She Said, Three Said

by David B Lyons

  Then the door slides open. It’s Zach.

  ‘Can I join in?’ he asks. I just stare at him. I don’t know why I’m not disgusted. Don’t know why I haven’t rolled over, pulled the duvet up to hide my naked body. I haven’t said a word in response by the time he walks closer to me.

  ‘Sabrina… do you mind if I join in?’ he repeats.

  I look over my shoulder, at Jason. He shrugs.

  A threesome? Jesus. I’d literally be doubling the amount of penises I’ve had in my entire life in just one night. Isn’t this supposed to be a lot of girls’ fantasies? Is it supposed to be mine?

  I bite at my bottom lip again, stare down at the mattress and then back up at Zach.

  11

  The young man dressed in all black is assisted by a young woman dressed in the same attire as he removes all remnants of lunch from the table. When they’re done, the young man dressed in all black turns to the jurors and offers a slight bow again before he and his colleague shuffle out the door, shutting it tight behind them.

  The jury members, left alone for the first time in ten minutes, don’t immediately return to their deliberations. Number Eleven is discussing Game of Thrones episodes with Number Ten. Brian and Number Twelve are locked in a political debate about the state of the education system. Number Seven and Number Four are talking about their own lives. Number Five, Number Three, Number Nine and Number Eight are discussing the court system, deliberately avoiding any mention of the specific trial they are all currently serving on. Number Six has just been tuning in and out of each of the conversations happening around her as she chews the inside of her cheek. She’s starting to get tired. They have been deliberating for four hours and fifteen minutes now, including their discussions through lunch, and it all seems to be getting on top of her.

  Number Six’s real name Cynthia Lafferty, a sixty-eight year old from Crumlin in Dublin. She was relishing being called for jury duty, even though she could have been excused on account of her age. She’s almost addicted to American crime shows; felt being on a jury would be just like being an extra in an episode of Law and Order. Number Six has been a widow of six years; her husband Arthur finally failing to uphold his diet of fry-ups and pints of Guinness, collapsed to a massive heart attack right in front of her one Friday morning. She has two middle-aged sons who call on her more regularly than they did prior to their father’s passing, but it doesn’t make up for the loss. She’s excited to be involved in this case — it gives her something to do — but she’s been more than happy to keep herself to herself. She’s been content to watch what’s going on around her. As if it was on a screen. She remains in the guilty camp, though recent arguments, particularly over lunch, have led to her feeling that she’s just not up to date with modern generations. She’s beginning to think group sex is a phenomenon she just doesn’t — and never will — understand. She thought Sabrina was the innocent party because no woman in their right mind would willingly have sex with three men in one night, but her belief has been shaken by her realisation that she can’t fully comprehend Sabrina; that she can’t fully comprehend the modern twenty-something. They are a far cry from the twenty-somethings Number Six knew when she was twenty-something.

  The separate conversations hush when the young man dressed in all black re-enters the room.

  ‘Now, I will lead you back to the jury room,’ he says, pointing his full hand towards the door he’d just walked through. Each of the jurors pick up their notes, shuffle towards the door and then out on to the first corridor. They remain silent as they turn two corners before finding themselves inside their deliberation sanctuary again. Each of them sit back down in the exact same seat they’d occupied prior to lunch. It was akin to the habit they subconsciously adopted in the courtroom; every day the jurors sat in the same seat they had done from day one, even though that wasn’t a necessity.

  The young man dressed in all black lightly clears his throat to court everybody’s attention and then speaks up.

  ‘It is now two-ten p.m,’ he says. ‘Deliberations will continue until four p.m. today unless a unanimous verdict is reached. If not, I will be back at four p.m. to dismiss you from deliberations for the day and escort you elsewhere. If that is the case, you will all reconvene here at nine-thirty a.m. tomorrow. Does anybody have any questions?’

  Number Five raises her hand and the young man dressed in all black nods at her.

  ‘Is the judge expecting us to deliver a verdict today?’

  Brian tuts, then answers her question before the young man dressed in all black has a chance to.

  ‘Of course not,’ he says. ‘This young man ishn’t here to answer on behalf of the judge. He’s jusht talking about our itinerary; when we finish, when we restart tomorrow. He’sh not here to answer questions like that.’

  Number Five swings her jaw, just about stopping herself from retaliating to Brian’s condescending tone.

  There are no strict time limits on jury deliberations when it comes to these kind of trials. A lot of rape verdicts are delivered within a matter of hours by jurors, but other deliberations can go on for days should the case be specifically complex. The Sabrina Doyle versus Jason Kenny, Zach Brophy and Li Xiang trial does have it’s own perplexities, but it is far from as convoluted as some rape trials can get. The three defendants’ lawyers will see an early verdict as a positive; as they will assume that the jury came to a quick resolution of innocence on their clients’ behalf. But the time for such optimism will be just about passing them by at this stage. Both sides will be now stewing over the likely reality that the jury will not deliver a verdict today.

  Gerd Bracken — and his team of defence lawyers — as well as Jonathan Ryan would have been aware that the jury requested to watch the CCTV footage of Jason and Sabrina exiting and then re-entering the Hairy Lemon either side of the ‘handjob’ argument as well as sought the transcripts of rickshaw rider Donagh Scott’s testimony this morning. These jury actions could be seen as a positive for the defence, but Bracken is way too experienced in his field to get carried away by such thoughts. He’s been through this rigmarole many times before. He’ll only know the jurors’ decisions as soon as they walk back into the courtroom. His tell-tale sign is that jurors who are about to reveal an innocent verdict to the court normally look to the defendants upon re-entering the jury dock, while a jury about to reveal a guilty verdict will shy away from looking at the defendants.

  ‘So… inside the hotel suite,’ Number One says after the young man dressed in all black closes the door behind him and leaves them to it. ‘I mean… what can we say? We know for a fact that all three men had intercourse with Sabrina, so the big question is; did she give consent?’

  ‘Sorry,’ that’sh not the argument at all,’ Brian says. ‘The argument ish not whether she gave consent, but did she specifically not give consent.’

  ‘Huh?’ Number Five says, overemphasising her word as if she’s a stroppy teenager, her face all contorted. ‘Wha’ you talkin’ bout?’

  ‘There’sh a considerable difference between offering consent and specifically not offering consent,’ Brian says.

  ‘He’s right,’ Number Twelve says, backing up the politician. ‘Nobody specifically seeks consent, do they? I mean, when we’re having sex, we don’t stop kissing and then ask the person if it’s okay if we have sex with them, do we? We just… ye know… go with the flow.’

  Number Five’s face is still contorted. She doesn’t fully comprehend what both men are trying to explain to her.

  Number Six turns to Number Five and offers a sympathetic pursing of the lips.

  ‘What Brian and Number Twelve are trying to say is, our argument is not whether Sabrina said “yes” to sex, it’s whether or not she said “no” to sex. She didn’t have to vocalise her consent. She had to vocalise a lack of consent.’

  Number Five turns out her bottom lip, then nods her head slowly.

  ‘But… I mean, how do we do that?’ she says.

  ‘Th
at’sh exactly it,’ Brian says. ‘That’s what I’ve been shaying all along. We can not and will not know what happened in that hotel suite; we simply haven’t been offered any evidensh whatsoever that proves beyond all reashonable doubt that Sabrina said “no”.’

  Number Five understood most of what Brian was saying to her, but he lost her with his use of that fucking phrase ‘reasonable doubt’ again.

  ‘We can all take a guess at what happened next. But none of us can know for certain and that is why we have to find the men not guilty,’ Number Twelve says, his face sporting a look that could only be described as smug.

  ‘But you’ve been not guilty from the start,’ Number Five says. ‘You’re just driving your own opinion onto others and—’

  ‘I’ve been not guilty from the start, Number Five,’ Number Twelve says, raising his voice over hers, ‘because I knew all along that it all came down to this; the fact that none of us in this room knows what happened in that hotel suite and that the prosecution didn’t do enough to convince us that their version of events happened beyond reasonable doubt. It’s Sabrina’s word against theirs. And listen, I feel sorry for Sabrina. I do. But we can’t lock three men up for ten years each just because we feel sorry for someone.’

  He was right, albeit on the high side with his projection of a possible prison sentence. Jason, Zach and Li are most likely to face somewhere between five-to-ten years behind bars if this jury deliver a guilty verdict. Seven years is the average stretch handed down to a rapist in Ireland, a number that has been ever-so-slightly increasing over the past decade. With all three men on trial now aged thirty-five, it was certainly conceivable that they wouldn’t be free men for their fortieth birthdays should they be found to be guilty of this charge. If it is a case that they’re found guilty, it will be Judge Delia McCormick’s decision on how much time they will serve. Her reputation points to her being a judge who tends to land somewhere just over the average; if she was to go that way in this case, she would be likely to sentence all three men to eight years in prison, even though they have all had clean criminal records up until this point in their lives.

  ‘Let’s discuss what happened in the hotel room, rather than just dismiss it out of hand, Number Twelve,’ Number Eleven says calmly. Number Twelve holds up his hands in agreement and then looks towards the Head Juror.

  ‘So the defendants claim that group sex wasn’t discussed at all… that Jason and Sabrina began to have sex and then Sabrina became open to the other two men joining in, that’s right isn’t it?’ the Head Juror offers to the table.

  ‘Well, yesh, in summary,’ says Brian.

  ‘Do we perhaps need a transcript of Jason and Zach’s testimonies to make sure we get this right?’ Number One offers up.

  Number Ten barks the loudest “yes” in the room, bringing all eyes towards her. ‘Let’s get the transcript of Sabrina’s testimony as well. If we’re going to analyse this case as best we can, I think we’ll be doing ourselves a service by having their words in front of us. Get twelve copies of each.’

  Nobody around the table opposes this course of action. Number One reaches for the button in front of him on the table and as he requests the specific transcripts based around activities in the hotel room, Number Twelve brings up a piece of Jason’s testimony that rang true to him during the trial to Number Ten who is sitting next to him. He waits until Number One has finished with his request to the court’s assistant and then raises his point to the whole table.

  ‘One thing that stuck out to me from Jason’s time on the stand about what exactly happened in the hotel room was when he said something like “Sabrina is a lovely girl, I don’t know why she is making this claim, but she only made it in the aftermath”.’

  ‘Yep,’ Brian says, ‘Aftermath is definitely a word he said on the shtand. I have that written in my notes here. He says Sabrina never made a claim of rape there and then. She must have only come up with the notion that she was raped after she left the room.’

  ‘Yes,’ I remember him saying that,’ says Number Eleven. ‘But I also remember her saying she said “no” three times.’

  Rumbles of debate strike up from all sides of the table. Number One has to stand, hold his hand in the air and ask for silence. He then lets out a deep breath and sits back down just as a knock rattles on the door.

  Number Nine gets up, answers the door again and takes the paperwork from the young man dressed in all black. She flicks through it as she paces the three steps back towards her seat and then stretches to hand them over to Number One.

  Number One licks his thumb, then walks around the table, peeling off pages from the bundle and placing them in front of each juror. When he’s done, he sits back down, clears his throat and then stares around the room.

  ‘Whose testimony shall we start with?’ he asks.

  ‘Start with Sabrina,’ Number Five says.

  Number One nods his head, shuffles his paperwork until he finds Sabrina’s typed script and then speed reads quietly through it.

  ‘Okay, so if we start half-way down the page here… let me see, the fourth paragraph on the first page of Sabrina’s testimony where it says “Jason took me by the hand…” — does everybody see that?’

  The jurors muffle a yes and then Number One looks across the table.

  ‘Would you like to read it, Number Eleven?’ he offers. Number Eleven nods, then clears her throat.

  ‘“Jason took me by the hand and led me to the bedroom. I had a feeling what he was after, but I didn’t stop him. I didn’t say ‘no’ – not at this point. As I already said, I fancied Jason initially. We began to kiss on the bed and he took off my suit and began to fondle my breasts before we started to make love.’”

  Sabrina had told the police initially that she had had consensual sex with Jason before all three men ended up having non-consensual sex with her.

  “Then Zach walked into the room and started to touch me and I felt really uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure what he was doing. I didn’t want him to touch me. I wanted to tell him to go away, to leave me and Jason alone but… I don’t know what came over me. He wanted to kiss me and I told him no. But suddenly he was up on the bed, was having sex with me while Jason just stood there and watched and I told him, I said ‘no’. But nobody did anything. And then Li came in and did the same. I said ‘no’, I said ‘no’ three times. At least three times. But one of them just grabbed my hair, shoved my face into the mattress and continued to have sex with me. By the end I didn’t know who was having sex with me when or even how many times any of them had sex with me, it all turned into a blur… but I know — I swear to you — I said no, I said no many times. It was hurting me. I hated it. Every minute of it. I just wanted them to stop.”’

  Number Eleven stops reading and looks up at the table, her eyes moist, as if what she’s just read were her own words.

  ‘Thank you for reading that, Number Eleven,’ Number One says. ‘So — Sabrina explicitly says she said ‘no’ and said that word ‘at least three times’. Do we need to analyse anything she specifically says here?’

  ‘Under cross-examination, didn’t Bracken really push her on the argument that all three men were never in the room; no group sex really took part, that she had sex with the three men separately?’ Number Eight asks.

  ‘Yes, he did. And Sabrina stood firm. She never froze or hesitated on the stand, even though he did his best to push her buttons. But we can discuss the cross examinations in a second. Let’s just look at her exact testimony of what she said occurred. Do we need to analyse anything specifically that she said here?’

  ‘We only need to analyse the fact that her words aren’t consistent to what Jason and Zach said on the stand — that’s essentially what we’re looking into,’ Number Twelve says.

  ‘True,’ says Number One. ‘So do you mind reading Jason’s statement there…’

  Number One shuffles through his paperwork again, but Brian beats him to it.

  ‘Fifth paragraph down
, where he says he shtarted to make love to Sabrina.’

  ‘Yes… thank you, Brian,’ says Number One, before raising his eyebrows towards Number Twelve.

  ‘Okay,’ Number Twelve says before taking a deep breath. ‘“I was making love to Sabrina when Zach walked into the bedroom. Sabrina wasn’t shocked. She looked up at him and he genuinely asked if it was okay if he joined in. I mean… I wasn’t happy about it. I didn’t say anything, but Sabrina nodded her head. I thought it was a bit odd, this had never happened to me before. I was also a little bit disappointed. So when Zach started to make love to her, I snuck out of the room. I didn’t stand there and watch as she says I did. And then me and Li just watched tele for a few minutes, before Li went to the bedroom. And… I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there. But I didn’t hear anyone screaming ‘no’ or shouting ‘no’. Sabrina made love to all of us that night. I don’t believe she felt at any point in the night that she was raped. I think she only came to that conclusion the next day. Sabrina is a lovely girl so I don’t know why she is making this claim, but she only made it in the aftermath. I’m certain of that.’”

  ‘This is my take on it,’ Number Eight says. ‘Always has been. I think Sabrina only felt she was raped after the fact. She went home, thought it all through and felt a bit guilty about what happened, then rang the police.’

  A slight ripple of argument threatens to erupt but Number Twelve puts an end to it within seconds.

  ‘Let’s just read Zach’s version and then I think it might be an appropriate time after that for us all to get our points across,’ he says.

  ‘Yes, in fact after we read this, it may be an appropriate time for us to have a verdict vote,’ Number One says.

  His idea was met with a nodding of heads around the table.

  ‘Okay… so let’s read Zach’s statement from the time he walked into the bedroom.’

  00:05

  Jason