‘Whatever the reason, the Home Secretary has made a decision. He’s going to order his release.’
‘What! That’s ridiculous. He’s only done about twelve months of his sentence and most of that was while he was on remand.’
‘The Home Secretary doesn’t want any comebacks. There’s likely to be an election in the next twelve months. You and I know the contribution Doyle made to the convictions of Hanlon and the others. If he’s murdered in prison – and someone’s obviously organising these attacks – responsibility will be placed on the Home Office. He simply can’t be protected in custody.’
Cronshaw said nothing for a few moments.
‘Isn’t this a bit of an over reaction? Three assaults, yet he’s still alive! Whoever’s behind this is not doing very well if the idea is to kill him. How many chances does he want to finish the job?’
‘The Home Secretary thinks this is down to Hanlon. He has the organisation and the reach and from what he said to Hood, he knows it was Doyle who’s responsible for his incarceration. These things can never be kept under wraps.’
‘Hanlon? From what we know about Hanlon, if he wanted Doyle dead, that’s what he’d be. Dead!
‘If he were able to get at Doyle, yes. But he can’t. He has to use others to do his dirty work and they’re not as ruthless or efficient as he would be. Few people are.’
Cronshaw shook his head.
‘I don’t buy this at all. I just don’t see Hanlon getting involved with something like this when he’s offered to give evidence in this trial. There’s something else going on here. Is there any actual proof this is down to him? He could be guessing that it was Doyle who informed on Duffy.’
‘Nothing that would fall into that category. But the Home Secretary is convinced it’s down to him. And don’t forget, we know that Grayling had arranged to have Doyle stabbed. Hanlon would have been in on that too. He was lucky he was moved out of Welford Road.’
‘Grayling’s dead and his grudge against Doyle had nothing to do with Duffy. I agree, Hanlon is another matter, but I’m not convinced he’s involved. You do realise you’ll be calling him as a witness tomorrow morning. We’re supposed to be relying on him as a witness of truth.’
‘Yes, I understand what you’re saying, but we can’t abandon Hanlon now. His evidence has been opened to the jury. I still think it will make all the difference.’
Cronshaw frowned.
‘I won’t repeat my views about that. Will we be disclosing the Home Secretary’s suspicions to the defence?’
‘I don’t see why. As you’ve pointed out, we don’t have any evidence this is Hanlon’s handiwork, and Doyle’s position has to remain confidential. His life would be very much at risk if we disclosed he was the informant. He was promised protection. Revealing he’s been repeatedly assaulted would give the game away. Duffy is known to have informed on the rest of his associates and looks what’s happened to him. He’s been badly beaten up at least twice.’
‘But if Hanlon’s worked it out for himself, Doyle will just at much at risk on the outside, probably more so.’
‘Yes, but he won’t be anybody’s responsibility then.’
Cronshaw shook his head in frustration.
‘When will he be released?’
‘Not before the end of the trial. I insisted on that. We don’t want him out until the jury returns with a verdict, one way or the other.’
‘Does Hood know about this?’
‘No, but I see no reason why he shouldn’t. I’m sure he’ll keep it to himself.’
‘I’d like him to look into it –before Doyle is released. He knows him well enough. He might be able to find out what’s really going on.’
The Attorney heaved a sigh.
‘So long as he’s discreet. We don’t want things making worse than they are.’
Cronshaw picked up his notebook.
‘Well, we may discover more this afternoon. Everdene has hardly got going with Duffy. If he makes any headway with him, it may give us a clue as to what’s to come with Hanlon tomorrow.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
Everdene resumed his cross-examination just after 2.15pm. Duffy had been confined to the cells over the lunch period and kept separate from Julia Hamilton. He had been provided with a plastic mug of strong, sweet tea and a cheese and tomato roll. He had declined the offer of a bag of ready salted crisps.
‘I want to deal in outline with your previous convictions, Mr Duffy,’ said Everdene with a smile. ‘How many times have you been involved with firearms?’
‘You mean as in committing offences?’
‘With your record, having any firearm in your possession at all is an offence punishable with imprisonment. You will have been given a document setting that out when you were released on parole. Remember?’
‘I recall something of the sort, yes.’
‘And yet at some stage after your release, you acquired that Purdey shotgun?’
‘No I didn’t. I already had it. Someone was looking after it for me while I was away.’
‘Who?’
‘A friend.’
‘I repeat, who?’
‘I’d rather not say.’
The judge intervened.
‘You appreciate you would have been committing a serious offence as soon as you took such a weapon back into your possession?’
‘I didn’t look at it like that, your Honour. Sorry, my Lord. It was a family heirloom. I only kept it because of its value. It was worth a few grand you know. I had no intention of doing anything with it. It never left my home, not until Hanlon demanded it.’
Everdene continued.
‘Belonged to your father did it?’
‘I’m not sure. I only know it came to me after his death via a relative.’
‘You were quite happy for it to be used in the violation of Judge Campion’s home and the kidnapping of his wife and little son?’
Duffy shook his head vigorously.
‘I wasn’t happy about it at all. Hanlon insisted. Gus told him I had the gun. I had no choice in the matter.’
Everdene glanced at the jury before he continued.
‘What about the robbery that didn’t go ahead before Christmas? The one you said this morning had nothing to do with you. Surely, robbing the guards in a security vehicle would have required some kind of persuader? Like a sawn-off shot gun?’
‘Those weapons went back to the armourers in the East End when the job fell through. Gus never kept firearms around. Too dangerous. He wasn’t going to run the risk of being caught with them.’
‘And as you said this morning, the kidnapping and blackmailing of the judge came rather out of the blue?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s why the team that was being organised for the Retford job was used.’
‘Yeah. Except Bobby. Bobby had nothing to do with the kidnapping.’
‘It was the mention of Doyle at the meeting on the sixteenth of March that persuaded Grayling to agree to it?’
‘Yes’
‘Can you explain then, Mr Duffy, why your daughter Kelly was at Judge Campion’s home on the twenty-fourth of February - three weeks before this so called meeting at Grayling’s home – pretending to be interested in purchasing it?’
Cronshaw glanced at his junior. This was an undoubted weakness in the prosecution case. He had always known that Everdene would make good use of it.
‘We needed to know the layout. You don’t go into this sort of thing blind, do you?’
‘No, you don’t. But this was three weeks before the meeting on the sixteenth of March? According to you, Grayling only agreed to do it on the sixteenth of March. Who, then, sent your daughter to Judge Campion’s on the twenty-fourth of February?’
‘Well it wasn’t me.’
‘It suggests, doe
s it not, that Grayling was already planning something in respect of Judge Campion well before the sixteenth of March?’
‘Possibly.’
Several jurors looked at each other. Miss Duston made a careful note of Duffy’s reply.
‘The robbery committed by Doyle was on the seventeenth or eighteenth of December nineteen ninety-eight. When did you became aware that Grayling had planned a similar robbery at the same location a day or two later?’
‘I can’t remember, but it was before Christmas.’
‘When did you find out that it was Doyle and his merry men who had committed the robbery that put an end to Grayling’s plans at the Charnwood?’
‘Not until Doyle was arrested. Gus couldn’t believe that Doyle had done the dirty on him. Gus tried to find out who was behind it - it was all over the papers the day after - but when Benson was arrested, he said he’d never heard of him. It never crossed his mind he was linked with Doyle. Gus even sent someone down to the Magistrates’ Court to get a butchers at Benson, you know to see if he recognised him.’
‘Who did he send?’
Duffy cast his eyes down.
‘Gus never said.’
‘Doyle was arrested on the fifteenth of February last year. Nine days later your daughter was looking around Judge Campion’s home as a potential purchaser – three weeks before the sixteenth of March? Is this another one of those coincidences?’
‘You’d better ask my daughter.’
‘I shall, Mr Duffy, if I get the opportunity. You know why she was there, don’t you?’
‘I’ve told you, she was obviously checking the layout, but it was nothing to do with me.’
Duffy was beginning to look uncomfortable. His tone was sullen.
‘Someone must have asked her to do it. That someone was you, wasn’t it?’
Duffy shook his head.
‘I didn’t know she’d been in there until later.’
Everdene smiled.
‘Do you remember being interviewed by Chief Inspector Hood?’
‘What of it?’
‘You told Mr Hood that your daughter had been driven to the judge’s house by an associate of yours. A man by the name of Stringer – Alex Stringer. She was pretending to be interested in buying it. You needed to know the layout.’
Duffy swallowed hard, his voice faltering.
‘Yeah, but that was later. I didn’t know it at the time. That’s what I found out afterwards. After I’d spoken to Kelly.’
‘Come now, Mr Duffy. Do you want to see the transcript? You said nothing about finding out about it later.’
Duffy became agitated.
‘Look, Mr Everdene. I was trying to cut a deal with the police. I was telling them what I knew. I didn’t get everything in the right order.’
‘You were indeed. Trying to make sure you got in first in order to get a reduced sentence. That’s the position isn’t it?’
‘I still picked up twenty years.’
‘You also lied about the gun, didn’t you? You said it had never left your home.’
‘I said it had never been fired and I knew it hadn’t been fired for certain. I wasn’t to know that Hanlon’s DNA would be found on it.’
‘You also said it had never left your home. That was a lie, wasn’t it?’
‘The police found it in my floor safe. I didn’t know then that they could prove it had been used in the kidnapping, so I bluffed it out. I told the truth when I made my witness statement.’
‘We now know that Hanlon’s DNA was not found on the gun; it was found on the towel you wrapped it in.’
‘Yeah, well I didn’t know that either did I?’
Duffy looked down.
‘Didn’t you?’
‘No I didn’t. Just like I didn’t know the judge’s DNA was still on the stock.’
‘Very careless of you, Mr Duffy?’
‘I didn’t think. No-one told me that Hanlon had hit the judge with it.’
‘Or was that your fall back position?’
‘What d’ya mean?’
‘You know, if things went wrong and you were caught. To make sure Hanlon would get pulled in to the kidnapping.’
‘Now just a minute Mr Everdene. You’re suggesting that I set up Hanlon? I wouldn’t dare.’
‘Really? You were quite happy to implicate him when you made your witness statement.’
Duffy looked directly at Everdene.
‘And I’m paying for that now. I’ve been beaten up two or three times already. I exist in isolation in prison. It’s not safe for me to mix with other prisoners. The call has gone out. I’m a dead man, Mr Everdene. I have no reason to lie anymore.’
He shook his head then turned and stared at Julia Hamilton in the dock.
‘Unlike her!’
Cronshaw smiled. That was the sort of answer he was waiting for.
‘Where did you get the towel from?’
‘I can’t remember. It probably came from the bungalow where
Hanlon was holed up, before the Retford van was attacked. I spent the night there once when we were doing the planning. I must have picked it up by accident.’
‘Another coincidence, Mr Duffy?’ The witness glowered at counsel. ‘Or another lie?’
‘I’m not lying.’
‘But you are lying, Mr Duffy. You and Grayling had decided to get back at Doyle very soon after he was arrested for the successful Charnwood robbery. That’s why your daughter was despatched to the judge’s home. That’s why Mrs. Campion and little Christopher were kidnapped. That’s why they were taken to a property connected with Doyle. That’s why you called the police on the morning of the hearing. All done to implicate Doyle. Nothing to do with Julia Hamilton at all.’
Duffy smiled.
‘Is that what she’d told you? She’s the one who’s lying, not me.’
‘Let’s turn to the question of money. A subject very close to your heart. Grayling presumably lost a great deal when he was obliged to abandon his plan to rob the security van at the Charnwood?’
‘Couple of million,’ replied Duffy, very matter of fact. ‘At least that’s what he told me.’
‘And here, on your account, was a chance of making up at least some of that loss by agreeing to this wicked plan to kidnap the judge’s wife and blackmail the judge?’
‘Half a million, anyway.’
‘How much did Julia Hamilton pay in advance?’
‘What d’ya mean, in advance?’
‘I presume, Mr Duffy, that you and Grayling would not consider committing such serious criminal offences on credit?’
Duffy scowled.
‘I don’t know about that. That was Gus’s department.’
‘Presumably, Hanlon and the others expected to be paid for their trouble – and the risks they would be running?’
‘They were going to make their money on the Retford job. This was just a little extra they were doing for Gus.’
‘Kidnapping a judge’s wife and child and blackmailing a judge? A little extra? They’d be running a considerable risk if they were caught?’
‘I don’t suppose it’s ever been done before,’ said Duffy, ‘and we didn’t reckon on being caught. And we wouldn’t have been if someone hadn’t grassed us up.’
‘Remind the jury what sentences the others received, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten.’
‘Now let me see. Hanlon got thirty-nine years, Leckie and Kinch got thirty-five years and my daughter picked up twenty-four.’
‘So they were playing for very high stakes. And, on your account, they took such risks without receiving a penny in advance?’
‘So it would appear. I didn’t get anything in advance either. And them sentences included the Retford job, don’t forget.’
Everdene turned to the event
s of 16 March.
‘You have told the jury that Julia Hamilton was at Grayling’s house for thirty minutes? And that you heard most of the conversation between them?’
‘Yes.’
‘When you were interviewed by Chief Inspector Hood, you said that Julia Hamilton was leaving as you arrived?’
‘Did I? Well I must have got it wrong.’
‘Neither did you mention that she was dressed in motorcycle leathers?
‘I wasn’t asked how she was dressed.’
‘You didn’t mention a motorcycle either, did you?’
‘So?’
‘When you made your witness statement some days later, presumably after you’d had time to think about things, you still didn’t mention a motorcycle?’
‘I was never asked about it.’
‘In fact, you only mentioned a motorcycle and the way you say the Defendant was dressed in your second witness statement which was made only a few days ago. That was after Joseph Hanlon had made his witness statement. Care to tell us why?’
‘I must have forgot.’
‘You never mentioned Hanlon, either did you?’
‘Yes I did. I fingered him for both jobs.’
‘You misunderstand me. You never mentioned Hanlon being present at Grayling’s home when you say the Defendant was there?’
‘No I didn’t. Not in my first statement.’
‘You did not mention his presence at all – not until after he made a statement accepting he was there?’
Duffy half-smiled.
‘Self preservation, Mr Everdene. I’d already dropped him in it. I wasn’t going to make my position worse. Once he admitted he was at Grayling’s there was no point in me not saying he was at the house, was there?’
‘Dangerous man, Mr Hanlon?’
‘You can say that again. That’s why Gus used him. That’s why he brought him over from Ireland. People tend to do what he says.’
‘And if they don’t?’
Duffy sniggered.
‘I don’t think that’s ever happened.’
A Private and Convenient Place Page 21