Evidence 8

The Trial - Opening Statements

"What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a very simple case. It is indeed a tragic case, but one fuelled by obsession - an inexplicable and eventually deadly obsession - which finally led to the horrific murders of two of this country's finest legal minds.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is our intention to prove to you that this supposedly respectable Metropolitan Police officer is responsible for masterminding the murders of both Timothy and Caroline Price, as well as the attempted murder of their young daughter Alexandra and finally the possession of cocaine, which was planted on this poor family as part of the defendants twisted obsession.

We will show that the defendant planned this outrage over the course of several months before the fateful day of October 10th when the Prices died in a horrendous car bombing which, by the grace of God, their daughter only survived by having exited the vehicle to retrieve a balloon she had brought with her.

In the prosecution of this case, we will also endeavour to demonstrate how the defendant, contrary to how she may have appeared, is, in fact not an upstanding officer within the police force - but rather a manipulative schemer who has used her skills in psychology to dupe all those around her, with the intention of covering her tracks.
It is the prosecution's belief that what we have here is a seriously disturbed, remorseless and dangerous individual who must be locked away before she can bring any further harm to any more families...
This, ladies and gentlemen is what the prosecution shall set out to prove".

Alex sat in the dock, looking straight ahead and listening as the prosecution stated its case.
The courtroom looked imposing with it's dark wood and robed officials. An air of seriousness hung over the proceedings as the prosecution had spelled out its case to all those present.
In the beginning, Alex felt distanced from the words, as if they had been talking about someone else. However, the sharply worded descriptions used by the prosecution had felt like shards of glass, cutting Alex to the core.

She knew she couldn't shout out, couldn't stand up and counter the accusations by arguing back that it was all untrue and, as Gene would put it, "Bollocks!"
Her time would come to argue her case, Alex knew this well, yet she still found it both hard and hurtful to sit in silence and listen as she was labelled a monster by the prosecution.
Alex had tried her best to appear neutral during the prosecutions opening statement.
She knew the jury were looking at her as the descriptions and accusations had been spoken.
She knew not to sit there shaking her head. She'd always felt suspicious of defendants who reacted that way, as if they were being cocky and shrugging off the charges.
So she had sat in the dock and simply not reacted, not given the jury any chance to form an incorrect first impression.

Alex had observed the jury and had wondered what kind of people they were, how they might consider the allegations and how they might judge her - especially on these important first impressions. Some of the jury had watched the prosecution intently as the case had been spelt out, others had simply stared at Alex for most of the speech.

The jury looked like a mixed bag from all walks of society. Amongst them sat an older woman in a cardigan who looked like she might be the stereotypical librarian type, a young man in his early twenties who had clearly never been in court and looked a little nervous, a middle aged Indian man in a turban who looked very serious and several others of varying ages and descriptions, all of whom stared hard at Alex intermittently.

The butterflies had been there all morning. Jill had tried her best to offer words of encouragement to Alex but, despite it being appreciated, it hadn't made much of a difference. As the trial had approached Alex had felt more and more tense knowing that a major turning point, over which she had absolutely no control, was heading towards her and that she had no idea which way it was going to go.

There was a chance that Jill was right - she had spent the previous evening reassuring Alex that this could well be the end of things, that if the jury were reasonable, they would not be convinced at all by the circumstantial evidence. If that was the case, and the jury were left with niggling doubts, then Alex should go free. Jill had indeed made a very good point, but that had not prevented Alex from lying awake almost all night in her cell.
At the very most she guessed that she had eventually had no more than two maybe three hours sleep. She had no idea what time she had eventually fallen asleep but the entire night had been filled with worry, nerves and questions of 'what if...?' that had been rolling around in her mind.
Finally the morning had come and it had been time to go. Jill had offered some final words of encouragement and given her friend a huge hug before an officer had informed Alex that it was time to leave for the court.

As she was led from the prison wing that had been her reluctant home for so many months Alex realised her world had, albeit temporarily, suddenly become larger for the first time in far too long. After walking down several corridors, her arm being held firmly by the silent officer at all times, they made it to an outside area where a small white lorry waited.
Alex soon found herself once again handcuffed and was directed into the prison transport lorry with two other inmates who were also making court appearances.
Once onboard Alex was directed into a small compartment, with just a small seat to sit on with no other room at all, and was soon locked in for the journey to court.
She had been in court more times than she cared to remember in her career, but it had never been in the dock.

Once at the court Alex was uncuffed and locked up once again, this time in the court holding cells.
There had only been time for a very quick last minute chat with Jarvis in the cells before he had needed to leave and prepare for the case to begin.
Shortly afterwards Alex had been brought up into the court room and the trial had, after all these months, finally begun.
Alex only hoped Jarvis could make as effective an opening statement as the prosecution had.
She ceased her thoughts as Jarvis, upon direction of the judge, got to his feet and began to address the court.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk about evidence.
As I am sure you are aware evidence is a crucial part of any police investigation and resultant court case, no matter how large or small the alleged offence.
In this case the alleged offence is huge...the murders not just of two well respected lawyers, but two loving parents.

However the defence intends to highlight to the jury that, despicable as this crime indeed was, there is absolutely no concrete evidence - prints, forensics, financial - linking this crime to the accused.

Yes the prosecution will indeed present you with evidence, but the defence will point out to you time and time again ladies and gentlemen, that this so called evidence is all entirely circumstantial.

Ladies and gentlemen it is the defence's intention to demonstrate to you that the accused is merely an innocent party who's life has been all but destroyed by these extremely serious allegations - That the accused is an honourable and well respected officer within the Metropolitan police force who simply, and unknowingly, made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time on several occasions.

It is the defence's intention to show the court that the accused is an innocent woman.
The accused is indeed responsible for a great many things.
As a highly valued Detective Inspector, the accused is responsible for having solved a great many serious crimes and has therefore helped keep our streets safe.
She is not however responsible for any murders, or the planning of any murders.
This is what we intend to show to you."

End chapter 8

...The case will continue...

Massive, massive thanks to real life solicitor Skywise for answering my many questions on court procedures etc :)

Also thanks to my spelling DCI - Heidi :)

(Author note - As with previous chapters I sometimes have problems with formatting when I upload fics to this website. Sometimes this site loses gaps, bunches stuff all together and generally messes with the layout, despite having been beta'd. If this happens with this chapter, please take that into account as I don't yet know what causes this website to do this during the upload).