One Law For the Rest of Us

by Peter Murphy

  He nodded. ‘Yes, quite possibly. I can’t be definite after so many years, but it’s certainly possible. Are they the two witnesses, Audrey and Woman B?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He nodded again. ‘Yes, quite possibly.’

  ‘Bishop, do you know whether this abuse continued after the end of the war?’

  ‘I wasn’t aware of it after the war. I certainly didn’t witness any abuse myself after X stopped his visits to the school during 1945, and I didn’t pick up any rumours. I have to say, I was quite surprised to hear that there have been allegations of abuse during the last few years.’

  ‘What happened to X after the war?’

  ‘I have no idea. That’s the truth. But even if I did know, I couldn’t tell you.’

  40

  Steffie took a deep breath.

  ‘Bishop, both witnesses also say that you yourself molested them by touching them in the area of their vaginas, and inserting your fingers into their vaginas. Woman B also says that you made her touch your penis and rub it until you climaxed. I must again remind you of the caution. You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so, but what you say may be put into writing and given in evidence. What do you say in response to those allegations?’

  ‘They are completely untrue,’ he replied immediately. ‘But I understand their error.’

  ‘Error?’

  ‘Yes, of course. For a girl to be in that position… well, I saw them at the time. They were terrified, poor things. It’s not surprising that they may be mixed up on some of the details. I don’t hold it against them.’

  ‘They seem very clear indeed on the details generally, Bishop,’ Steffie said. ‘They don’t strike me as mixed up at all. Are you sure you didn’t join in the entertainment your friend Father Gerrard was providing?’

  ‘Certainly not. I am a bishop of the Established Church, and I have been married for more than twenty years.’

  ‘Not then, you weren’t,’ Steffie replied. ‘And Father Gerrard has been in holy orders for the same length of time, but apparently that didn’t deter him.’

  ‘I’ve already told you: he didn’t touch the girls.’

  ‘He supplied the girls, though, didn’t he?’ Ted intervened suddenly. ‘So the fact that he didn’t touch them himself isn’t much to his credit as a man in holy orders, is it? Not to mention that he was supposed to be the headmaster of this school. Was this a part of the interest in education you shared?’

  ‘There’s no need for sarcasm,’ Singer intervened stiffly.

  ‘All I can say is that I didn’t touch them.’

  ‘Are you aware of any reason Mrs Marshall or Woman B may have to hold a grudge against you?’

  ‘No, none at all. As I said before, I don’t think they’re lying. I’m sure they believe that they are giving an accurate account. It’s understandable, but they are mistaken.’

  ‘Bishop,’ Steffie said, after a long silence, ‘we now have evidence that suggests that eleven girls, including Woman B, had their school fees waived for no apparent reason during the 1940s and 1950s. We have reason to believe that this action may have been taken as a result of their making complaints of having been sexually abused. As a trustee, or former trustee of the school, is there anything you can tell us about that?’

  ‘What evidence?’

  He seemed to be taken aback, Steffie thought. ‘I’m not at liberty to say,’ she replied.

  Bishop EF laughed out loud. ‘Touché, Inspector,’ he replied. ‘But neither am I. I’m sorry. I can’t help you.’

  ‘So, you’re not denying that it may have happened?’

  ‘I’m not at liberty to say.’

  ‘He’s not making any admissions,’ Singer commented.

  ‘Yes, thank you, Mr Singer. I think I’ve got that point.’

  ‘Bishop,’ Ted said, after a silence, ‘I understand that you say there are certain things you can’t tell us. But didn’t you at some point speak to your security service contact and make some kind of protest about what was going on?’

  ‘I’m not at liberty to say.’

  ‘Did they know what was going on?’

  ‘I’m not at liberty to say.’

  ‘Well, did you ever speak to Father Gerrard and ask him what he thought he was doing?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes, of course I did.’

  ‘What did he tell you?’

  ‘He told me that people were putting pressure on him, people high up.’

  ‘Did he say what he meant by that?’

  ‘No. He wouldn’t tell me any more. He clammed up.’ The bishop paused. ‘But he did tell me that what was going on at Lancelot Andrewes was the tip of the iceberg.’

  ‘Again, did he say what he meant by that?’

  ‘No: just that it was the tip of the iceberg, and that if I knew what was good for me, I would swallow my feelings and keep quiet about it.’

  He shook his head.

  ‘And that’s what I’ve done, for more than thirty years: swallowed my feelings and kept quiet about it – until today.’

  Ted and Steffie looked at each other for some seconds. She gave him the slightest suggestion of a nod.

  ‘Bishop EF,’ Ted said, ‘would you stand, please? I am arresting you on suspicion of involvement in serious sexual offences against children at Lancelot Andrewes School during the period between 1940 and 1945.’

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ John Singer protested, climbing to his feet. ‘You can’t do that. He’s come here voluntarily and given you a great deal of information. This isn’t going anywhere. You must know that.’

  ‘It’s all right, John,’ the bishop said, getting to his feet.

  ‘I must caution you that you are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so, but what you say may be put into writing and given in evidence.’

  ‘I have nothing more to say,’ the Bishop replied, ‘except that I am innocent of the charges.’

  They booked a conference call with Andrew Pilkington when he came free from court during the lunch hour, and brought him up to date with the events of the morning.

  ‘Where do we go from here, sir?’ Ted asked.

  ‘Are AB and CD still refusing to come in voluntarily?’ Andrew asked in return.

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Arrest them both without delay.’

  Ted and Steffie looked at each other.

  ‘Sir, you do know that Lord AB’s solicitors have issued a statement, saying that he’s, how shall I put it…?’

  ‘They implied that he’s suffering from some form of dementia,’ Andrew replied. ‘I know. If they’re serious about it, they’ll provide us with some medical evidence. Until then, there’s no reason not to arrest him. The same goes for CD. One of the newspapers said he had a stroke a few months ago. If so, they’ll show us the evidence in due course.’

  ‘There’s no problem with immunity from arrest, is there, sir,’ Steffie asked, ‘with them being members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons?’

  ‘That only applies to civil cases, not criminal,’ Andrew replied. ‘Go ahead and arrest both of them, and interview them; and I want transcripts of those interviews, and Bishop EF’s interview, as soon as possible.’

  ‘Right you are, sir,’ Ted said.

  ‘Oh, and call Miss Cathermole and tell her what EF had to say about his wartime employment by the security services. Make sure she gets a copy of the transcript, too.’

  ‘Will do, sir.’

  41

  Friday 6 September 1974

  ‘I’m glad you could all come,’ Andrew began. ‘I know it’s Friday evening, and I’m sure sitting in my conference room isn’t high on the list of things you want to be doing after a busy week. I’ll try not to keep you too long. But we start trial on Monday, and I want to make sure that we are all on the
same page.’

  ‘Where else would I be on a Friday evening?’ Julia asked, as a weary chuckle went around the table. ‘I live for this.’

  Andrew smiled. ‘That’s the spirit. When are the Marshalls coming to London?’

  ‘Not until late Sunday afternoon. There’s no sense in making them hang around, getting nervous. I’ve made their hotel arrangements, and I’ll make sure they get to court. I can do the same for Mary Forbes, if you like. She has a flight from Toronto into London, arriving tomorrow.’

  ‘That’s all right. John’s people have been in touch with her, and they’ll take it from here,’ Andrew said. ‘Now: first things first. As you know, Mr Justice Overton granted our application for a voluntary bill of indictment. Ben and I drafted the new indictment, and it’s different from the old indictment in a number of ways.’

  ‘It brings in the Three Musketeers at last,’ Julia said.

  ‘Yes. We now have four defendants: Father Gerrard, Lord AB, Sir CD, and the Right Reverend EF. We also have a full range of charges, eight counts in all. We have the original four conspiracy charges against Father Gerrard, with the difference that now, the Three Musketeers are also jointly charged with him in two of those counts – the two relating to the 1940s. Gerrard is charged alone in the 1970s counts involving Emily. Then we have three specimen counts alleging indecent assault against each of the Musketeers individually, and one specimen count of gross indecency with a child against EF only, all relating to the 1940s.’

  ‘And we have a number of new witnesses,’ Julia said.

  Andrew nodded. ‘Audrey and Emily remain our most important witnesses, together with Mary Forbes – Woman B. We will start with Emily, of course, to get her away from court as soon as we can. But we do also have some new evidence. DI Walsh?’

  ‘Ted and I pursued the line of inquiry you suggested, Julia,’ Steffie said, ‘to find out whether there were cases, in addition to Mary, where families stopped paying school fees as from a particular date, after a daughter complained about having been molested. You were right.’

  Julia brought her fist down on the table. ‘I knew it.’

  ‘We ransacked the school offices and the storage facility and went through every one of their files. We came up with a total of eleven cases in which payment of fees stopped for no apparent reason: seven in the 1940s, including Mary, and four more in the 1950s. We didn’t count Audrey, of course – she was a genuine charity case; and we couldn’t find any more recent examples.

  ‘But we interviewed the women involved, and their parents – who are still alive, with two exceptions. As a result, five more women who were molested as girls have agreed to give evidence, as have their parents – or guardian, in one case. Three of those girls identify the German man as one of the molesters, mostly on the basis of his accent; and one identifies Bishop EF. But unfortunately, they don’t do so well with the others. Only one identifies Lord AB, and no one identifies Sir CD.’

  ‘So, we know that they weren’t asked to pay fees after a certain date,’ Ben said. ‘But we don’t know whether the school waived the fees, or whether they were paid by someone else, do we?’

  ‘Not for sure,’ Steffie agreed. ‘If the fees were being paid from some outside source, it should have been recorded in the files, and it wasn’t.’

  ‘It wouldn’t be, if it was all being done under the table,’ Ben pointed out.

  ‘Unfortunately, there aren’t any bank records from so long ago, so we can’t check what payments the school received. All the parents know is that they didn’t receive any further invoices for fees, and those who queried it were quietly told not to worry about it. So they’re not much help there, and, to be honest, most of them feel a bit guilty about it – they knew they were being bought off.’

  ‘To cover up a case of child sexual abuse,’ Julia said.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Still,’ Ben said, ‘it’s a remarkable coincidence that the girls who complained were the same girls whose parents weren’t asked to pay any more fees. I think that speaks for itself.’

  ‘So do I,’ Andrew agreed. ‘And I’m not too worried that they can’t identify all of the defendants. We’ve got that from Audrey and Mary. The new witnesses confirm that the abuse was occurring on a regular basis. That should be enough.’

  ‘We’ve got the statement EF made in interview, too,’ Ted Phillips pointed out. ‘He puts all four of them right there, in Gerrard’s library, and he has AB and CD touching up little girls.’

  ‘Yes,’ Ben agreed, ‘but he doesn’t admit to molesting any of the girls himself, and his statement isn’t evidence against the other defendants.’

  ‘But it’s evidence against EF,’ Andrew said, ‘and it’s altered the balance of the trial. None of the other defendants has said a word so far, but now that EF has broken rank my guess is that they will all start singing. It’s going to be difficult for them to avoid giving evidence. And,’ he added with a smile, ‘once that happens, the chances are, they will be desperate to lay the blame on each other and they’ll end up running cut-throat defences. We can sit back and pick them off, one by one. With any luck we’ll nail them all.’

  He turned to John Caswell.

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ John said. ‘The Director’s happy to go ahead with the new indictment.’

  ‘Julia, were you able to follow up on EF’s story about working for the security forces during the war, and accompanying this strange German man to Lancelot Andrewes?’

  Julia sighed audibly. ‘I wish I could, Andrew, but that’s a door I can’t open for you.’

  ‘Understood,’ Andrew replied. ‘So, that just leaves us with what’s likely to happen on Monday. We have a strong case, but there are one or two things that we need to be aware of…’

  He paused.

  ‘Go on,’ Julia said encouragingly.

  ‘Defence counsel have notified us that they have some preliminary applications,’ Andrew said.

  ‘What kind of applications?’ Julia asked.

  ‘Applications to stay the proceedings as an abuse of process: in other words, they’re going to make an all-out attempt to stop the case in its tracks.’

  The others looked at each other.

  ‘How could they do that, sir?’ Steffie asked.

  ‘I’m expecting them to argue to the judge that the defendants can’t receive a fair trial in the present climate,’ Andrew explained, ‘because of all the publicity ever since the Three Musketeers were arrested and their names became public knowledge. They may raise some other issues too, for example, health concerns in the cases of AB and CD.’

  ‘There was bound to be publicity when they were arrested,’ Julia pointed out. ‘And even before the arrests, everyone knew who they were.’

  ‘I know,’ Andrew replied. ‘But ever since the arrests it’s been non-stop – in the papers, on the radio, on television. Wherever you look, you can’t avoid it. They will say we couldn’t find twelve jurors anywhere in England who haven’t been living and breathing it.’

  ‘That’s true,’ Ben said. ‘But it’s no reason to stop a trial. It’s not unusual to have high profile cases, Andrew. We’ve both had cases like this before. You just have to rely on the jury to act on what they hear in court, not what they read in the papers.’

  ‘Besides,’ Julia added, ‘they can’t say the publicity has been all bad for them, can they? There’s been a lot of cold water poured on recovered memory. The Times and the Telegraph have even questioned whether it’s in the public interest for this kind of prosecution to be brought. The Express thinks it’s unfair in principle to prosecute anyone thirty years after the event.’

  ‘Perhaps so,’ Andrew replied. ‘But the Three Musketeers have taken quite a beating in the tabloids.’

  ‘The judge will direct the jury to ignore all that,’ Julia said.

  ‘Ah, yes, the judge,’ Andrew
said. ‘I was just coming to that.’

  ‘What about the judge?’ Julia asked.

  ‘We’re not going to have Delyth Rees this time,’ Andrew replied. ‘The powers that be have apparently decided that we need a High Court judge to try a peer of the realm and a bishop. I’m sorry, Ben, I was only informed this afternoon, and I haven’t had time to tell you. They’ve given us Mr Justice Evan Roberts.’

  ‘Oh, God,’ Ben said, closing his eyes and hanging his head. ‘Please tell me you’re joking.’

  ‘Unfortunately, I’m not.’

  ‘Why “unfortunately”, sir?’ Ted asked.

  ‘Well, Ben and I both have – how shall I put it? – something of a history with Evan Roberts,’ Andrew said. ‘Before his appointment to the bench, he was senior civil Treasury counsel, which meant that he represented ministers and government departments on a regular basis.’

  ‘Including the Home Office,’ Julia said quietly. ‘He represented the Home Office in the Digby case, which Ben and I were both in, and his only concern was to avoid embarrassing the government at all costs.’

  Ben nodded. ‘I had an even worse run-in with him in the Welsh nationalist case. This was the case about the people who tried to plant a bomb in Caernarfon Castle at the time of Prince Charles’s investiture as Prince of Wales.’

  ‘Oh, God, yes, I remember that one,’ Steffie said. ‘I was assigned to undercover security work around the Old Bailey for the duration of the trial. You represented the woman, didn’t you? She was convicted, but you got her off on appeal?’

  Ben nodded. ‘Arianwen Finch. Roberts prosecuted her. She was prosecuted on a false basis. Someone on the prosecution team decided to withhold from the jury the rather vital fact that her husband, Trevor, was an undercover police officer. That way, they avoided having to produce him as a witness. If he’d given evidence, she would never have been convicted. Instead, they spun the jury a yarn, telling them that Trevor was a guilty fugitive and they had no idea where he was – when all the time, they were hiding him in London. When that came to light in the Court of Appeal, the court was left with no choice. Andrew had to clean up Roberts’s mess for him.’