One Law For the Rest of Us

by Peter Murphy

  Julia bowed her head and remained silent. Baxter put a hand on her shoulder. After a few moments they resumed their walk.

  ‘Is there anything else you wanted to ask?’

  ‘I suppose,’ she replied, looking up, ‘it would be useful to know what attitude the service is going to take to the prosecution?’

  He nodded. ‘May I ask you a question?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why are you going after Father Gerrard on his own? Why haven’t you brought charges against the other three men you know about?’

  ‘No attribution?’ she asked.

  He laughed. ‘No attribution.’

  ‘We’re not sure how much of a case we have against any of them. Counsel thought it was best to test the evidence against Gerrard first. If Audrey’s evidence stands up, and if we can get some corroborative evidence in, then we have a good shot of potting Gerrard, and we might have a realistic chance against the others. We’re also hoping that Gerrard might give us something we can use against the other men. He hasn’t said a word so far, but once the reality of the trial kicks in, we’re hoping he may name a few names to try to talk his way out of it.’

  ‘That makes sense,’ Baxter replied.

  ‘But that’s not what Ben’s going to tell the jury in his opening speech.’

  ‘No, I daresay not. Julia, I have to ask you this: your witnesses aren’t going to talk about the service, are they?’

  ‘No.’

  Charing Cross was coming into view.

  ‘We don’t care about Gerrard,’ Baxter said.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘We don’t think he knows much, if anything, about Köhler, except that he was a friend of EF. He would have met Köhler from time to time, but there’s no reason to think he knows about our involvement.’

  He paused, and they stopped again.

  ‘There’s something else I’d like you to know, Julia. We weren’t totally unconcerned about the girls. Once the war was over, we sent an officer from Special Branch to interview Gerrard. That officer delivered a clear message: that the police couldn’t turn a blind eye any more, and it was time to put his house in order. We hoped that might have some effect. Apparently, it hasn’t. But we gave him his chance, so as far as we’re concerned, do whatever you want with him. He’s of no interest to us. And personally, off the record, I hope they lock him up and throw away the key.’

  ‘Thank you. I’m glad to hear that.’

  ‘But it may be different with the others,’ Baxter added. ‘EF knows all about the Köhler operation, quite possibly including where he is and what he’s calling himself now; and I’m sure he’s never forgotten the warning Five gave him all those years ago. He has even more to lose now, doesn’t he, as a bishop and Master of an Oxford college? If he has his back to the wall, he may be desperate enough to start saying things he shouldn’t.’

  ‘We can’t let them get away with it, Baxter,’ Julia said, ‘not when so many vulnerable girls were abused over so many years, so many lives ruined for the entertainment of those paedophiles. Those men must be held to account for that. If we have evidence against them, we will have to proceed, and, given its record on Lancelot Andrewes, I would sincerely hope that the service would not try to stand in the way.’

  Baxter offered his hand.

  ‘It’s been good to see you again, Julia,’ he said. ‘You’re your father’s daughter in so many ways. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to come and work for us? The offer is still open. A woman with your talents could go very far in the service today.’

  She took his hand.

  ‘I know,’ she replied. ‘But I’m very happy doing what I’m doing. And I’m not sure I could bring myself to get as close to the dark side as others can.’

  ‘You would protect your country if you had to,’ he replied, ‘just as your father did.’

  ‘I think I’m already doing that,’ Julia said.

  PART TWO

  15

  Monday 6 May 1974

  ‘May it please your Lordship, members of the jury, my name is Ben Schroeder, and I appear to prosecute this case with my learned friend Miss Virginia Castle. My learned friend Mr Anthony Norris appears for the defendant, Father Desmond Gerrard.’

  It was an opening speech, and indeed a trial, that had given Ben some sleepless nights. Neither he nor Ginny Castle had prosecuted before, and although they were both seasoned trial lawyers, the prospect of taking the lead and carrying the burden of proof, arguing a case from the other side, was a new one. As Andrew Pilkington had predicted, his trial schedule was too heavy to let him remain active in the case. He had been embroiled in a fraud in an adjoining court that had already run for three weeks and had at least another three to go, and he had delegated the trial to his colleagues with a smile that said, ‘Now you can see what it’s like on my side.’ ‘Nothing to worry about,’ he had added, ‘John will be sitting behind you. He’s done hundreds of cases sitting behind counsel. If there’s anything you need, just ask him.’ John Caswell’s presence was indeed reassuring, Ben reflected, but he also noticed that the Deputy Director couldn’t resist the occasional grin at the expense of his nervous prosecutorial neophytes.

  More disturbing was the choice of Anthony Norris to represent Father Gerrard. Although John Singer had handed the case over soon after his client’s arrest, he had handed it over to Thomas Watson and Co, an aggressive firm of South London solicitors. Thomas Watson had instructed Anthony Norris, but Ben suspected that he had been Singer’s suggestion. If so, Ben could not help seeing it as a deliberate provocation. Anthony Norris was a senior member of Ben’s chambers, who had a reputation at the bar for arrogance and a painfully direct style of advocacy, a barrister who paid little deference to clients, witnesses, or judges. When Ben had applied to join chambers, Norris had openly opposed him, giving as his reason Ben’s Jewish origins. Norris was possessed of a malicious, wanton sense of humour, and was quite capable of saying such grotesque things with a straight face, as his idea of a joke; and no one ever knew how seriously to take him. Norris had relented only when fate left him little option: as fate would have it, Ben had won his first jury trial, a rape case at the Old Bailey, instructed by the firm of solicitors that was the source of most of Norris’s work at the bar – while Norris was away on a skiing holiday. Norris had good reason to be very grateful to Ben; and indeed, he had since apologised and behaved in a civilised way towards him. But Ben would always remain wary of him, and in a sensitive case such as this, Anthony Norris was the last person he wanted on the other side.

  Fortunately, there was also one ray of light: the judge assigned to the trial, Her Honour Judge Rees, a lifelong friend of Ben’s head of chambers, Gareth Morgan-Davies QC, and a fellow Welsh exile. It was not unknown for the two to be seen together at Cardiff Arms Park on international days. Delyth Rees had recently been appointed a judge at the Old Bailey after a career as a London stipendiary magistrate. In that capacity, she had gained a reputation as a competent, plain-spoken, no-nonsense tribunal, a reputation she was already consolidating as a judge. The case cried out for a woman judge, and if there was one judge who would not be intimidated by Anthony Norris, Ginny suggested to Ben with a smile when her assignment to the case was announced, it would be Delyth Rees.

  Nonetheless, a hard road lay ahead, and Ben was relieved when Judge Rees’s previous trial overran, and she was unable to start the trial of Father Gerrard until two o’clock. There would be ample time for Ben’s opening speech, but he was hopeful that he could persuade the judge not to make Emily Marshall, Girl A, begin her evidence that afternoon, with the strong probability that she would have to return the next day to complete it. With any luck, and a prompt start the next morning, they would have her evidence finished in one session of the court.

  ‘This will be a distressing and difficult case, members of the jury. There’s no way around that fact, and we may a
s well confront it immediately. I’m sure that was obvious to you when the learned clerk read the indictment to you just a few minutes ago. You have it in front of you. It contains four counts. Count one alleges that between 1972 and 1974 the defendant conspired with others unknown to commit indecent assault against young girls, girls between the ages of seven and twelve, including a girl we shall be calling Girl A. Count two is an almost identical charge. It alleges a conspiracy, during the same time period, to commit acts of gross indecency with children, again girls between the ages of seven and twelve, including Girl A. Counts three and four allege exactly the same kinds of offence as counts one and two, but they relate to events which occurred long ago, between 1940 and 1946, and they include reference to a girl who has since grown up to become our Woman A. You will notice also that counts three and four differ from counts one and two in one other way. Counts three and four identify three individual co-conspirators, named in the indictment as Lord AB, Sir CD, and the Right Reverend EF, in addition to the others unknown.

  ‘In a nutshell, members of the jury, the Crown say that this defendant, Father Desmond Gerrard, over many years, abused his position as headmaster of a boarding school, by facilitating access to his female pupils aged between seven and twelve for men who derived sexual satisfaction from touching little girls in that age group indecently. From at least the early 1940s, the Crown say, Father Gerrard made available young girls entrusted to his care to be molested by members of a paedophile group which he sponsored and facilitated on the premises of his school. He caused those young girls to suffer an unimaginably terrifying and humiliating ordeal, the consequences of which haunt them to this day, and will no doubt remain with them for the rest of their lives.

  ‘The school concerned was the Lancelot Andrewes School, a boarding school open to both boys and girls, situated near Ely in Cambridgeshire. Father Gerrard, an ordained Anglican priest, was its headmaster between 1936 and his arrest, earlier this year. The group of men for whom he provided this service included men prominent in public life, including those named in counts three and four.’

  Ben looked across to the bench. ‘My Lady, I’m told there is no dispute. With your Ladyship’s leave, I will provide the jury with a plan of Lancelot Andrewes School.’

  ‘No objection,’ Anthony Norris said in a disinterested tone, without looking up.

  ‘I’m obliged. With the usher’s assistance…’

  Geoffrey, the tall, silver-haired usher, wearing a black gown over a pristine charcoal-grey suit, a starched white shirt, and a dark blue tie emblazoned with the coat of arms of the City of London, collected six copies of the plan from Ben and distributed them to the jury, one between two.

  ‘As you will see, it is a very large building, consisting of six floors. The first page of the plan shows the front of the school. You will notice that the left of the building, as we look at it, houses the girls’ school – with which we are mainly concerned – while the right side houses the boys’ school. Moving on, the plan then devotes one page to each floor. If we go through it quickly, you will see that the first floor consists of what we might call the school’s public rooms – the business office and the headmaster’s study. You will see those areas marked. Next to the headmaster’s study, off to the right as we look at it, is a room which will feature a good deal in this case. That is the headmaster’s private library, and it is the room, the Crown say, in which the indecent assaults and acts of indecency occurred.

  ‘The second, third and fourth floors house the classrooms, and, towards the centre of the building, so as to be readily accessible to both, some facilities shared between the two schools, the assembly hall, the gymnasium and the science laboratories. The fifth and sixth floors house the living quarters for pupils who board – some, of course, are day boys and girls, but if they board, this is where they live, in dormitories of twelve for the younger girls, and study bedrooms for the older girls, those in the sixth form. Some members of the teaching staff also live in, as did Father Gerrard, and the staff living accommodation is also on the sixth floor.’

  He paused for a sip of water.

  ‘You will hear, members of the jury, that on certain evenings, Father Gerrard would select one girl from one of the dormitories, at about eight thirty in the evening, after lights out, when the only member of staff available would be the duty staff member, who was expected to remain in the staff room on the fourth floor in case she was needed if a girl became ill. How often this happened, and over what period of time it went on, the prosecution cannot say with any real certainty. Because only one girl was taken at a time, from only one dormitory at a time, that is not something we can be absolutely precise about. And because the events in relation to counts three and four occurred some thirty years ago, I’m sure you will understand that our witnesses cannot be expected to remember every detail. But we do expect to prove that this went on with some frequency over the years, at least from the early 1940s onwards.

  ‘You will hear that Father Gerrard would make the girl accompany him, dressed only in her nightdress and in her bare feet. He would lead her down the staircases between the boys’ school and the girls’ school, to his private library on the ground floor. In this windowless room, with book cases around the walls, and furniture that would not be out of place in a gentleman’s club, men – two or three at a time – would be waiting, drinking and smoking, for the girl Father Gerrard had selected for them. When Father Gerrard brought her into the library, these men would reach under her nightdress, fondle her private parts, and insert their fingers into her vagina. While doing so, the men would touch their penises, either through their trousers, or having taken their penises out of their trousers.’

  He paused, and allowed the jury a moment or two, taking another sip of water.

  ‘Members of the jury, in law, the Crown say, those acts amounted to acts of indecent assault, and acts of indecency with a child. Her Ladyship will direct you later in the trial about the law, and about the verdicts you will be asked to return, and you must take the law from her. So, I will not dwell on it now. But I do wish to make this clear: we do not suggest that Father Gerrard himself ever touched the girls in a sexual way. The Crown say that his role was as the broker and facilitator of the offences. He provided the service. He provided the girls, the drinks, and a private place, in which the men he invited were free to molest the girls without being disturbed. He was present throughout the molestation.

  ‘But I hope you will agree, members of the jury, that even if he did not touch the girls himself, Father Gerrard’s role was just as central to the commission of these offences as if he had; and it is for that reason that he is charged with conspiracy to commit the offences. Her Ladyship will explain to you that a conspiracy is no more than an agreement between two or more persons: either an agreement unlawful in itself, or an agreement, the performance of which necessarily involves the commission of a criminal offence. We say that Father Gerrard was undoubtedly a party to at least one conspiracy, as set out in the indictment.

  ‘Who were the other men involved, and what, if anything, did they give Father Gerrard in return for facilitating this paedophile ring, of which they were part? In relation to counts one and two, members of the jury, the Crown is unable to identify any of the men involved in touching the girls. The reason for that is quite simple. The men involved with Girl A, on whose evidence the Crown’s case depends, wore masks to hide their faces – a sensible precaution on their part, you may think, but one which must have made the girl’s experience even more terrifying. In relation to counts three and four, you will hear that Woman A is able, despite the passage of time, to recognise the three men who were involved in molesting her. These are the men named in the indictment as Lord AB, Sir CD and the Right Reverend EF.

  ‘You may be wondering, members of the jury, why those three men are not before you today, together with Father Gerrard. The answer is very simple. While they are involved in the consp
iracies relating to the 1940s, counts three and four, they are not said to have been involved in the more recent offences, or in activities after the 1940s. The Crown has taken the view that it would be unfair to those men to try them together with Father Gerrard, and the Crown will make a decision at a later date about whether to try them, and when to try them.’

  To Ben’s left, Anthony Norris gave an audible snort. Ben ignored him.

  ‘Members of the jury, Woman A is the mother of Girl A, and she will tell you that she had repressed her memories of what happened to her in the early 1940s. For many years, she simply didn’t remember those events. And, not remembering, she saw no reason not to send her daughter, Girl A, to Lancelot Andrewes as a boarder when she reached the age of seven. Woman A will tell you that it was only when her daughter told her what had happened to her, that she recovered the memory of her own treatment at the hands of Father Gerrard and his guests so many years before. She will tell you, members of the jury, that it was a terrifying and hugely distressing experience to have those memories suddenly come flooding back, and with them, of course, the knowledge that she had unwittingly exposed her daughter to the same abuse.

  ‘Members of the jury, the Crown bring these charges against Father Gerrard, and the Crown must prove them beyond reasonable doubt if you are to convict. Father Gerrard does not have to prove his innocence. Indeed, he doesn’t have to prove anything to you at all. But we say, when you have heard the evidence, you will agree that the case is proved, and that the only proper verdicts you can return in this case are verdicts of guilty on all counts.’

  Ben turned to the judge.

  ‘My Lady, the prosecution will be calling Girl A first. Because of her age, your Ladyship will have certain preliminary questions to ask her, and if we were to start today, inevitably we would have to bring her back tomorrow. I am hoping that your Ladyship will allow us to start her evidence tomorrow morning, so that we can finish her evidence within one session of the court.’