Fighting your corner part 4
As we saw last week, the defence in this case was in a tricky position. Having got nowhere with the first witness, counsel for the defendant was similarly unsuccessful with the second witness. One witness to go, and it was looking like curtains.
The last witness went into the witness box. Defence counsel was understandably feeling tense. This was the last throw of the dice. Nonetheless whilst wanting to get admissions from the witness, he had to be careful in cross examining a young girl. No point in alienating the jury and annoying the judge who is likely to shortly be sentencing his client. On the other hand he had to get somewhere with this witness.
It was obviously going to be a difficult task because the witness was crying as she went into the witness box. "I can't do it." She said. The judge tried to put her at ease. "It's all right, everyone understands this is difficult.". Defence counsel realised his job was now going to be even more difficult than ever. "I can't do it, I can't lie." the girl continued. Silence in the courtroom. Gradually the story tumbled out. A long while before the ringleader of the girls (still barely a teenager) had been chased off the factory premises. The defendant had been responsible. That had been and innocuous event that he didn't remember for a moment. Nonetheless it was an event that caused her to have a grudge. When the opportunity presented itself she would try and take a terrible revenge.
Sometime later the three girls had been at a house when parents were out for the evening. Rifling through the video collection, and trying them out, they came across a pornographic video. It was a man and three women. The ringleader had an idea. She could say that it was the man who had thrown her off the factory, and they were to back her up. Each of them was to describe what had happened to one of the women. The stories were so realistic because they were describing something that actually happened. Something they had seen on a video. Needless to say the case was dismissed. Had the witnesses being older, or had that happened today there no doubt would have been criminal consequences for some of them. False complaints are a scourge not merely because of the impact that they have an the person falsely accused, but because they lead to doubt being cast on perfectly genuine complaints.
So the defendant was acquitted. It cannot be said that he was unaffected, because the scars of such an ordeal will last him all his days. He was not stupid, and realised the way things seem to be going. A long prison sentence, segregated with other sex offenders for his own protection, followed by release many years hence with precious little chance that he would ever be properly accepted into society again. That was what awaited him, made worse by understandable concern about the effect upon his family, being abused or taunted or worse about their relationship to a convicted rapist.
Defence counsel was pleased but troubled. He had fought his corner as one should. Nonetheless he had cross-examined two lying witnesses, and utterly failed to expose them as liars. The dramatic finish was nothing to do with any questions he had asked, it was the conscience of the third witness. As the barrister pointed out, had the plot only involved two girls instead of three the defendant would have had his life ruined and the barrister felt he would have failed to prevent that. Apparently the defence counsel still occasionally wakes up at night in a cold sweat thinking about the case. Fighting your corner is one thing, and that you must always do. Sometimes though, despite all your best efforts you may fail to prevent a miscarriage of justice. The barrister in this case knows how close he was to that.