Criminal Justice (2008) s01e04 Episode Script

Don't throw it away in court, because of here.
That's what they want.
So, is there anything that I should know about Ben? Anything inconvenient, I mean.
It's best I know, so we can deal with it if they bring it up.
I hate surprises.
No, no, there's nothing.
Do you believe he didn't do it? 99% of the clients I represent I am 100% sure committed the crimes they're charged with.
I can't say the same about your son.
- That's not a proper answer.
- Yes, it is.
It absolutely is.
Reasonable doubt, Mrs Coulter, that's all I'm after.
That's all I need.
It's all any of us need.
Of course I'm not nervous.
This is one more day in court, just like any other.
Who's the other one? The one who isn't the petrol-station guy? The neighbour who called the policeon the night.
He's not even a fully-bound witness? His statement was read? So why is he here? Voyeur.
Hasn't he got better things to do? Vultures, the both of them! Is your rant nearlyover? What? Can we have a word? - We need Ben to give evidence.
- But do we? We've already established that the senior police officer in this case has taken evidence away from the crime scene.
How often do you get something as good as that? It's not enough.
What's he going to say, Frances? "I can't remember what happened.
It's all a bit of a blur.
" - How's that going to make it better? - It's not about what he says.
Ben couldn't killanyone, but the jury ignore it cos they haven't had a good look at him.
Him being a nice kid isn't gonna count for anything when Painter cross-examines his convenient amnesia into the ground.
Juries don't like it when a defendant hides.
Listen to me.
Almost all of my clients are guilty.
But at least half of them get off.
Why? Because the prosecution has to come up with such a high standard of proof, - beyond all reasonable doubt.
- I'm in charge in court.
Tomorrow, I want evidence to support him.
Go and get it.
You know what people say When you're being cross-examined, it's a prosecutor's job to get under your skin and make you lose your temper.
It's very important that you stay calm and just answer the questions.
Wrong.
Why? A man in a wig you've never met before is going to suggest you're a murderer.
There'd be something badly wrong with you if you didn't fight back.
Be yourself, Ben.
Where is Stone? - He's working.
- Did you speak to him? He thinks you'll be great.
My barrister thinks you're a voyeur.
I don't agree.
You are a witness in a murder trial, that's a really important thing.
But nobody has disputed anything you told the police, so your witness statement is just read out to the jury.
And you don't get your 15 minutes in the limelight.
And your sense of helping the justice system, of being a good citizen, it dissolves.
And you don't feel nearly as wanted as you thought you were going to be.
Am I right? Had you gone into the witness stand, what else would you've said, Mr Wallace, given the chance? I woke up.
The knife was on the table.
And there was blood on it.
Then what? I went back upstairs.
What did you see? She was there, on the bed.
Do you have any memory of any kind about how she died? No.
But I know that I'm not the kind of person that could do a thing like that.
I want to end by asking a difficult question.
What did you make of Melanie Lloyd? I thought that she was funny and interesting, and unusual.
And she caught me off guard.
I thinkShe probably did that to a lot of people.
- Stop talking about her! - Mr Lloyd! I can't tell you how sorry I am that your daughter is dead.
Liar! Are you dishonest? No.
People can rely on you to tell the truth? - Yes.
- You're not the kind of person who tells lies to get what he wants? No.
On the night that you met Melanie Lloyd, did you ask your father's permission to drive his black cab? - No.
- Were you insured to drive it? So you were breaking the law.
You don't have to answer any question which might incriminate you in another offence.
What's funny? It's No insurance.
It doesn't seem like a big problem in the scale of things.
Are you the kind of person who acts in such a way that the lives of others are put at serious risk? No.
Is driving under the influence of Class A drugs a risk to others? - Not that kind of a person? - Same warning.
You don't have to answer.
What has happened to your father's cab? I crashed it.
Does he have a means of making a living without it? Did you think about any of that before you took his cab? This This is just trivial stuff.
Well, you brought it up, Mr Coulter.
Brought what up? What kind of a person you are.
I'm very interested in exploring that question.
Why did you pick up Melanie Lloyd in your father's taxi? - She just got in.
- Did you ask her to get out? - No.
- Why not? - I don't know.
- What if she'd been a man? - What do you mean? - Would you have allowed a strange man to get into the cab? And then agree to drive him 50 miles to the seaside? No.
So, why with Melanie? Was it because you wanted to have sex with her? - I don't do that kind of thing.
- But you did do exactly that kind of thing.
Didn't you? On your own admission, you had sex with Melanie hours after her picking her up.
When did you decide you wanted to have sex with her? - I know what you're doing.
- What's that, Mr Coulter? You're trying to find ways to make me look like someone that I'm not.
What kind of sex? - What do you mean? - Don't be coy, Mr Coulter.
This is a murder trial.
It was It wasn't It was just over very quickly.
It was short.
- Yes.
- Brutish? Is that your usual way? Why do you want everything to be packaged and labelled? Life isn't like that.
Sometimes things just come along and happen, and it's not normal, and it's not the usual way, it just is.
No foreplay? No, not really.
It was She wanted What did she want? She was - asking for it to be like that.
- Melanie was asking for it? I tried to kiss her.
- Yes? - But she wouldn't let me.
She withheld her consent? She said no to you kissing her? And you want us to believe she went on to consent to sexual intercourse? I'm telling the truth.
The truth is you saw this vulnerable girl as sexual prey.
Melanie believe you were a genuine cab-driver, and she ended up dead because she misread your whole, very plausible, character.
She thought you were Mr Normal, and that cost her her life.
Lunch.
Massive, massive problem.
Whole trial blown out the water.
First, a disappearing inhaler and now non-disclosure of evidence.
The neighbour called the police about a big fracas involving Dad and an angry boyfriend, and you chose not to disclose it to us.
It's not relevant.
Three days before the murder, Box.
Not relevant? Now, you know the rules.
I could kick up a massive fuss about this, or you can give me the name of the boy screaming his head off at Robert Lloyd.
What the hell's going on? It's fine.
Why their solicitor thinks he's gonna blow the case right out of the water? He had a problem with non-disclosure.
It's gone away.
I do not want to be embarrassed by this.
I want you to tell him exactly what's going on and then I want to know whether this prosecution is safe to go on with.
- It's safe.
- Is it? Are you? - I thought we were on the same side, sir.
- We picked up a car thief last night in the Stockhill Estate.
He was off his face.
He wasn't half chatty.
You know what he said? Everyone knows who did the Stockhill murder.
Why don't you, Box? Nobody talks.
I thought old-school coppers were meant to get results, I thought that was the whole point of breaking the rules.
This prosecution is safe.
Mr Stone will not be blowing anything out the water.
I want results on both cases, Box.
We didn't like each other in school, Mel and me.
Then, in the last year, we did.
- And by the end, we were best friends.
- Tell me about the boyfriend.
Lizzie? Put it this way.
Stuart wasn't the kind of boyfriend her dad would have wanted her to have.
Can I write this down? Look, I don't want to hurt anybody.
You know, all my life, I've seen the way people look at me when I tell them I'm a lawyer.
You know what that look says? It says, cynic.
They think I'm a man of no principle and I'm not.
I am a man with one principle.
To serve the single greatest democratic institution ever invented.
My whole reason for being is to give the jury everything I can to help them do what they do.
I trust them.
So should you.
Good sleep? What? Over the lunch break, did you Did you have a good sleep? What has this got to do with the case? I'm interested in what kind of a man goes to sleep halfway through giving evidence in a murder trial.
I'm wondering how the two things fit.
Have you any idea how I feel? Do you know what this is like? What happened to you last night? Did you go to bed with your wife? Mr Coulter What? They can't hear this? They want to look at me.
They judge me.
How can they do that if they don't know what's happening to me? I'm very tired.
I'm tired because I'm trying to stay alive.
Shall we continue with the trial, - Mr Coulter? - My name is Ben.
I have never been called Mr Coulter in my life.
All along, I've tried to tell you the truth.
I just want you all to listen.
You weren't trying to tell the truth at the police station, were you? - What do you mean? - "No comment.
"No comment, no comment.
" 157 times in interview.
My solicitor told me to do it.
You did manage, at one stage, to break free of the tyranny of silence imposed on you by your solicitor and you started to answer questions.
I didn't feel comfortable about saying "no comment" all the time.
Didn't last, did it? You went back to "no comment" when the going got tough.
That's what you do, isn't it? You make a big noise when you can, and when things get difficult, you clam up.
That's what you're doing now.
When Ben Coulter can't explain something, he looks at the floor and says nothing.
And you can't explain the death of Melanie Lloyd, can you? Why? Because you killed her.
How can I help? Do you have any Nurse With Wound? No, sorry.
Melanie Lloyd? You didn't go to the funeral.
No.
Why not? You and the dad not get along? Who've you been talking to? You lost your temper with him a few days before Melanie's murder.
- You've got that the wrong way round.
- What's the wrong way round? He works nights.
He came home early.
He went for me.
Melanie's dad? - Yep.
- Oh, that's interesting.
See, I've been asking around and it seems you're the one with form for violence.
And a spot of credit-card fraud.
So that makes you a violent liar? You need me to be some kind of low life, don't you? Sorry.
No criminal convictions.
In your version of events, you woke up, you went to the bedroom and you discovered Melanie dead.
You ran out, you got in the cab and you drove away.
- Yes.
- Fast.
The blind panic of somebody who's just seen something truly terrible? Yes.
And then you went back.
In your blind panic, you turned the taxi around and you drove back to the place you'd just been so desperate to get away from.
I didn't know what I was doing.
The wiping of blood from cupboard handles.
The retrieval of the jacket you'd left behind.
The wiping down of the walls.
The removal and concealment of the knife which tests have now established was used to kill Melanie.
All panic? I knew how it looked.
You know how it looks to me? It looks like a cold-blooded, calculated attempt to get rid of deeply-incriminating evidence.
I'm not cold-blooded.
Right aAt the very start of this cross examination, I asked you if you could be relied upon to tell the truth.
Do you remember? - Yes.
- And you told this court you were an honest person.
- Yes.
- Do you want to change that answer? - No.
- Are you sure? Yes.
How long have you been at university? Who are you looking at? My mum and dad.
Why? I dropped out of uni.
When? Seven months ago.
I'm sorry? Seven months ago.
Did you tell your mother? - No.
- Your father? No.
You lied to them for all that time? I'm asking you a question.
I can't hear you.
Did you leave the housein the morning, pretending that you were going to lectures? Did you talk about your day with your parents when you got back in the evening? If you don't answer, I'm very happy to call your mother and father to tell us.
Months and months of lying.
You're not an honest person, are you? When you were in the back of the police car, you asked a question.
"Is she dead?" Did you say that? I hoped that maybe I was wrong and that she was still alive.
Did you bother to call an ambulance? - No.
- Why not? - I was scared.
- Of what? That it looked like me who'd done it.
You put your own self interest ahead of saving her life, didn't you? - That's how it looks.
- It is how it looks.
What did you do instead? You tried to run away, didn't you?Attention CP non detecté, d'ou la coupe - Yes.
- You ran away with the murder weapon in your possession.
The knife you claim that earlier on in the night you'd stuck in Melanie Lloyd's hand, asAttention CP non detecté, éventuellement faire passer le "as" dans la suite (en tout cas en VF) part of a game? What did that feel like? I don't know.
Come on.
This is your version of events.
What did it feel like to put a knife in another human being? It was a game.
It went too far.
How far? Do you remember? How far? You've been in the witness box for a very long time.
You've had your evidence, your past, your character, everything about you tested and tested and tested.
What I want to know from you is simple.
Did you kill Melanie? Ben? Closing up now.
You blew it.
- What? - In the witness box.
How bad was it? On a scale of one to ten? Right, well, water under the bridge.
Unless he actually confessed to the murder.
All right.
So we move on.
- With what? - With tThe best that we have at the moment, Lizzie Smith.
She can tell us all about Melanie's jealous, violent boyfriend, Stuart, and the fight he had with Melanie's dad.
- She saw it? - No, but Melanie told her about it.
I've just been to see the boyfriend.
And? Disappointing.
But there's mud to be thrown, and where there's mud, there's hope.
So chin up.
You like being proved right, don't you? I like getting my clients off.
Good shower? Hello, Ben! Is there anything you want to tell me? No.
Are you sure? Yeah.
Look at me.
What do I need to know? Is there anything you want to tell me? You've betrayed me.
Come on - It was just his phone.
- Don't insult my intelligence.
Don't insult your own intelligence.
I want your disagreements with this man to end.
Come on! Come on! Go on! Get him! So, what? You're the good guy, Hooch! Daddy Hooch! Who took the phone, Hooch? Tell him.
Tell him! It was me.
You You set this up? You're his! You see, my friend Hooch here? He's a very good listener.
I trusted you.
You're a liar.
I didn't see anything.
There's nearly 300 prisoners on this wing, and two of us on duty tonight.
What do you think's going to happen if we start seeing things? We are the custodians of law and order.
That means letting the number one run things his own way.
Right? Get me out of here.
Please.
My name's Gordon.
Ben.
You're safe now.
Have the prosecution drawn attention to the bruises? Did their expert made a big deal of it? No.
How tall's your client? 5ft 7, maybe.
Build? No, no, he's a skinny kid.
Thank you.
So, what are the chances of the judge allowing it in? This late in the day? 50/50 maybe.
It's really good.
Well, you'll need time to digest it.
Judy Garland! She used to say it was impossibly hard to sing in front of thousands of people and then stop and do nothing.
Play Carnegie Hall, standing ovations, empty hotel rooms.
She couldn't do it.
She couldn't come down.
Are you trying to tell me that my report on this dead body is your very own version of Over The Rainbow? And now you need a little company? Or am I completely wrong? I love her.
That's what none of them understand.
They want to make it ugly and bad.
But it wasn't.
Are you awake? I said goodbye to her.
Nobody knows this, but I got my flowers to her.
Eight yellow roses.
One for every year of her little life.
Leave me alone.
You're not alone, Ben.
You'll be all right with us.
We look after our own here.
I'm a follower of Mr Graham.
Open your heart, let him in.
They've got to be joking.
You can't hand over an expert report two-thirds of the way through a trial.
We haven't got time to digest it, analyse it, instruct our own expert to deconstruct its findings.
Miss Kapoor? He's right.
If I were him, I'd be ranting and raving about unfairness.
But it's a short report.
Any barrister in his right mind should be able to digest, analyse and deconstruct what it says.
And this is a murder trial.
The stakes could not be higher.
Any judge in their right mind should never let mere inconvenience get in the way of justice in the round.
Mr Painter.
You've been in this job a long time, and so have I.
Whether either of us is in our right mind or not, I'm sure we can cope with a surprise late in the day.
Mr Painter.
You'll want Professor Callaghan sitting behind you so he can hear what is said and give you assistance.
They are not defence wounds.
Why do you say that? People who are trying to defend themselves in a knife attack don't usually try and parry blows.
- What do they do? - They try to grab the knife.
In which case, there will be longitudinal cuts on the palm.
More than one if it's a double-edged blade.
The wound she sustained was a puncture wound caused by the point of the knife.
- She didn't try to grab the knife.
- What if she were the exception? What if she were trying to parry the blows, fend them off? That'd result in the injuries described? No.
The nature of the wound would be completely different.
How? The tip of the knife is not very sharp.
For the blade to have entered her palm and to have penetrated to the depth of wound here, her hand would have had to be against something.
If she was holding her hand in the air, so as to deflect the knife during an attack upon her, it would be impossible for a wound of this type and depth to have resulted.
If Melanie, in the hours before her death, had held her hand palm upwards on the table and the knife had been brought down on the palm That would be entirely consistent with the wound on her palm.
What about the vaginal injuries? As a medical finding, absolutely neutral.
You get injuries to the posterior fourchette in both consensual and non-consensual sex.
The heart? There is no question that the knife entered her heart and caused her death.
But it would not have been instantaneous.
It's a common misconception that people die straight away from violent trauma to the heart.
It's not true.
And it isn't painless.
In some cases, it can take upto two minutes to die.
Is there any evidence of that here? The stab wound was through the left ventricle, which is more muscular and can contract and therefore postpone the fatal haemorrhage for a while.
And the grip marks on her upper arms suggest that she was held down.
That she struggled desperately and had to be restrained during the time it took her to die.
What conclusions, if any, can you draw from the bruises? They were caused by someone with large hands.
Could the defendant have left those marks? No.
When were you instructed by defence solicitors to look at this case? 48 hours ago.
What's the normal amount of time you'd expect to be given in a murder case such as this to arrive at your findings? Months.
- You weren't able to look at the body of the victim? - No.
You were at a disadvantage compared with Professor Callaghan.
I had the postmortem report and the report of your expert.
"Your expert" is a curiously personal way of putting things.
Experts have a duty to the court as professional witnesses.
They don't belong to anyone.
The expert upon whom the prosecution rely.
When you were approached so late in the day to take on this work, did you ask if the defence had approached another expert earlier on the process? The defendant's solicitor, Mr Stone, had sounded out other experts - but decided not to instruct them.
- Why not? I don't know.
If I did know, I wouldn't tell you because it would be privileged information.
Do you and Mr Stone have a special relationship? - We go back a long way.
- I won't dig any deeper.
We slept with each other last night.
Is that what you wanted to know? So, the 48 hours to complete your work on this case was reduced by the time you spent in bed with your instructing solicitor? You took this work on because you wanted to please Mr Stone, didn't you? Quite the opposite.
I didn't want to do it.
He seemed to be behaving in an a very unprofessional manner, but I was persuaded.
By his undoubted charm.
I took the case on because I have concerns about the quality of the prosecution medical evidence.
And because I know a jury is very unlikely to ignore the evidence of an expert witness when he stands unopposed.
You're very certain of your conclusions in what is an inexact and interpretative science.
And I have no doubt, had I not come here and said what I have said, you would have made a closing speech to this jury about the quality of your expert's unchallenged opinion and the weight they should give to it and to him.
You're the witness.
I'm asking the questions.
And you are not behaving as a professional witness should.
Whether the defendant is convicted or acquitted is of no consequence to me.
I am here to tell the jury Mr Callaghan could be wrong and I could be right.
The jury will decide between us.
Nightmare.
Might as well have been Audrey Hepburn.
Nightmare! It's me first.
I'll ask you about Stuart Napier and how he was with Melanie.
All I need you to do is look at me and tell me what you told Stone.
Then I get cross-examined? Yes.
I'm going to ask you some more questions.
You had very limited access to this relationship.
You mean I didn't see much of Melanie and Stuart together? - No.
- You heard things, you picked up bits and pieces here and there about how they got along? Yes.
You didn't know what was happening between Melanie and Stuart, say, - a month before she died? - Not really.
Or a week before? - No.
- Or even the day before? - The day before, absolutely.
- You have only a very - generalised outsider's view.
- Wait.
Don't do that! I haven't finished.
You cut in on me.
You'd better tTell us what were you going to say.
The day before she died, I went round to the house.
When I got to the door, I could hear her dad yelling at her about Stuart.
What did he say? He was going mad.
He kept saying, "You're not to see that man.
I won't let you go.
" He was going spare.
But he was like that.
Like what? Ever since her mum died, he kept Melanie really close.
He vetted everybody.
In some ways, it was hard to be her friend.
He was possessive? Yes.
Obsessive possessive? - I'm not an expert.
- No, you're not.
And Miss Kapoor should not be asking you questions which suggest that you are.
But my non-expert commonsense view is that she's right, yes.
Obsessive possessive.
You haven't mentioned any of this before.
I wonder why.
Because nobody asked me.
Lizzie turned out to be a gift.
Helen's made a real dent in the pathologist.
What? Big hands, violent temper, access to the house.
The last time he found a boyfriend at home, he beat him up.
I'm calling Robert Lloyd.
We're going after Dad.
I really thought that you were somebody who was surviving in here.
Outside of the rules.
Being a listener in this place is like being a priest.
People talk to me like they've never talked to anybody else before.
It gives them hope.
Some of them, I'm keeping alive.
And when Graham informs me that I have to tell him everything I heard, - what am I supposed to do? - You could have said no.
You still don't get it, do you? Freddie Graham runs this place.
If I'd have said no, my listener's job would have disappeared like that.
I love what I do.
It's what I am in here.
But you betray them.
No! I don't tell Graham every single thing I hear.
So they carry on thinking you're their best friend, - which makes it easy for you? - Easy?! There's not a day goes by without me despising the role I took.
The corrupting It happens so fast.
And once I'd started I couldn't go back.
I'm not confessing.
I don't want your forgiveness.
I don't want anyone's forgiveness.
What do you want? What? He knows about what's happening in the trial.
That's not me.
Where does it come from, then? I don't know.
Don't do it.
Don't call the dad.
Suddenly you want to reverse the burden of proof.
We don't have to prove anything, remember? Don't patronize me.
- It's the right thing to do.
- Right? What do you know about right? You're 26 years old, you've never been near a case this serious in your life.
- Don't do this! - Ben didn't murder Melanie Lloyd.
If he didn't, who did? That's the wrong question! You're 46 years old, you've spent more than half your life being a lawyer.
What do you know about wrong? I've had enough of this.
I will not run a murder trial as a series of defence whims.
Now, what the hell do you think you're playing at? Straight answer! I want to call Robert Lloyd.
The victim's father? No property in a witness, I can call anyone I like.
He's been in court the entire time.
He's heard the whole trial.
Then we'll all have to be very careful about the weight we give to his evidence.
Is the defence case that Robert Lloyd murdered his daughter? I want to explore that possibility.
I'm not having you going on a fishing expedition with this man.
Yes or no? Are you saying that Robert Lloyd murdered his daughter? Yes.
Were you arguing with Melanie the day before she was murdered? You shouted at her.
You told her you would never let her go.
Do you remember saying that? She used to tell me everything.
And then she stopped.
What were you afraid of, Mr Lloyd? Three years ago, I lost my wife.
Before she died she made me promise to keep up certain standards with Mel.
Stuart Napier, Melanie's last boyfriend.
Was he up to standard? What did you do when you came home one night and found him there with Melanie? - I made him leave.
- How? With force.
You attacked him.
He was bad for her.
I got rid of him.
Where were you on the night she died? I was at work.
You work as a security guard on a building site? Yeah.
Do you every leave work early? Mr Lloyd, you have to answer the question.
Yes, you know that.
What about that night? Yes.
You came home and let yourself in.
And you found a stranger asleep at the kitchen table.
Half naked, passed out, drunk.
- No.
- You lost control.
- This is ridiculous.
- You couldn't stand it.
Your daughter having sex with a stranger in your house, how could she do this to you? How far below her mother's standards - could she go? - Enough! - Dock officers! - Leave us alone! Us? - Mr Lloyd, please retake the stand.
- Us? Your daughter is dead, Mr Lloyd.
- This is wrong! - Wait.
- Show the jury your hands.
- This is not acceptable! Please return to the witness box, Mr Lloyd.
You have to put it, Ms Kapoor.
You have to put the allegation directly to the witness.
You murdered her.
You killed Melanie.
I killed her? If you believe that I put a knife in my own daughter then I feel very, very sorry for you, young lady.
God help you.
Kill her? Are you mad? Has the world gone mad? This is upside-down justice.
He's the killer.
Explosive, righteous anger.
Complete loss of control.
Violence under pressure.
Who's that, Mr Lloyd? Him or you? I did leave work early that night.
But I never made it home.
There was a woman.
Her car had broken down right near where I work.
She was scared.
It was dark.
If I'd have gone home, Mel wouldn't be dead.
I could have saved her.
Two Notices of Additional Evidence coming your way.
One from the good lady whose Volvo broke down, and one from the gentleman representing the fourth emergency service.
Both will tell us of the Good Samaritan and what he was doing at the time you suggest, he was murdering his own daughter.
We'll adjourn for the day, resume tomorrow at 10 o'clock.
Members of the jury, please remember that it is vital that you do not discuss this case with anyone outside your number.
Speeches in the morning.
Mum about uni No, we don't need to talk about that now.
Your dad and I, we We want you to know how much we love you.
And We want you to know that there's nothing, nothing that you could do that would make us love you any less.
Do you remember our little kitten? You were about 12.
You didn't see me, but I saw you coming out of the house carrying something in your arms, and you you laid it out in the middle of the road then you went back inside.
And later, you told us how you'd heard the screeching of the brakes and that you'd run outside and found it in the middle of the road.
There were no signs that the kitten had been run over, but you stuck to your story.
Mum, that was an accident.
Of course it was an accident.
You just panicked.
You think I killed her.
I'm saying I love you, Ben.
And nothing will change that.
What standard of proof does the prosecution need to reach before you can convict this defendant? You must be sure, beyond all reasonable doubt.
I think you're going down.
I want you to get used to that idea.
What you are about to do now is probably the single most important duty you'll ever be asked to perform.
You did not commit this murder.
Why are you doing this? The stakes could not be higher.
Now go and consider your verdict.