The Court will rise.” Intoned the usher. The Judge rose to his feet and left the room, but not without, in time honoured fashion, bowing to the solicitors and barristers, who in turn bowed to him.
Newberry, slightly taken by surprise, bowed also.
“No need”. Whispered Brakespeare. “Lawyers only.”
Rosemary Lappin turned in her seat. “Right, we need to find somewhere to talk.” she said, and led them out of the Court.
Just off the foyer they found a stuffy, windowless consulting room, with a scratched wooden table and a motley assortment of chairs. Rosemary Lappin took off her wig and peeled off her gown.
“Well, that’s a good result.” she said.
“The Judge seemed biased to me.” said Newberry grumpily.
“How so?” demanded Lappin as she settled herself down.
“Well he wanted to list the case for a trial before had had even heard our application to have the case struck out.”
“Oh, come on Mr. Newberry. The Court has a very busy fixture list. It takes all the serious cases that the Old Bailey can’t take. If you don’t book your slot, you could be kept waiting a long rime. Anyway, the good news, is that we have a hearing next week, and I hope that we shan’t need to fix a trial.”
“I still think that the Judge was biased.” said Newberry like a spoilt child.
Lappin looked at him with contempt. “Mr. Newberry, I have known Judge Martin Green for over 20 years both as a barrister and a judge. He is the Senior Judge in this Court, and as you probably appreciate from the fact that he is addressed as “My Lord”, and not the more usual “Your Honour”, he is sitting as a deputy High Court Judge, and not as a Circuit Judge. He is extremely fair, and will sort the wheat from the chaff; and there’s plenty of chaff and very little wheat in this case - I suspect that he has seen that as a result of reading my skeleton argument, which is why I had Jonny send it in. It always pays to let your argument be the first one that a judge reads. Now no more of this griping at the Judge, we have to move quickly. Jonny we need to get a trial bundle served and agreed.”
Brakespeare nodded and produced his Counsel’s notebook from his briefcase.
“First of all I want your excellent letter to the C.P.S. included. The Prosecution cannot now claim to be unaware of their weaknesses and seek to have the case postponed while they try and put things right.
Then I want the charts and statistics that Lisa prepared, but I also want a schedule giving the exhibit reference number for each of the valuations that she has used.
Finally I want a separate bundle of the National – Redshaw Linden Steele – Suttons – Skinner correspondence. Send that to the Prosecution and ask them to agree it. I can’t see how they can refuse as it came from the Police files, but if they don’t we can use Black to verify it. How quickly can you do this?”
“As soon as we have finished, I’ll call the office.” He pulled his mobile from his pocket.
“You may have to go outside the Court Building. The signals are a bit patchy.
Brakespeare left the room, keying in the office number into his Nokia.
Lappin turned to Newberry. “ Now, Mr. Newberry, next week you are going to have your day or days in Court, and I hope that you won’t have to come back afterwards. It is not a full trial. Our submission, on your behalf is that there is no prima facie case – nothing which a jury needs to consider. If I may say so Lady Luck has shined upon you in the form of Mr. Brakespeare and also Miss Barnes. If I had been sent the papers without any input from them, I am not sure that I would have spotted that Mr. Black’s valuations were, to say the least erratic, nor would I have known anything about the fact that Redshaw Linden and Steele were trying to sell the properties while at the same time being rather expensive independent valuers.
Lady Luck has also helped in that all reference to your having been once involved with Clearfield has now been dropped by the Prosecution, as you may have gathered.”
Newberry looked visibly relieved. “When did you know this? Why wasn’t I told earlier?” he demanded.
“I only knew this morning, I had time to tell Mr. Brakespeare, I didn’t have time to tell you. I’m sorry.”
She paused, wondering whether to say anything else to the difficult man. “This means that there will be no reference in our application to Mrs Potter and your son. If the press are in Court, there will be nothing for them to report.”
Newberry just stared at her.
“I assume that your relationship with Mrs Potter is still continuing?”
Newberry nodded. “I’m going to stay with her until next week. There’s no point in going home, just to come back again so soon.”
“Well that’s a matter for you, but it will at least remain a private matter, and that’s important, because if this case were to go to trial, a jury would have been bound to be influenced by the fact that you were involved in an extra marital relationship.”
Newberry stirred as if to say something, but Lappin put her hand up to stop him.
“I know that it seems irrelevant but a British jury may, totally wrongly, conclude that a man who cheats on his wife, is also capable of cheating on his employer.”
Lappin wisely did not allow Newberry to take the discussion further.
“Now let me outline the procedure to you. I will begin by outlining what your case is to the Judge; then we’ll call Mr. Black. The Prosecution may want to have him give his evidence, but then I will have the opportunity to cross examine him on his valuations.”
She paused, and looked down. She spoke as she thought. “No on second thoughts, I think we’ll call your two colleagues, Dover and Baines first; get them to confirm that they had no pressure from you as to their valuations. I take it that they are likely to adhere to that evidence, are they?”
“Yes, when I last spoke to them.”
Lappin was astounded and pushed herself back in her chair.
“You’ve been talking to them?”
“Yes” he replied, a little hesitantly.
“And when did you last speak to them?”
“Last week, when I knew that we would be coming here. Shouldn’t I have?”
“Well there’s no reason in law why you should have not. What you must not do however is try and interfere with what the prosecution witnesses will say. Does Mr. Brakespeare know?”
Newberry shook his head. “ No. I’ve had no reason to tell him.”
Lappin thought and a resigned look passed over her face. “Very well, what did they say to you.”
“Well, they wanted to know how I was getting on and basically wished me the best of luck.”
“Wished you the best of luck.” Lappin repeated thoughtfully. “So they are going to confirm what they have said in their witness statements. If I show them the various percentages that Miss Barnes has extracted from the prosecution case as to how much work you did, and how much work they did, are they likely to agree with that?”
“I think so, do you want me to ask them.”
“For Christ’s sake no!” Lappin corrected herself. “I’m sorry, but it would have been best if you had not contacted them. That way no damage can be done. You must not approa
ch them again until after this case has been concluded. Do you understand?”
She lectured him like a school teacher. Newberry bowed his head, but whether or not it was in remorse, or was just weathering the storm was not clear.
The door opened, and Brakespeare came in.
“I’m just talking about the conduct of the application with Mr. Newberry, and I’ve told him not to contact any of the Prosecution witnesses as he has been doing.” she said, looking knowingly at Brakespeare.
Brakespeare showed no reaction, remembering his conversation with Martin. Christ they were having to sail close to the wind with this one.
“Now.” asked Lappin emphatically. “Are we going to call Mr. Newberry?” and looked from one man to the other.
“Well, I think it’s only right that I do put my case forward.”
“No, Mr. Newberry. I’m the one whose putting your case forward. Do we need to hear you deny that your valuations were false?”
Brakespeare could see what she was trying to achieve with Newberry, and came to her assistance. “No, it would be too dangerous. David, we know that you deny any wrong doing – after all we wouldn’t be making our application if you were not. If you go in the witness box, you will be cross examined by Mr. Edwards-Mitchell. You haven’t prepared for a trial…”
“Yes, I have.”
It was Lappin’s turn to jump in. “What Mr. Brakespeare is trying to say is that if you give some wrong answers at this stage, you could spoil what seems to be a strong case. Therefore I don’t think that you should go into the witness box.”
“Very good. I’ll take your advice as you both seem to agree” said Newberry petulantly.
“Good” said Lappin, putting her papers together. “That I think is everything.”
She stood up and held her hand out to Newberry. “We’ll meet again here Monday morning.” She turned to Brakespeare. “If I hear anything I’ll let you know, and perhaps you’ll do likewise, Jonny. If you have any problems in getting anything agreed, also let me know. I understand that Mr. Newberry is staying in London until next week. You may want to take a telephone number from him.”
She gathered up her robe and wig, and swept out of the room, throwing a sympathetic smile over her shoulder to Brakespeare as she did so.