Calling Down the Storm

by Peter Murphy

  ‘I’m sure the jury will understand,’ Ben said. ‘And when you were seeing each other after the New Year, did she still seem exotic?’

  ‘Yeah. She talked to me non-stop. She used to say that she wasn’t going to spend all her life in Dalston, that she wanted to move up in the world; and I could sympathise with that because I wanted to move up as well. She said she had smart friends in Chelsea who were members of the Conservative Party. She even said she might support the Conservative Party herself, which wasn’t the kind of thing people said in Dalston, if you know what I mean.’

  One or two members of the jury laughed, and several were smiling.

  ‘What else did you find attractive about her?’

  He hesitated.

  ‘Don’t be uncomfortable about it, Mr Lang,’ Ben encouraged him. ‘I want the jury to understand everything that led up to 28 April.’

  ‘She was very open about sex,’ Henry replied, after several seconds.

  ‘Open in what way?’

  ‘Well, the girls I’d dated before were always very shy about it…’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘They might let you touch under their bra, and even lower down, if you were really lucky; and they might touch you through your trousers, you know. But that was about it. They were all so terrified that they might get pregnant somehow; everyone knew of someone that had happened to, and it was like this giant black cloud hovering over us and holding us back. We were all terrified the whole time, to be honest, and none of us really knew what we were doing. But not Susan. Susan was different.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘It wasn’t that she was reckless, or that she didn’t care. She was very careful indeed. But she wasn’t scared, and she always seemed to know what she was doing; she was confident about it, and very matter-of-fact. She had no patience with fumbling around through layers of clothes. Susan’s approach was that we would both undress and do it properly.’

  ‘So she gave you your first real sexual experience?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Did she give you the impression that she had already had sexual experience?’

  ‘She told me she had experience. She didn’t make any secret of it. But it didn’t matter to me because she was so exciting, and it made me feel like a grown man instead of a timid boy.’

  ‘How was your marriage in the first years?’

  ‘At first, it was great. I was still working at Mick’s and she had a job with an insurance company somewhere near Moorgate, the same job she had before we were married. So we were all right for money, and we had a flat in Dalston. Yeah, it was going well.’

  ‘When did you first notice a change?’

  ‘It was after Marianne was born. We agreed that she would give up her job once we had the baby. But I noticed that she would get a bit restless at times. There was nothing wrong, as such. It was just that some of the glamour had worn off, and she was adjusting to having a baby and being in the flat all day. And I was working hard at Mick’s and spending time working with my mate at the weekends, and then when Marianne wasn’t much more than a year old, I was starting up Mercury Mechanics.’

  ‘This may be an obvious question, Mr Lang, but how did that affect life at home?’

  ‘I was working long hours. I know she got bored, being on her own so much, and then Stephanie came along, and she had two kids to cope with. And at some point – I can’t tell you exactly when – she began to change. It was as if she was losing interest, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.’

  ‘Losing interest in what way?’

  ‘We weren’t having sex much any more, and when I got home I couldn’t get her to talk. It was as if the spark she had when I first met her had gone out, and I couldn’t find any way to bring it back.’

  ‘Did things change at all when Mercury Mechanics started to become successful?’

  ‘To some extent, yeah. I was making good money, and I went out of my way to make sure she had more than enough. I encouraged her to spend some money on herself. It was ages since she had bought any new clothes, and she used to love her clothes, so I encouraged her to go up the West End and treat herself, and for a while she did, and things picked up a bit.’

  ‘But not entirely?’

  ‘No. It was still difficult.’

  ‘When did she start going out on her own in the evenings?’

  He shook his head and looked down for a moment.

  ‘It was about a year before we moved to Alwyne Road. Stephanie would have been about three. She’d been helping out part-time again at the insurance company, just a few hours a week, to get her out of the house. I didn’t mind that, to be honest, as long as she was happy, and it was a few quid more in her purse. But I noticed that she was changing again. It was as if she had a new life outside the home that I wasn’t involved in. She started talking about having friends again, and eventually it led to the nights out.’

  ‘How did you feel about that?’

  ‘It’s hard to say. In one way, I was pleased that she had friends she could go out with, and she was finally interested in something again. But it was her attitude. It was almost as if she was going to go out whenever she wanted, with whoever she wanted, and what I thought didn’t count. She would just go upstairs, get changed, and come back down and tell me she was going out. That was it; never where she was going, or who with, or what time she would be back.’

  ‘And what time would she be back?’

  ‘At first it was before midnight, but before long it was 1 o’clock in the morning, or later.’

  ‘Did that make things difficult for you?’

  ‘Yeah. I was getting up early, 6 o’clock or sometimes even earlier, to get to work. She should have been dealing with the children, getting them up and ready to go, but she didn’t want to get up herself. She was tired, and as often as not she was hung-over, and half the time I had to get the children up myself.’

  ‘How often was this happening?’

  ‘To be fair, before we moved to Alwyne Road, it was usually once a week, and that was it.’

  ‘How would she dress when she went out?’

  ‘She looked the same as when I first met her at the party back in 1960; not the same clothes, obviously, but the same look. She was taking a lot of care with her appearance, and she always wore a nice smart dress and high heels.’

  ‘How did you feel about that, Mr Lang?’

  ‘I wasn’t happy about it, obviously. I was stuck at home after a hard day’s work, and she was getting all dolled up for other people – and I didn’t even know where she was or who she was with. If I asked her where she’d been when she got home, she would just say “out”.’

  66

  ‘Let’s talk about the move to Alwyne Road at the beginning of last year, 1970,’ Ben said. ‘How did that come about?’

  ‘We both wanted to move,’ Henry replied. ‘With the children getting older, the place we had wasn’t big enough. We needed more space. The business was doing well, and we could afford it, so we were looking around. We both liked the flat as soon as we saw it, it was close to work and school, and the Pettifers seemed like a nice couple, so we took the plunge and signed the lease.’

  He paused.

  ‘And, I don’t know how Susan felt, but I hoped it might give us a fresh start, you know, new place, moving on, moving up a bit.’

  ‘Did anything change?’

  ‘Again, for a short time, it did seem to, but it wasn’t long before she started going out on her own again, and it started happening more often. Now she might be out twice or three times a week, and I was exhausted. And there were other things I was noticing.’

  ‘Tell the jury about that, Mr Lang.’

  He breathed out sharply and shook his head.

  ‘I knew she was drinking. I could smell it on her breath when she got home, and she
would slur her words, and she was obviously hung-over in the mornings. But after a while, I started smelling cannabis on her, and there were times when I got home from work when I could smell it in the flat.’

  ‘Did you ask her about it?’

  ‘Yeah. She said some of the people she went out with smoked cannabis, but she didn’t do it herself.’

  ‘Did you believe her?’

  ‘No. The smell was too strong, and as I say, I was pretty sure she was having a smoke in the flat.’

  ‘What did you say to her?’

  ‘I told her it had to stop. We had some pretty loud arguments about it. She always denied that she smoked, but at the same time she was saying that there was no harm in it, and everybody did it. I said I didn’t want drugs in the flat, I didn’t want all that going on around the children, and I was worried that we might lose our lease if the Pettifers knew she was doing drugs.’

  ‘Did she respond at all? Did she make any changes?’

  ‘No, she didn’t.’

  ‘Mrs Pettifer told us that she heard arguments between you when Susan came home at 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning; she said you would ask her where she had been and accuse her of being drunk. What do you say about that?’

  ‘That’s true. I’d had about enough of it, to be honest, and yeah, I did shout at her, and she would shout back, and we would have a right old go at each other.’

  ‘Did you ever hit her?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Mrs Pettifer says she heard the sound of slaps.’

  ‘She would try to hit me sometimes. She could get herself wound up when she was drunk, and when we argued she would try to hit me. She never managed to do it, but there were times when I would put my hands up to defend myself, and she hit my hands, so it’s possible that Mrs Pettifer heard that.’ He grinned. ‘But she must have pretty good hearing if she did. I think, more likely, Susan was feeding her a line when they were drinking coffee downstairs.’

  ‘Did you ever strike Susan under any circumstances before 28 April?’

  ‘No. Never.’

  ‘Mr Lang, did there come a time when you decided that you needed to find out what was going on when Susan went out at night?’

  ‘I did, yeah.’

  ‘Why was that?’

  ‘Well, as I said, I didn’t like the situation, and I wanted to know who she was with. To be honest, I was worried that she was doing some other stuff, apart from the cannabis. Her eyes would look, what’s the word – dilated?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Yeah, dilated. And she was acting all hyper when she got home. It was getting out of hand.’

  ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I was pretty sure that one of the people she used to go out with was a friend of hers called Louise Farley. I knew Louise and her boyfriend used to drink at the Canonbury Tavern, so I went down there one night and found them, and asked Louise to tell me what was going on.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Just after New Year, this year.’

  ‘What did Louise tell you?’

  ‘She didn’t want to tell me anything at first, but I insisted, and her boyfriend backed me up; he said I was entitled to know, and eventually she opened up. She said it started innocently enough, with her and Susan and one or two other friends going out for a few drinks, here and there, sometimes even up to the West End, Soho. But she’d decided not to go with Susan any more because she didn’t like the crowd she was hanging out with.’

  ‘Did she tell you what she meant by that?’

  ‘Yeah. She said they would go to bars and clubs where people would do drugs. She told me that Susan was doing drugs – not just cannabis, but cocaine as well – and that she’d been introduced to some men who were involved in dealing drugs, and other criminal stuff. She also said…’

  Henry bowed his head, and the tears came again. Ben was about to offer another break, but he recovered.

  ‘She also said that she was carrying on with at least one of these men, you know, they would disappear somewhere in the club for a while, and it was pretty obvious what was going on.’

  ‘Did Louise mention any names?’ Ben asked.

  ‘Yeah, she gave me the names of one or two places they went, but I don’t remember now. She also told me the names of some of the men she had met. One of them was known as “Danny Ice”.’

  ‘That’s Daniel Cleary.’ The interruption from the bench took the whole court by surprise. ‘Is that who you mean, Mr Lang, Daniel Cleary?’

  Henry looked questioningly at Ben, who nodded.

  ‘Yes, my Lord.’

  ‘A man with a serious criminal record,’ the judge added, looking at the jury.

  ‘I know that now, my Lord,’ Henry replied. ‘All I knew then was that he was involved with drugs.’

  ‘Involved with drugs,’ the judge said, looking at the jury again. ‘Yes.’

  Ben waited for some seconds in case the judge had a question, but he gave no sign of asking one. He glanced at Andrew, who shrugged and raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Mr Lang, we know that in February this year, Susan left the flat at Alwyne Road and moved into a flat of her own in Pimlico, taking the children with her. Did she give you any advance warning of her intention to move, or take the children?’

  ‘Not a word. I left for work one Monday morning, and when I came home she was gone, and so were the children. I don’t even know where she got the money for a place of her own. It certainly wasn’t from me. I had to phone her parents to find out where my children were. She wasn’t going to tell me, was she?’

  Ben nodded.

  ‘Mr Lang, with everything that had gone on, everything that you’ve told the jury about, did it ever once occur to you to kill your wife?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, of course not.’

  ‘What did you decide to do?’

  ‘A couple of days after she left,’ Henry replied, ‘I went to see Geoff Bourne, my solicitor, and began divorce proceedings.’

  ‘And did you, at the same time, make an application for custody of the children?’

  ‘Yeah. Well, that was the main point, really. It wasn’t whether we got divorced or not. I didn’t care about her any more. I just wanted to make sure my children were safe – that was my first concern. I wanted them away from drugs, and away from people like this Danny Ice. I wanted them safe at home with me.’

  ‘We will leave it there until tomorrow morning,’ Mr Justice Rainer announced abruptly. ‘Mr Lang, we will conclude your evidence tomorrow. You won’t be able to speak to your counsel or solicitors until you have finished giving evidence.’

  67

  When the courtroom was almost empty, Andrew Pilkington approached.

  ‘Ben, I’m not happy about the way this trial’s going. We’ve got a judge who barely seems to be paying attention most of the time, and then, when he does say something, it doesn’t seem to have any purpose. I don’t know how he is ever going to sum up to the jury. I think we have a problem.’

  ‘I agree,’ Ben replied, as Jess and Barratt gathered round. ‘But what can we do?’

  ‘I’ve been giving that some thought. What if you and I ask to see him in chambers with the clerk, and tell him frankly what our concerns are? If he really is ill, he may not even be aware of how he’s behaving in court. Of course, it may mean an adjournment.’

  ‘It would mean more than an adjournment,’ Barratt said. ‘If it’s anything serious, we would have to discharge the jury and start again in front of another judge.’

  ‘We may have to do that in any case,’ Andrew pointed out. ‘If he’s not capable of summing up, as the prosecutor I would have to make the application to discharge the jury myself; and frankly, I think it would be in Lang’s interests just as much as the prosecution’s to be tried by a judge who’s in command of his faculties.’


  ‘That’s something we need to discuss among ourselves,’ Ben said.

  Andrew nodded. ‘All right, fair enough. I’m just putting you on notice that I can’t stand by and watch the trial fall apart. I’m having a conference with someone from the Director’s office at 5 o’clock. I have to let them know what’s going on and give the Director the chance to tell me what he thinks.’

  ‘I’m sure the Director will leave it up to you,’ Ben said. ‘He doesn’t dictate to Treasury Counsel.’

  ‘It’s not a question of him dictating to us,’ Andrew replied. ‘But there’s a protocol that we have to report to him if we think there’s a serious problem with a judge, particularly if it may attract the attention of the press – which it will if Rainer has some kind of public breakdown. I just wanted to let you know what I’m thinking. If you don’t want to see him with me, then I’m going to have to think about whether I can allow this trial to go on. I would rather have that conversation with the judge in private, but if necessary, I will do it in open court.’

  Ben nodded.

  ‘Let us think about it overnight, Andrew, and we can talk again tomorrow.’

  ‘All right,’ Andrew said. He turned to go, but stopped, smiling.

  ‘Jess – nice job with Mrs Pettifer.’

  She smiled back. ‘Thank you.’

  They met in Ben’s room in chambers.

  ‘Andrew has a point,’ he said. ‘Provocation is not an easy thing to sum up. It’s Rainer’s first criminal trial, and he hasn’t even been taking notes of the evidence. It could turn into a real disaster.’

  ‘But if we have to start again,’ Barratt protested, ‘we lose the benefit of our cross-examinations of Cameron and Pettifer. We won’t have the element of surprise the second time around. The prosecution and the witnesses will know exactly what’s coming.’

  Ben nodded. ‘I know, but I’m not sure we have any choice. We have no idea what the jury are thinking, but in a case like this it’s entirely possible that they are depending on the judge to explain the law to them, and tell them how to apply it to the evidence. If he gets it wrong and Henry is convicted, we may not get much sympathy in the Court of Appeal if we do nothing when it seems clear that the judge has lost control.’