Scene Thirty-Three

Nikki, Helen and Trisha filed their way reluctantly to the front row in the visitor's gallery as the various court functionaries took their place. They saw George and Claire take their place and Sally Anne make her uncertain entrance into the court chamber. Their hearts went out to her. Nikki looked sharply down at the solicitor sitting behind the opposition and was enraged to discover that it was her stuck up brother. "Take it easy, sweetheart," Helen softly urged." I know who he it is. He's not worth getting worked up about." Those words went some distance in calming Nikki down though she was still fuming. "Mind if I sit down next to you," spoke the familiar voice. John was dressed immaculately in his smart bluish suit. Trisha threw him a questioning glance but Nikki and Helen smiled welcomingly at his self-effacing manner. He made a symbolic contrast with Nikki's brother and comfortably wiped the slate clean. At this point, Nikki resolved to simply ignore him as the best response. Right at the back, Sir Ian and Lawrence James took their place like threatening statues, glaring at John suspiciously. After all, he had the right to sit in the court itself.Sally Anne moved up to the witness stand like an automaton and grasped the bible between her nerveless fingers. Miraculously, intoning the time-honoured oath, gave her that fractional relief in easing her into giving evidence in court. She clung to that fragment of comfort that she had acquitted herself well enough at Nikki's first appeal. She just hoped that she would hold out, being the principle witness.

"Miss Howe, can you please state your age, your former rank within the Metropolitan Police force and the particulars of your service with them."

Sally's mouth was dry and she trembled slightly as she grasped the lectern but was surprised to hear the words come quite clearly from her mouth as she spoke.

"I'm aged 28 and I joined the Metropolitan Police force in April 1994, when I was twenty one. I served as a WPC- women's police constable throughout my stay with them. I passed my period of probation quite satisfactorily and was looking forward to the start of a promising career. Of course, things worked out differently. I left the police force on July 31st 1996."

"What were your first impressions of working for the police force?"

Sally Anne Howe drew an intake of breath as she searched her memory, back before the darkness fell on her.

"The majority of the police were men and there was very much a men's drinking club atmosphere. Policewomen were very much subservient. I was very young and nervous yet keen at the same time and I was told not to take all the rules and regulations too seriously when it came to working relations between police officers. I was not made to feel as if my opinions were worth as much as men at equal stages of the training. I was considered as sort of 'eye candy' and considered as a pretty airhead. Real policing, I was given to believe, was a man's world."

"Was that true of all police officers?" George quickly intervened to build on the point.

"I can't say that was universal. Some were more human than others but none of them went beyond a certain point."

"Can you describe your performance and point to any particular achievements in your time?"

"I was generally efficient across the range of jobs and was generally trusted, even if some begrudged it. I gave evidence in court in a couple of burglary cases and was thanked for the clear way I gave evidence. Because nobody else wanted to do the job, I ended up with chief responsibility for interviewing the victims of rape. I would like to think that I was sympathetic in my manner and this enabled a number of prosecutions to be made. Funny isn't it," Sally Anne laughed in a bitter ironic tone of voice," I really meant well but didn't really know the half of it."

John's fatherly instincts and Nikki, Helen and Trisha's various experience all flamed up in sympathy for Sally Anne.

"Can you tell me what official instructions and training you received about interpersonal training, in particular equality awareness?"

"Now you come to mention it," Sally said vaguely, searching her memory. " I really can't remember much about it. All I remember was the intensive talk about the lads sticking together and not squealing on your mate. I was told that any problems got sorted out internally."

"Objection, your honour," Donald Frobisher chimed in with slightly bored impatience.

" Is the prosecution case going to be dependent on fact rather than memories going back five to seven years ago?"

"If my learned colleague would bear with me, I was going to ask the witness about police guidance to new recruits that is marked as item 4M in your bundle. I would urge that recollections of this guidance is a strong indication on the emphasis in actually inculcating values into new recruits rather than the written word."

"Mrs. Channing, you are free to continue in your line of questioning as long as you deal with the point legitimately raised," Monty firmly pronounced. John nodded with satisfaction at the straight bat that Monty played while the three women kept a sharp eye on John, being a sure barometer of the trial. They all felt glares stab into the back of their necks.

"Miss Howe, can you turn to item 4M in the bundle and study the guidance. Can you tell me how much impression this guidance had on you, both in your training and after it?"

Sally Anne Howe looked with glazed eyes at the close typed notes as if she were dealing with a neglected memory. Babes, keep going, Trisha silently prayed.

"I really can't remember very much of it. I never had my own copy of these guidance notes. I borrowed a copy of it while I was under training and after that, I had to return it to the DI's office – that's the detective inspector- and borrow it if I needed to."

"I have to deal with events that I am sure are painful to you but it is at the heart of the case. Can I ask you how and when you first became acquainted with DC Gossard?" George asked in her gentlest most reassuring tone of voice.

Even though Sally Anne Howe knew that this series of questions was coming, she shuddered at the memory. She stopped to sip the glass of water on the side of the witness stand, briefly closed her eyes and pressed forward in a strained voice.

"When I came out of my period of training, I was assigned to another more experienced police constable as a kind of mentor. They chose Gossard. He drove us around on jobs. It suited him down to ground."

"What first impression did you make of him?"

"I felt unsafe. Something about him made my skin crawl."

"Did you raise an objection at the time?"

"I did. For once in my life, I went over his head to the DI. I was told very firmly that we were short staffed and there was nobody else around with the time and opportunity and that, for the good of the force, I would have to put up with it. I was assured that DC Gossard was a reliable and experienced officer."

" 'A reliable and experienced office'," George repeated triumphantly in her carrying tone of voice to emphasize the point that Sally Anne's low tone of voice had not. She was pleased that Sally Anne had put it this way, as this was the first time that the police authorities had been put in the frame. It had secretly worried her that all Sally had pointed to had put Gossard alone in the frame. Nikki and Trisha couldn't restrain themselves from nodding eagerly at Sally Anne's precise description.

"Did you know that he was separated from his wife and why?"

"Nobody talked of their home life. It was a forbidden subject. All the men liked to give the impression that they were single and available even if they wore marriage rings, Gossard most of all."

"So did you establish a working relationship with him and if so, how did you do it."

"With great difficulty," Sally Anne said with deep feeling. "I tried to keep topics of conversation on an impersonal business level and blanked off the periodic double meanings."

"I take it you mean of a sexual nature."

"Definitely so."

"So could you tell the court when DC Gossard raped you and how it came to take place?"

"April 14th 1996. The date is written on my memory forever," Sally Anne said the words in a rush before she put her hands to her head, paused and with an effort, continued.

"…….He came out with what I found out too late to be a cock and bull yarn of being needed for an urgent call at this hotel. It was only when the two of us were alone in this seedy bedroom that I realized what he was after. He came up to me and touched me and told me that he'd fancied me from the first day he'd seen me. I kept walking back until I could retreat no further. He kissed me and kept telling me that this was what I really wanted… I kept thinking this can't be happening. He's a police officer- then I came to my senses. I started screaming, trying to fight him off but he was so strong. He raped me."

With a shock of recognition, both Nikki and Trisha recalled that these were Sally Anne's very words that she'd said at her first appeal. Helen recalled that terrifying moment when she'd walked innocently enough into the PO room and Fenner had pinned her up against the filing cabinet.

"What happened after that horrible event?" George said in a low unsteady tone of voice. There but the Grace of God goes Charlie Deed, she and John both felt. She was beginning to see why Jo Mills got so emotional about the cases she handled.

"I phoned in sick and got straight onto the chief inspector. Curiously enough the total shock of what had happened made me decide this very fast."

"What was his reaction?"

"He said the right words but there was no enthusiasm or sympathy for me. He said that my work would be covered. He told me that my complaint would be referred to an independent body and he hoped I'd get well. It was a day or so after that, when I had a medical examination, in the same way as the women whom I'd interviewed. I got through that, as I knew the clinical necessity of it. Then a policeman came round from the internal investigation unit."

"A man?" questioned George incredulously.

"Yes and his colleague as well. I must admit that he was a little apologetic. He said that he had had a course in equal opportunities and conducting interviews with sensitivity. I can't fault him in his attitude. He was perfectly businesslike and went away to tell me that he was purely a fact finder and that a decision maker at a senior level would make the final decision as to whether or not charges would be pressed. I was told that I would be kept fully informed as to what was going on. I was told that, at all costs, not to talk about this or any subsequent events with my colleagues as it would prejudice the investigation."

"And what happened after that?"

"Then the phone calls started to come, from him and his mates. I was told that it was my word against his, that he had a sound reputation round the force and who would be believed? When I wouldn't play ball, He threatened me, he and his colleagues. They said that if she went ahead with the charges, they'd force me out of my job. They did anyway."

"Did you know that when the forensic results came back, that DC Gossard, first of all maintained said that he didn't even know who Sally Anne Howe was? When the results came through showing this to be a lie, he signed a statement that they were in a consensual relationship?"

"I knew nothing about that at the time," Sally Anne said with repressed anger, the first time during her evidence. Go for it Sally, the three women in the gallery loudly thought to themselves. Up till that time, she spoke in a low, almost monotonous tone of voice.

"I was promised that I would receive counselling and support. I didn't get it. I sat and stewed on the whole thing on my own until I withdrew the charges. I just wanted to run away and hide and have nothing to do any more with the police force."

George finally led Sally Anne through her account of how she had unemployed for four years, her tranquillizer addiction and of the course of therapy she had been undertaking. She finally sat down, much to Sally Anne's dismay as she sensed that her support was being withdrawn. She couldn't help but notice on the opposite side of the court the man in the wig and black gown rise to his feet. She couldn't ignore him any longer.

"I have listened with great interest, Ms Howe," Donald Frobisher commenced," and you have given a full and accurate account of your life. You tell a good story, Ms Howe," Donald Frobisher declaimed with a tight smile on his lips. It's a trap, Sally Anne thought to herself, wondering just where he would attack her.

"Is it not the case that you are currently living in a homosexual relationship, Ms Howe?" Donald Frobisher suddenly threw in out of nowhere.

Nikki abruptly twisted her body round and glared at the woman who was sitting at the top of the visitor's gallery. Sure enough, there was Gill who made a sudden appearance, with a nasty grin on her face. John couldn't make an overt reaction but he turned red with anger as he looked rigidly ahead of him. Trisha mentally gave the guy full marks for feeling the right thing.

"It's true that I am living with Trisha Williams who runs Chix club. She is a hard working woman who, together with her former partner, got the business off the ground." "The expression 'living with' covers a multitude of different meanings, Ms Howe, as I'm sure you are well aware of. Can you be exact in the nature of your relationship with Ms Williams?" "If you are suggesting that I'm living a lesbian relationship with Trisha, you are perfectly correct. If you're insinuating that because of this, I must be a man hater, I absolutely deny this." "Your words, not mine," slipped in Donald Frobisher slyly but Sally Anne plunged ahead without hesitation. "Trisha is my first and only love but I didn't meet her until November 2001, that's about four years after I left the police force. Falling in love with her was the most normal thing I have ever done in my entire life." "But surely this condition does not come on overnight, Ms Howe? I find it very hard to believe that your feelings of antipathy for DC Gossard were not coloured by your feelings for women as opposed to men, even at that early date." "You talk as if being a lesbian is some kind of medical condition," shot back Sally Anne scornfully." It is not true to say that I was prejudiced against Gossard because I harboured some deep-seated antipathy against men. I disliked Gossard and his kind because they were total misogynists and a danger to all women. It just that I didn't know or what I was till I fell in love with Trisha."

Donald Frobisher looked over the top of his spectacles at the woman opposite him. She was glowing with suppressed anger and realized that he had made a false start in his cross-examination. He was irritated that John Wade had wrongly advised him to try this ploy and had handed the advantage to her. He was an experienced enough barrister to drop this line of questioning and quickly change his point of attack. By contrast, the front row of the gallery was glowing inside at the spirited reply.

"You say that you were threatened by DC Gossard and his friends. Can you explain, Ms Howe, why nowhere in all these papers are any threats mentioned?"

"I was scared. I dared not tell anyone in authority that I had been threatened. Everything in my experience of the police force had told me that the odds would be stacked against me."

"Isn't it quite proper of the investigating authority to insist that you have no contact with your colleagues in case you influence them."

"They did more than try to influence me. They threatened me."

"So how were the proper authorities supposed to know that, even if your version of events is to be accepted," proclaimed Donald Frobisher triumphantly. Sally bit her lip anxiously at that question. Enough of the policewoman existed within her to know that it was a legitimate point. George tried to hide her own worries behind a confident front as the very same point had occurred to her.

"So we only have your word for your version of events."

"You have my word for it," Sally Anne said in a shaking voice, red in the face.

The barrister leaned back and deliberately paused in his deliberation. He knew that it would wind her up.

"I was interested in hearing you describe events that go as far back as seven years. That's a long time. This court is forced to be dependent on your side of the story as DC Gossard is dead and therefore unable to refute your allegations. So, for a start, I must ask you just how good is your memory, Ms Howe?"

"When I was in the police force, I had to have a good memory," Sally Anne said in hesitant tones." So much of my job depended on memory."

"I am not talking about your period of time in the police force, I am talking about now." Donald Frobisher spitefully demanded.

"I hold down a job now…..it is true that I have lapses from time to time," she said shakily, feeling an utter fool and in danger of being entirely powerless and being moulded to whatever words he wanted to put into her mouth.

"So when you were tragically and grievously unemployed with nothing to occupy your mind, would it not be likely that you would be likely to forget things. I refer you to the evidence you gave of your therapy."

"It's possible. Nobody's perfect."

"Yet you are asking the court to accept your version of events when you admit that your

own memory is flawed and so it could be deduced is the worth of your evidence. I put it to you that you may as easily likely to not remember things that had happened as think you remembered events that had happened when they had never have happened."

"That's not true. Whatever I am, I am not a liar."

"That's not the point, even if it were true. You may very sincerely feel that you have been wronged when there might be a perfectly innocent explanation of events that you cannot remember, only what you imagine what happened to suit your purposes. I submit that your evidence is all smoke and images, signifying nothing," thundered Donald Frobisher, in full flow.

"Being raped by DC Gossard is nothing I would conjure out of my imagination," fired back Sally Anne Howe."I would have to have a death wish to do that."

"Come come, Ms Howe. You are being absurdly melodramatic."

"I mean an emotional death wish. All those years on my own, I died inside. That is what that man did to me. It was only when Claire Walker traced me that I began to come back to life to help out Nikki Wade, there in the gallery," and here she pointed dramatically to the dark haired woman,"who took the only course of action to get that monster off, from doing the same to Trisha Williams, the woman who became my lover. It's so ironic that Gossard made this link between the two of us."

George had to restrain herself from applauding Sally Anne's spirited reply, which so linked in the essence of the case. Sally had done far better than George ever thought she could. A murmur of support inevitably echoed round the gallery, which Monty tolerantly overlooked. By contrast, Donald Frobisher sat back against the bench in secret frustration. He had fired the last shot in his locker in this encounter.

Do you have any questions, Mrs. Channing?" Monty asked in deliberately formal tones.

"None whatsoever," George proclaimed triumphantly." My client has so eloquently explained everything."

Monty checked the time. He had been totally engrossed in the case so that he had not notice the morning had passed. He had even managed to overlook John's presence in the visitor's gallery, well most of the time.

"This is a convenient time to take a break. Is your witness ready to be called at one thirty?"

"He is, my lord."

"Court is adjourned."

Gill was the first to slink out of the court in case retribution in the form of three strong-minded women caught up with her.