‘It is true that she did not commit acts of physical violence, but her verbal behaviour …’
‘But, as you just said, she was suffering from post-operative shock, not to mention trying to cope with the fact that her son was in Intensive Care. And there was an initial worry about whether the child had suffered brain damage during the delivery. Now, surely, under such circumstances, one might expect the patient to be rather agitated.’
‘There is a large difference between agitation and …’
‘Rudeness?’
Traynor came in here.
‘Please refrain from putting words in the witness’s mouth.’
‘Apologies, My Lord,’ Maeve Doherty said, then turned back to Hughes.
‘Let me put it to you this way: if we have agreed that Ms Goodchild wasn’t violent or so extreme in her behaviour, then how can you justify your claim that she was one of the most extreme patients you have ever dealt with?’
‘Because, as I was trying to say earlier, before you interrupted me, her verbal abusiveness was so immoderate.’
‘In what way immoderate?’
‘She was thoroughly rude and disrespectful …’
‘Ah,’ Maeve said loudly. ‘She was disrespectful. Towards you, I presume?’
‘Towards me and other members of the staff, yes.’
‘But specifically, towards you, yes?’
‘She did act in an angry manner towards me.’
‘Did she use obscene language, did she hurl insults at you, or call you names … ?’
‘No, not exactly … But she did challenge my medical judgment.’
‘And that is extreme verbal abuse, in your book?’
Hughes glanced at Lucinda Fforde, like an actor asking for a prompt.
‘Please answer my question,’ Maeve Doherty said.
‘My patients usually don’t question me like that,’ he said.
‘But this American one did – and you didn’t like it, did you?’
But before he could reply, she said, ‘No further questions, My Lord.’
The judge turned to Lucinda Fforde and asked if she’d like to re-examine.
‘Please, My Lord,’ she said, standing up. ‘Mr Hughes, please repeat for me the comment which one of your nurses reported as being said by Ms Goodchild when told about her son.’
Hughes’s lips twitched into a relaxed smile. Then he wiped that off his face and stared at me with cold ire.
‘She informed me that Ms Goodchild said: “He is dying – and I don’t care. You get that? I don’t care.”’
‘Thank you, Mr Hughes. No further questions.’
He looked to the judge, who informed him he could step down. Then, glowering at Maeve Doherty, he left the court.
Next up was Sheila McGuire – the ward nurse who had shopped me to Hughes about the breastfeeding incident. She seemed desperately nervous and ill at ease on the stand, and had a handkerchief between her hands which she continued to knead. Maeve knew she was going to be the second witness, and told me that a useful passive-aggressive tactic against someone who would be testifying against me was to catch her eye, and simply stare at her throughout her testimony. I did just that – and it did have the desired effect, as her discomfort level increased proportionately. But she still managed to recount the entire story about how I yanked Jack off my breast in anger while feeding him, and had to be restrained from throwing him across the room.
During cross-examination, Maeve Doherty cornered her on her use of the word, ‘yanking’.
‘Now, explain this to me clearly,’ Maeve said. ‘Ms Goodchild just suddenly yanked the child off her breast in fury at having been bitten …’
‘Well, it wasn’t exactly a yank!
‘By which you mean what?’
‘Well, she yanked, but she didn’t intentionally yank . . .’
‘I’m sorry, I don’t follow.’
‘Well ... Ms Goodchild had been suffering from acute mastitis …’
‘Otherwise known as inflammation of the breast which can calcify the milk flow, yes?’
‘It doesn’t always calcify, but it can cause a terrible blockage which can be deeply painful.’
‘So her breasts were profoundly swollen and painful, and then her son clamped down on her swollen nipple, and she reacted the way anyone would react if suddenly subjected to sudden pain.’
‘Do please desist from leading the witness,’ Traynor said.
‘Apologies, My Lord. I will rephrase. Nurse McGuire, would you say that Ms Goodchild jumped in pain after her son bit down on her nipple, yes?’
‘Yes, that’s true.’
‘So the yank you speak about – it wasn’t a deliberate, pre-meditated movement, was it? It was, in fact, nothing more than a shocked reaction?’
‘That’s right.’
‘So if we agree that she had a shocked, instinctive reaction to pull her son off her breast, then can we also agree that, for a moment, it seemed like she was about to hurl the child.’
‘Absolutely.’
‘But she stopped herself, didn’t she?’
‘Well, we were there to …’
‘Did you make a grab for the baby?’
‘Uh … no.’
‘So Ms Goodchild stopped herself. No further questions.’
There was a short ten-minute adjournment after McGuire stepped down, during which Sandy came hurrying up to where I was conferring with Nigel and Maeve.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, sounding deeply contrite. ‘It’s just, when that woman started painting that bastard as some sort of noble knight …’
I put my hand on her arm, signalling her to stop. Then, turning back to Nigel and Maeve, I said, ‘I’d like you to meet my sister, Sandy, in London on a surprise visit from Boston.’
Nigel stood up and gave her his usual dead mullet handshake. Maeve smiled tightly and said, ‘I can understand why you reacted the way you did. But if you want to help your sister, please take heed what the judge said, and don’t do that again.’
The second half of the morning was taken up with testimony from two other nurses from the Mattingly, both of whom confirmed Mr Hughes’s opinion that I had been trouble incarnate while on the ward. Maeve managed to puncture some of their criticisms – but the point was still made that, in the eyes of the hospital nurses and my consultant, I had been seriously bad news.
Then, just before lunchtime, came my great friend, Jessica Law, author of the CAFCASS report which essentially let it be known that, though I was on the road to recovery, Tony Hobbs and Diane Dexter had provided an exemplary environment for Jack.
‘I have no doubt in my mind,’ she said under questioning from Lucinda Fforde, ‘that Sally Goodchild is conscious of the fact that she went through a desperately traumatic period, which made her do and say things which she regretted saying. I also have no doubt that, when she recovers fully from her condition, she will be a most conscientious and caring mother. The reports I have received from Clarice Chambers – who has supervised all of her visits with her son – have been nothing short of exemplary. Ms Goodchild has also managed to find work as a freelance proofreader, and is beginning to find her way in this new endeavour. In short, I am most impressed by the courage and the tenacity she has shown under exceptionally difficult circumstances.’
But then she began to wax lyrical about Chez Dexter. How the Divine Ms D. stepped into the breach and ‘magnificently’ provided for Jack’s needs. How Mr Hobbs appeared to her as a most caring and devoted father who was also clearly most happy in his relationship with Ms Dexter, and had put his career on hold to care for his son on a full-time basis. How there was also a full-time nanny to supplement Mr Hobbs’s child care. How she could not find fault with this arrangement, and how she was certain that Jack was – and this was the killer comment – ‘in the best place he could be right now’.
I expected Maeve Doherty to take her apart, to make her reiterate her positive assessment of my condition, and then question her abo
ut the real workings of the Hobbs/Dexter household.
But instead, she just posed one question.
‘Ms Law, in your considered opinion, doesn’t Jack Hobbs deserve to be raised by both his parents?’
‘Of course he does. But …’
‘No further questions.’
I was stunned by the brevity of this cross-examination, and by the way Maeve didn’t look at me on the way back to her place. Then Lucinda Fforde rose to re-examine.
‘And I too just have one question for you, Ms Law. Would you mind confirming that the last sentence you spoke during my examination-in-chief was: “I am certain Jack is in the best place he could be right now”.’
‘Yes, that is what I said.’
‘No further questions, My Lord.’
And we broke for lunch.
Once Mr Justice Traynor was out of the room and Tony and Co. swept out, looking most pleased with themselves, I turned to Maeve and said, ‘May I ask you why … ?’
She cut me off.
‘Why I didn’t try to pull Jessica Law apart? Because Traynor immediately gets his back up if anyone attacks a CAFCASS report, or the author behind it. Though he may be an Old Tory, he does have a strong respect for professional opinion. And yes, what she said just now was harmful to us. But it would have been more harmful if I began to question her judgment, or insinuate that she had been entranced by the other side … which is obviously the case. Trust me here – Traynor would have turned against us on the spot.’
‘But what about the damage she’s done?’ I asked.
‘Let’s see what this afternoon brings,’ she said. Then she said that she and Nigel needed to go over a few things during lunch.
So Sandy and I retreated to a nearby Starbucks.
‘Just like home,’ she said looking around. ‘Except for the price. Jeez, how do you afford it?’
‘I don’t,’ I said wearily.
‘Please don’t tell me how heavy I look,’ she said, wolfing a Fudge Brownie, washed down with sips of a Mocha Latte with whipped cream. ‘I know how heavy I am – and I am going to be addressing that issue just as soon as the summer is over.’
‘That’s good, Sandy,’ I said, staring into my paper espresso cup.
‘You should eat something,’ she said.
‘I’m not hungry.’
‘You know, I think your barrister did a great job with that awful doctor and that Irish idiot of a nurse. But I still don’t understand why she just let that social worker woman off with just—’
‘Sandy, please . ..’
She looked at me with a mixture of jet lag, confusion and hurt.
‘I shouldn’t have come, should I?’
‘I’m not saying that.’
‘No, you’re right. I’m just shooting my fat old mouth off…’
‘Stop that,’ I said, taking her by the hand. ‘I am very pleased you’re here.’
‘You’re not just saying that.’
‘No, really. Because you could not have been a better sister to me during this entire horrible business. Without you, I would have gone under. But …’
‘I know, I know. The tension’s unbearable now.’
I nodded.
‘That’s why I decided I had to come over here,’ she said. ‘Because I would have found it absolutely unbearable to be sitting in Boston, wondering how the hell this was going.’
‘Not good, is what I’m thinking right now.’
‘All right, maybe she didn’t score with the social worker, but look how she dismembered Mr Big Shot Consultant…’
‘The “social worker”, as you call her, counts for everything in this case. Her report is like the alpha and the omega to the court – because it is court commissioned. You heard what Maeve said – the judge takes her word more seriously than anyone else’s. Which is why this is looking so bad. Not that I didn’t know that from the moment I read the CAFCASS report. But I really thought Maeve would stick it to her.’
‘Especially since, I bet you anything, Ms Social Worker walked around Ms Rich Bitch’s designer house, saw the photos of her with Tony and the Missus at Downing Street, was probably flattered to death to be taken so seriously by such a player, that she turned all star fucky … excuse my American.’
‘You’re excused,’ I said. ‘And I think you’re right.’
‘Who’s up next this afternoon?’
‘My wonderful husband.’
‘I can’t wait.’
I had to hand it to Tony, his testimony was masterful – a true performance, of the convincing sort I used to see him trot out in front of some heavyweight Arab foreign minister, from whom he wanted something. Tony in the witness box became Anthony Hobbs of the Chronicle: erudite, serious, a man of gravitas, yet also one of great compassion, especially when it came to dealing with his tragically wayward wife. Encouraged to wax humanitarian by Lucinda Fforde, he took her through the entire story of my breakdown, how he tried so hard to help me through it, how I rejected his support, and how he still stuck by me even after I threatened the life of our son.
Then he went into his ‘friendship’ with Diane Dexter – that, yes, it had always been a flirtatious friendship, but it had never been anything other than that, until his marriage began to disintegrate, and he began to fear for the safety of his son. And then he made an impassioned ‘new man’ spiel about how fatherhood had been the best thing that had ever happened to him, how he had never really understood the remarkable joy and pleasure that having a child could bring to your life, just as he could not ask for a more remarkable (yes, he used that word twice) partner than Diane Dexter (and he looked directly at her as he sang her praises), and he was desperately, desperately distressed by the fact he had no choice but to take Jack away from my ‘self-destructive rampage’, but he did hope that – once I found my equilibrium again – I could perhaps play a role in his life. For the moment, however, he was fully committed to being Jack’s ‘principal carer’, which is why he had decided to give up his job on the Chronicle, and how – when they moved to Australia next month – he would also not be seeking full-time employment for at least another year or so, in order ‘to be there for Jack’.
As Tony went on with this at one with his inner child routine, my growing sense of rage was only mitigated by the fear that Sandy might start making nauseated sounds in the back row.
Then Maeve Doherty stepped up to the plate. She looked at him with cool detachment.
‘Now then, Mr Hobbs,’ she began. ‘We’ve just heard your appreciation of the joys of fatherhood. Which, of course, is most commendable. Just out of interest, sir, why did you wait so long before having children?’
‘My Lord,’ Lucinda Fforde said, sounding truly annoyed. ‘I really must object to this line of questioning. What on earth does this have to do with the matter at hand?’
‘Let the witness answer the question,’ Traynor said.
‘And I’m happy to answer it,’ Tony said. ‘The reason I didn’t have children until I met Sally was because of the nature of my profession, and the fact that, because I was a nomadic journalist – wandering from war to war, foreign capital to foreign capital – I simply never had the chance to meet someone, settle down. But then I met Sally – and her pregnancy coincided with my return to London and the foreign editorship of the Chronicle. So this seemed like the ideal moment to make a commitment both to her and to fatherhood.’
‘And before this, you simply had no experience of fatherhood?’
‘No, none whatsoever.’
‘You’re obviously making up for lost time.’
‘Ms Doherty … ,’ Traynor said witheringly.
‘I withdraw the comment. Now Mr Hobbs, let’s turn to another pertinent issue here … your decision to leave the Chronicle. You worked for the Chronicle for over twenty years. Is that correct?’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘One of their most distinguished foreign correspondents, covering, as you mentioned, a goodly number of wars, not to m
ention being the Chronicle’s man in Washington, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Paris, Cairo. And then, just over a year ago, you were re-called to London to become the Foreign Editor. Were you pleased about this re-call?’
‘My Lord, I must object again,’ Lucinda Fforde said. ‘This is deviating from the …’
‘Do let us complete this witness’s cross-examination,’ Traynor said. ‘Please answer the question, Mr Hobbs.’
‘It was … yes, I’ll admit it ... it was rather difficult to adjust at first to office life again. But I did settle in …’
‘Even though, some months later, you not only quit the foreign editorship, but also resigned from the paper. And during this same week, you also decided to end your marriage to Ms Goodchild, to seek an emergency court order in order to gain residence of your son, and move in with Ms Dexter. Quite a number of life changing decisions in just a matter of days, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘The decisions I made were all predicated on the danger I perceived my son to be in.’
‘All right, let’s say you did decide it was important that you be at home with Jack for a while. Surely the Chronicle has a reasonably enlightened management, and surely, had you gone to them and said you wanted a leave of absence for personal matters, they would have been sympathetic. But to quit your job just like that, after over two decades with the paper? Why did you do that?’
‘It wasn’t “just like that”, it was a decision which had been building for some time.’
‘Ah then, so you really didn’t readjust to life behind a desk at Wapping … ?’
‘Not precisely. It was just time to move on …’
‘Because?’
‘Because I had discovered other ambitions.’
‘Literary ambitions, perhaps?’
‘That’s right. I was writing a novel.’
‘Ah yes, your novel. In her witness statement – which you have undoubtedly read – Ms Goodchild reports that, after your son came home from hospital, you became increasingly preoccupied with your novel, locking yourself up in your study, sleeping up there as well, making your wife deal with the broken nights, the four am feeds, and all the other messy bits of child care.’
A Special Relationship Page 41
