Beyond Innocence

by Barrie Turner

  Irene Yarwood listened with avid interest as the Crown Prosecutor rushed through this preamble and, before the barrister could fire his first question, she was on her feet shouting and protesting with utmost vigour, “Objection. Your Honour, I must strongly object to the testimony of this man being heard. This man is a convicted felon of many years standing and he is currently on remand on other charges. My client strongly denies ever making any of the statements this man will claim he made whilst both of them were being held on remand. My client explicitly denies that he has ever made any confession, or that he has admitted any guilt relating to the charges he faces. In view of this My Lord, I must ask you to rule that the evidence we are about to hear is inadmissible. Without stopping to draw breath and ignoring the expression on the face of the judge, she continued, “It is also my contention, Your Honour, that this witness has been offered some form of deal or a reduction on his sentence as an inducement to present himself here before you with this confession, allegedly, freely given to him by my client. Apart from anything else, how can the jury be expected to rely upon the word of a convicted thief and robber, who now stands before you in order to give this testimony which, I might add, is absolutely and, completely uncorroborated.”

  Somewhat exasperated, Lord Chief Justice Ewing sat back in his chair. Raising his hands in the air he enquired sarcastically, “Will that be all Miss Yarwood? Have you quite finished?”

  She nodded in reply adding, “Yes, Your Honour,” whilst hoping she hadn’t overstepped the mark. If she had it was too late besides which she had a client to defend. It was of no use to him if the prosecution had got in first with the confession and she reasoned that at least the jurors were well aware of what was coming next. There was no hiding that no matter what Sir Gordon Nuttall-Jones did now.

  Judge Ewing motioned both counsel to the bench, and, through clenched teeth, he whispered, “I am going to call a short recess and I want to see both of you in my chambers immediately. Clearly, they both could see he was not amused and he banged down his gavel as hard as he could to announce the delay. As the gavel crashed down the Chief Usher, who had seemed to be all but asleep, leapt to his feet crying, “All rise,” and the Judge left the court with a look of thunder upon his face.

  The two QCs stood in the Judge’s chambers. Lord Chief Justice Ewing rounded upon the defence attorney first, “Miss Yarwood, “Whenever you are in my court, you will kindly refrain from telling me how to conduct proceedings. Regarding your extraordinary outburst in court a few moments ago, am I to understand that you have absolutely no proof that the police have done any kind of a deal with this witness and, if that is so, why on earth did you say it?”

  Knowing she was in trouble, Irene relied on a completely honest answer in order to escape the wrath of the judge that she felt certain would descend upon her. “Well, Your Honour, I didn’t see that I had much choice. My client maintains the confession is a complete fabrication and there must have been some form of collusion with the police, leading to the witness being offered inducements of some form, otherwise why invent the confession?”

  “Well, Miss Yarwood, that is hardly good enough. I can see, and I understand, the dilemma you were in but I have to ask you why the word of your client should be more acceptable than that of the witness? I’m sure, when I ask Sir Gordon whether or not your allegation is true, he will undoubtedly say otherwise and he will also confirm that this man has never volunteered similar evidence on other occasions, neither has he ever been accused of perjury in the past. Isn’t that true Sir Gordon?”

  Sir Gordon leapt at this heaven-sent opportunity, agreeing vociferously with Judge Ewing and thankful it was his opponent who was bearing the brunt of the Judge’s scathing criticism.

  “Well, there you are, Miss Yarwood. Now you see my dilemma, I can’t refuse to let Chambers give his evidence because, as far as we know, it is factual. Sir Gordon has told us so. In which case I will allow the evidence to be presented and heard.”

  Sir Gordon was all ready to leave the Judge’s chambers but the judge had not finished. Addressing his remarks to him he said, “Now Sir Gordon before we resume, perhaps you can enlighten us by letting us know what steps you have taken to ensure that this confession has not been elicited by any promises from the police or have you and your team simply accepted it as it is, on face value so to speak?”

  Sir Gordon was another person who knew the value of the truth in circumstances such as these so he replied truthfully, “Well, er, yes, Your Honour, this was something which just dropped in our laps a short while ago. Obviously it is not something we were involved in and we knew nothing about it until the police advised us that the defendant had confessed to Chambers.” Taken by surprise by the Judge’s question and, in an effort to recover, he added rather hesitantly, “of course, we will rigorously examine the witness on this point and we expect our learned colleague here to do much the same.”

  Judge Ewing murmured, “Commendable, most commendable, Sir Gordon but I have to say that I’m going to warn you and, if you have any doubt as to the validity of this confession, you should withdraw the witness. Alternatively, if I have any doubts during his evidence or cross examination, you may rest assured I shall have no hesitation in asking for the evidence to be struck out and for the jury to ignore it. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Very clear,” said the much subdued prosecuting counsel.

  They both left the judge’s inner sanctum and made their way in silence to the courtroom. The judge did not keep them waiting and the case was taken up from where it had been left.

  Mindful of the judge’s comments, Sir Gordon began, “When you were on remand which cell were you in and where was this cell in relation to that occupied by the accused?”

  Chambers “Initially I was held on remand at Warrington but, as it was too difficult for my wife to get there to visit me, I asked if I could be transferred to Walton, Liverpool. I was transferred about four months ago. When I first transferred I was in H wing then, after a couple of days, I was moved to A block where I occupied a cell next to the prisoner.”

  Sir Gordon “How did you get to know the prisoner?”

  Chambers “Initially, although he had been pointed out to me, I didn’t know him at all. It was only when I moved to A block and I was put into the next cell to him that I got to know him.”

  Sir Gordon “Did anybody tell you or ask you to get to know him?”

  Chambers “Definitely not.”

  Sir Gordon “Now, Chambers, let’s be quite clear about this. You are saying that you asked for a move from Warrington to Walton but, not from H block at Walton, and, when you were moved to A block, that’s the first time you knew you were next door to Thompson. How did you feel about that last move?”

  Chambers “Well I wasn’t too pleased and I wanted to go back to H block because all the lads reckoned he was off his trolley. When I found out he’d done two of them in, I didn’t fancy being that close to him. In the end, after a couple of days we just started talking and it all stemmed from there.”

  Sir Gordon “Did you mention to Thompson anything about his crimes and, if so, how did he respond?”

  Chambers “Well it was a bit funny at first yet, once we started talking, he began to ask me what I was in for so I told him, then he’d ask me about prison life in general and how much time I’d spent inside. Yet when I asked him any questions about himself, he used to go very quiet and he wouldn’t say a word. This went on for four or five weeks but, one day after we’d been for a shower, he just came right out with it. He came up to me and, after making sure nobody else was about, he asked me if I had any idea what he was in for. When I said I hadn’t got a clue he said, “well you must be the only one in here who doesn’t because I’m in for murder. I killed two of them.” After that he hardly said a thing and, at first I thought I couldn’t report him for saying that because I thought he’d just deny it. Then I had the idea that if he actually confessed I could just let them know. I thought, if he
confessed properly, it would help to clear up his case. You see it’s like this, thieving is one thing but murder, ugh, that’s ugly. Nobody wants to know a murderer because you never feel safe. A few days later, and presumably because I didn’t grass him up, he just came up to me and said he had to talk to somebody as he had to get things off his chest, sort of, and, if he didn’t he thought he would go mad. With that he launched into this full blown confession about how he killed these two poor women.”

  Sir Gordon produced some sheets of paper which he handed to Chambers saying “Mr. Chambers, is this the statement that you made in the presence of two police officers whilst you were on remand in Walton Gaol and were there any other persons present when you gave that statement?”

  Royston Chambers was in his element. He couldn’t wait to tell anybody who would listen especially if he felt it would assist his cause when his own case came up for trial. He knew he had no need to fear any repercussions from Thompson as it was hardly likely he would ever see the light of day on the outside of prison again but that didn’t bother him in the slightest as he replied, “Yes this is the statement I gave and signed in the presence of Detective Inspector Taylor, and Detective Sergeant West. There was also one prison officer present and that was Officer Fitzgerald.”

  “Were you offered any inducements or favours by anyone at all to obtain this confession and, if so, will you please tell this court the precise nature of any favours or special treatment you’ve been offered to come here today?” Sir Gordon asked.

  The witness looked arrogantly towards the judge and then at Sir Gordon, before replying, “None, none at all. When this man Thompson told me he wanted to confess in order to get this off his chest, I considered it my duty to let the authorities know what he had told me. The things he told me almost made me feel ill so much so, I think he must be sick in the mind to do what he said he did.”

  From the courtroom there came a shout of protest.

  Irene Yarwood was on her feet crying, “Your honour, I most strongly object to this. This man has no medical knowledge whatsoever and it is not incumbent upon him to pontificate or express his opinions on the mental state or well-being of my client at any time past, or present. With all due respect, Your Lordship, I must remind the court that the sanity of my client is not under any investigation by anybody in this court. In fact, may I also remind you that my client has entered a not guilty plea to the charges laid and it is fair to say that he has in fact refused to change this plea since his arrest.”

  The Judge leaned forward. He raised his glasses slightly before ordering the prosecuting counsel to ensure that the witness should keep all such opinions to himself. Then, after telling the clerk to delete the last answer, he ordered the jury to ignore it and motioned to the Crown to proceed.

  Thus rebuked, Sir Gordon continued, “What did you do after Thompson confessed?”

  A little subdued now, Chambers looked nervously at the Judge before answering, “I requested an urgent meeting with Detective Sergeant West and Detective Inspector Taylor. When they came to the prison I asked to make my statement. At that time they told me they couldn’t make any promises about my own case when it came to trial. In fact, they went so far as to warn me that I couldn’t expect to receive any special favours as a result. Chambers had recovered his composure a little now and he turned to face the Judge before continuing, “however, they did say that if I came to court to give evidence, the presiding judge might be persuaded to say something on my behalf, to whichever judge heard my case.”

  Somewhat shocked by these remarks, Judge Ewing began to scribble furious notes on his pad whilst allowing the Crown to continue. At this point, Sir Gordon indicated to Chambers it was time for him to read the confession to the court.

  Chambers began, “first of all, Thompson came up to me one Monday after we’d both taken a shower. Without any prompting from me, he said he was inside for killing “two of them.” At first I didn’t know what to do and I thought I can hardly go and tell somebody because he’ll only deny it, and it’ll look as though I was trying to cause trouble for him. A few days later, when we were walking back to our cells, he told me he needed to talk to me about the crimes he’d committed. I told him, if he wanted to make a confession, he should get hold of the police officers who arrested him or talk to his barrister, but he said he couldn’t do that. He went on to say that he thought he would feel better within himself if he could tell somebody like me about the murders. Somehow, I think he thought this would ease his conscience and that I wouldn’t tell anybody so I agreed to go along with it. He told me he killed his girl friend because they had an argument about his sexual performance. During this argument, he struck her on the jaw to try to stop her from screaming then he grabbed her tights and wrapped them around her neck. All of a sudden, he said, he noticed she’d stopped screaming and he thought she was pretending to be asleep. He told me that he shook her in an effort to wake her and, when she didn’t move, he realised she was dead. At first he started to cry then he realised he’d have to get rid of the body as he thought nobody would believe his story. He got hold of some black bin liners, together with some rope and he tied her and her clothes in a bundle. Then he drove to a lake somewhere near Preston, where he threw her in. He kept repeating over and over again how he never intended to kill her. Yet later, he told me he was very surprised when they found her body there as he didn’t think it would ever be discovered.”

  Chambers stopped for a moment whilst he took a sip of water. He made the most of this opportunity to weigh up the looks upon the faces of the people he could see. From what he could see, it seemed pretty obvious to him they appeared to be taking it all in.”

  He began again, “Thompson told me Clarkson was different. She was a prostitute.”

  Chambers’ arrogance was returning and it was definitely showing as he continued, “he told me he was a client of hers. When he saw her in this local bar he said he couldn’t believe his luck. He went straight up to her and said he fancied a bloody good screw and he knew she would give him one. They went outside where they got into his car to go to a quiet spot to have it off. When he couldn’t manage it, he wanted his money back. This led to an argument and, to stop her screaming the place down, he grabbed her tights, threw them around her neck and throttled her. Once again he said he never intended to kill her and that he only wanted his money back. He made sure she was dead and he pulled her out of the car. After throwing her body and clothes in a ditch, he went back to the car for her handbag, collected the money from it together with her watch, then he threw her bag and the rest of the contents into the ditch with her. After this he went home to bed.”

  “When he woke up the next day, he realised what he’d done and he might come unstuck if he was ever found with the watch. Because he didn’t want to lose it, he thought it would be very clever of him if he handed it in at his local nick then he could claim it back three months later.”

  Chambers then confirmed that the confession had been freely given in the presence of the two police officers from Merseyside who were in charge of the case, together with a prison officer who had remained in attendance throughout the proceedings.

  Sir Gordon didn’t see the need to ask the witness any further questions. He considered the confession contained more than enough detail and he didn’t wish to risk exposing the witness any more than necessary.

  Once again it was the turn of the defence. Irene didn’t relish the prospect of trying to discredit the evidence just heard but she decided she had no choice other than to attack the witness in the hope that he might crack or she might be able to show in some way that the evidence was flawed.

  “Mr. Chambers, you are aware that my client totally and utterly refutes every word of that confession. In addition my client insists each and every word you have uttered is nothing more than a pack of lies. Earlier today we heard Judge Ewing telling another witness about the penalties for perjury in his court and I have to remind you of the severity of the sentence
awaiting you when the truth is known. Make no mistake, Mr. Chambers, the truth will out and you will be punished. Later the jury will have a very simple choice. They can believe your testimony or they can reject it preferring, instead, the testimony of the defendant. In their shoes I know whose evidence I would choose to believe.”

  “Now, Mr. Chambers, going back to your time at Warrington, who arranged your transfer from there to Walton?”

  Chambers “I asked Detective Sergeant West and he said he’d see what he could do.”

  “That’s what I thought,” she replied adding, “How long were you in H block and how did you came to be moved to A block?”

  Chambers “As I said earlier, I didn’t request that move to A block. I was just told by Officer Fitzgerald I was being moved and I had a new cell in A block so I just collected my stuff and did as I was told.”

  Miss Yarwood “You didn’t think it had been pre-arranged then? In other words it never occurred to you someone from the police might have had a word beforehand and conveniently arranged it? Or, you might consider this, before you occupied the cell next door to Thompson, Thompson would have had ample opportunity to confess to the person who occupied the cell before you, wouldn’t he?”

  Chambers “Yes, I suppose he would but maybe Thompson wasn’t ready to talk then.”

  “I see,” mused the defence lawyer, “now please tell the court whilst you were living next door to Thompson how many visits you received from your friend Sergeant West and explain the nature of these visits to the Court.”

  Chambers “Three, I think one was to see if I knew anything about a hold up in St. Helens and the others were to ask me some questions about my own case.”

  Miss Yarwood “Well what questions did he ask you in relation to your own case?”