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by L. Smyth

  NORTHAM EMAIL RING DISCOVERED FOLLOWING TIP-OFF FROM ANONYMOUS SOURCE

  COLIN MONTGOMERY: NORTHAM LECTURER, 54, ARRESTED ON CHARGES OF VOYEURISM

  NORTHAM’S COLIN MONTGOMERY PLEADS GUILTY TO CHARGES

  MARCUS BEDE – FATHER OF SUICIDE STUDENT MARINA – ARRESTED. LINKED TO MONTGOMERY CASE

  ‘ABSURD FABRICATIONS’: MARCUS BEDE DENIES CHARGES OR INVOLVEMENT

  HENRY BEWELL DENIES PARTICIPATING IN THE UPSKIRTING RING

  BEWELL LET OFF

  LEGAL LOOPHOLE? EXPERTS EXPLAIN WHY UPSKIRTING IS NOT A CRIME

  Even now, with the print headlines in front of me, I find it hard to read them. The memories all come flooding back. The possibilities come flooding back. I can’t look at Marcus’s face without feeling sick. Once again I stab the pen into his temple, watch the black ink ooze out.

  I am happy that they have been caught – of course I am. I’d thought that I would have become immune to notions of ‘social justice’, but that’s not how I feel. I am, in that sense, very relieved. They should be held accountable for what they’ve done. This may well result in Marina’s retribution: what she intended; what she deserves. And yet … I can’t help but be anxious for myself. I can’t help thinking that I will be drawn into it again. The attention will refocus on me. Certain things will come to light.

  I have had to quit my job. I can’t concentrate. I can’t think about anything except what might happen, about what might have happened, about what did happen and will be shown to have happened. I think about my legs spread wide on the screen. I think about the words Marcus said to me when I threatened to expose him – what were you doing on the day Marina died?; no one will believe you. I think of the image – a dream? – of Marina leaning out of the window, turning and smiling down at me. I don’t know which parts of it to believe. Nothing feels concrete anymore.

  Every day for the last few weeks, I have been sat in the public library with a selective stack of newspapers in front of me. They date from the last few days and pertain mostly to Montgomery. I’ve been collecting them in my room, storing them up, alternately withholding them and bingeing their contents. I’ve brought them here to read properly. I know newspapers are old-fashioned, but the Internet overwhelms me. I thought that – due to their specificity – these may be useful to refer to while I type up my version of events. But as it is, I have scarcely looked at them at all.

  I stare at the photo of Marina on the front page. Her green eyes glower out at me; her mouth is smudged over with a coffee stain. I dab the newspaper, lean forward and peer at it closely. There is a challenge concealed in that face: an invitation.

  Go on, she says. I’ll do it. Don’t think I won’t do it.

  I know that there is more news out there. Over the last few days, I have seen my own name across the headlines. I have seen my own photograph beside photos of Marcus and Marina and Colin and Henry. I have put off reading those stories specifically – the ones about me – because I dread to think of what evidence will emerge. I dread to think of that photograph coming out – the one of my thighs, her underwear. I dread to think of the other accusations … The things they might say. Will they ask where I was on the day Marina died? Will they force me to testify? Will I be able to say – for sure – that I wasn’t in Northam?

  I can’t put it off any longer. My hands start moving towards the mouse. My fingers begin pushing into the stiff keys. A sea of headlines appears.

  ‘EVA TRIED TO WARN’: PARENTS OF MISSING HUTCHINGS GIRL EXPLAIN HOW THEIR DAUGHTER ATTEMPTED TO TELL THEM ABOUT THE UPSKIRTING SCANDAL [THE GUARDIAN]

  EVA HUTCHINGS – THE PERILS OF NO-PLATFORMING [THE SPECTATOR]

  EVA HUTCHINGS’ PARENTS: NORTHAM IMPERSONATOR TRIED TO TELL US [THE SUN]

  PARENTS APOLOGIZE TO THEIR DAUGHTER, EXPRESS REGRET [FINANCIAL TIMES]

  FORMER IMPERSONATOR EVA HUTCHINGS PRAISED ON SOCIAL MEDIA [THE TIMES]

  ‘EVA HUTCHINGS IS NO HEROINE– SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATED’: HENRY BEWELL ON THE MARINA BEDE FOUNDATION SCANDAL [EVENING STANDARD]

  I skim them over and click on the sixth link that comes up, recognizing the name in the headline. Then I scroll down and read what he has said about me.

  July 2017

  Evening Standard

  ‘EVA HUTCHINGS IS NO HEROINE – SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATED’: HENRY BEWELL ON THE MARINA BEDE FOUNDATION SCANDAL

  Having been absolved of his involvement in the Northam upskirting scandal, Henry Bewell describes his experience of online abuse, his friendship with Marina Bede, and why he believes that Eva Hutchings was present at the death of his friend.

  Words by Harrison Wong

  It’s been a harrowing couple of months for Henry Bewell. On 25 August, the 24-year-old Northam graduate – who is now studying for a PhD in America – found himself embroiled in the voyeurism scandal involving Northampton professor Colin Montgomery. Emails appeared to show him engaging in a form of ‘banter’ with Montgomery about female students, which caused media speculation that he had engaged in the upskirting ring himself (the Northam Chancellor, Marcus Bede, has now also been implicated in the proceedings). Due to a lack of solid evidence, Bewell has since been acquitted and the media outlet has apologised. But the online rumour mill is still churning. Bewell continues to be dogged online by members of the public as well as the blogging community, and there is still wild, confusing – and Bewell claims ‘hugely unfounded’ – speculation as to his involvement in the case. He has decided to speak to the Evening Standard in order to ‘put a stop to this madness’ and explain on his own terms what happened.

  Bewell is evidently nervous when we meet in a West London café. His coat sleeves are rolled back; his fingers clamp around his coffee cup. He tells me that it’s been a few days since he even left his house. ‘But I don’t tend to get recognized in here, so I think we’ll be all right.’ He speaks apologetically – in a polite, clipped accent – and his manners are impeccable. He opens the door for me, draws back my chair and asks if I want a coffee. He seems tentative and soft. Yet when I bring up the events of the last week – his posture stiffens. ‘Enough is enough,’ he says. ‘The behaviour I’ve encountered over the last few weeks has been disgraceful. It’s been intolerable for me. It’s intolerable for my family. And it’s disrespectful to the memory of Marina.’

  Bewell is referring to the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Marina Bede, which surfaced after the arrests of Marcus Bede and Colin Montgomery.

  ‘I just cannot understand how we’ve got to this point,’ he says. ‘If you consider the kind of detachment that these people have … The lack of empathy is astonishing. It’s as if they are living in their own bubbles, in a completely different reality. They’re so detached from the idea that this is actually someone’s life. It’s my life. I’m just a normal guy.’

  To understand how this happened, it helps to go back and explain the events of the last three years. The tragic story of Marina Bede first hit the headlines back in January 2014, when Marina, a popular, beautiful, high-achieving 19-year-old student, was found dead outside her accommodation block at Northam University. The news that she had committed suicide caused huge shockwaves across the Northam community – and this soon spread to the national headlines. The Marina Bede Fountain was set up in her memory to help spread awareness of depression and coping mechanisms, especially in young women.

  ‘Her father was genuinely trying to help an underrepresented cause,’ says Bewell when I ask him. ‘He was doing something charitable. I really do believe that.’

  Things then took a darker turn when Eva Hutchings, who claimed to be a close friend of Marina’s, was discovered to have emulated her online after her death. Bewell says of the affair:

  ‘It was incredibly distressing for her entire family, as you can imagine. … But of course they didn’t escalate the incident. They were busy dealing with other things.’

  Bewell says he was too embroiled in his own trauma to be side-tracked by the c
ontroversy.

  ‘Marina and I were very good friends,’ he says. ‘On that morning in January I had been sent to Northam to bring her back home. You see, she’d run away on New Year’s Eve, following an argument with her father. She was in a real state, and Marcus thought that I might be able to talk to her. But …’ He trails off and shakes his head: it was too late. When Henry arrived at Northam that afternoon, he found her body lying outside her accommodation block.

  He is reluctant to talk about what happened next in any detail.

  ‘As you can imagine it was very distressing. And so straight after the funeral – I went to Charlton (a prestigious Ivy League).’ Bewell tells me that he had to leave Northam for his own sanity, and in order to distance himself from Marina’s family. Over the Christmas holidays he had been spending a lot of time with the Bedes and said that the family atmosphere was tense. He was often called over to mediate arguments.

  ‘I was like Marina’s carer over that winter,’ he says. ‘It was a little odd. After her death especially, I needed to get away from them. I had to escape from everything.’ He managed to transfer to Charlton for a year, on recommendation from Marcus Bede.

  The Bede connection is where things get difficult for Bewell. In May this year, Professor Colin Montgomery was discovered by Northam police to have taken a number of upskirt shots of students around the Northam campus. Email correspondence dating from 2014 showed Montgomery trading pictures of students with Marcus Bede. So how did Bewell come into it?

  ‘It was a complete miscommunication,’ he says. ‘One message that I’d sent about a female professor from my first year emerged online. I apologise for that now: I can see it was offensive. But I wasn’t involved in the personal stuff … I never saw any of the photos.’ He trails off here and says that he does not want to talk about the photos explicitly: he only wants to deny that he was involved in their circulation.

  Since his acquittal, Bewell has been vocal about his lack of involvement in the upskirting case. This has been seen by many as an unusual, even reckless, decision. Should he not keep his head down? No, says Bewell. In an age where ‘fake news’ and conspiracy theories abound, it has become necessary for him to speak for himself.

  ‘I tried to ignore it all at first,’ he says. ‘But it wouldn’t go away. And then the death threats started and the coverage became more vicious. I sensed that unless I spoke out then their voices would trump mine. It felt like my identity was getting away from me.’

  I ask him whether he thinks that his outspoken position has increased the vitriol towards him, rather than quelled it.

  ‘Possibly,’ he says. ‘But I need to combat the conspiracy theories myself. I won’t let my voice be drowned out.’

  The conspiracy network to which he is referring is almost too complex to describe here. But one popular conspiracy theory – and the one he finds most distressing – is that Bewell is guilty of Marina’s murder.

  When I mention this to Bewell now, he appears both appalled and furious. ‘There are timelines which prove it doesn’t add up. The autopsy showing time of death. The CCTV of me getting off a train … It was all covered by the media. I shouldn’t have to justify this, but it has reached that point.’

  The reports are published here. Subscribers can view these in full, with our commentary, by clicking this link.

  Although Bewell has experienced distressing abuse as a result of these accusations, I suggest that some conspiracy theories are inevitable, considering how complex the story is. Since the arrest of Montgomery earlier this year, several other people have been implicated, including Marcus Bede, and senior members of the Bede Foundation. The extent of their involvement remains unclear.

  Then there is new, disputed ‘evidence’ from Eva Hutchings’s family. Since the news broke, Eva’s parents have claimed that their daughter knew about the upskirting ring. They told The Sun that prior to her going to a rehabilitation facility in April 2014, Eva claimed she’d discovered incriminating email correspondence between Bewell and Montgomery. Allegedly, Eva was led to the bank of photographs after discovering a secret email address in a notebook. It is currently unclear when or how this notebook came to be discovered, or to whom it belonged. The existence of both the notebook and the email have been firmly denied by Montgomery and Bede, who also deny Bewell’s involvement.

  What does Bewell think about the Hutchings’ claims, I ask?

  ‘The notebook … Well, no, I never knew of any notebook. I can’t really see that that adds anything.’ Then the Hutchings are lying? ‘Look, I think you have to look at it from a psychological perspective. Eva has been missing for over a year. Her parents are very distressed. They see the ordeal as the trigger for her disappearance. And it’s terrible what happened to Eva – my sympathies are with them completely on that front – but what they say cannot be taken as reliable evidence.’

  Bewell has consistently refused to defend Eva’s position in the case, to an extent perceived by some as irresponsible. Last week, contrarian shock jock Karl Numan sent out an incriminating tweet, in which he accused Eva of having a hand in Marina’s death. Bewell has not supported this theory in concrete terms, but he has done little to quell the speculation. Replying to commenters on his blog, he said that: ‘I wouldn’t say [the theory] is necessarily untrue.’ Elsewhere he has described Eva as having ‘a sinister side’. I ask him, tentatively, what his attitudes are towards Eva now.

  Here Bewell scratches his jaw thoughtfully. ‘It’s difficult for me to answer that question,’ he says. ‘The thing is … well the thing is, Eva was in a lot of pain. She clearly suffered. But thinking about it … She was also obsessed with Marina. And when I think about her incessant messages to me during the holidays, and how she hinted that she’d been making random trips to Northam … I’ve started to wonder about where she was on the night that Marina died. And I think …’

  He trails off, so I fill in for him: that she should have been investigated for her death?

  ‘Yes,’ he says slowly. ‘She should have been questioned at the time. There’s just so much … It’s all too odd. I know it was ruled as a suicide but the investigation wasn’t thorough enough. No one asked Eva where she was the evening that Mari died. If Eva is still alive, she should come forward and explain.’ He adds quickly: ‘But of course it’s not … Well she has been missing for a long time. I don’t mean to cause distress for her parents.’

  Whatever the speculative situation with Hutchings, for now the focus is firmly on Bede and Montgomery. Their trial will be taking place over the next few weeks and the Evening Standard will be showcasing a live Twitter feed of the initial court proceedings. Will Bewell be keeping abreast of the outcome?

  ‘I’ll have to,’ he says. ‘I won’t be there, of course, but I am keeping track of the case. I can’t wait for it to be over … It doesn’t even feel like I’ve been acquitted, you know? And it won’t until it’s officially over. I just want to get on with the rest of my life.’

  My mouse hovers over the screen.

  I thought that reading Henry’s article would make me feel afraid. I suppose it should, since now I know that he is out to get me. He is trying to pin me down, to force a confession from me, and to use my supposed guilt to deflect attention away from himself. But I don’t feel scared, not really. I am angry.

  The photo accompanying the article intensifies my rage. His smug face leers out at me from the screen. I study his cold dark eyes. The lips drawn in a tight smile. To think of those lips touching mine makes me feel physically sick.

  I know that he is guilty. I saw the emails. I saw the conversation thread with Montgomery. I saw the pictures that he sent and the captions he posted beneath them. Didn’t I?

  Quickly I scroll down to the comments. I see the reaction to the article:

  I can’t believe the press is posting this. It’s basically giving a platform to a sex criminal. And he IS a sex criminal. There was insufficient evidence – not no evidence at all. Literally wtf??!
/>   Guilty as hell

  So he wants Eva to be investigated, having never been convicted of anything, but thinks that everyone should leave him alone, even though he’s been let off !!! Does this idiot have any idea how he sounds?

  RE: Does the journalist?

  Wow this article really opened my eyes to sympathizing with a ‘polite’ pervert. Just kidding: this was pathetic and unprofessional.

  My fingers detach from the keyboard and move to my lap. My wrists and shoulders feel loose and light. They are on my side, I realize. They are on my side. No one will believe Henry. No one will believe what he has to say about me, or anything else.

  I click on a new tab and type in the website address. I put in my password and email address. I thought I had deleted my account, but when I press enter it rolls up anyway. Here is my old life, preserved. Here is a picture of me in that first week of Northam, with my shoulders tensed, my hands awkwardly knotted in the centre of my body. What kind of future did I think I had then?

  Caroline Evans is with Eva Hutchings and 5 others at the Bistrotheque, Walford.

  Eva Hutchings went to Grime and Punishment at the Cellar.

  My eyes move to messages dating from the time that the story of the Swipe impersonation broke. Some abusive, some not; some already read, some not. There are so many from my parents. They ask where I am. They tell me they are sorry.

  It is then that I notice a message in the ‘other’ inbox. It dates from late 2014. The sender appears to have deleted their profile – it simply shows up as a grey ‘User’ – but I can tell just from the first few sentences who it is from.

  Hi Eva

  I hope you’re well / that your leg has recovered. I was sorry to hear about your mental health issues. I don’t know how long you’re away for but I suppose you might read this when you’re home, and hopefully better … I know it’s somewhat odd to contact you like this. It’s very much out of the blue, and I hope you’ll forgive me for being so abrupt. But now that Marcus and I have broken up – I felt I had to drop you a line.