Law and Order: UK (2009) s03e07 Episode Script
Anonymous
In the criminal justice system the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups - the police who investigate crime and the crown prosecutors who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
Yes! Come on! Billy.
I can hardly hear it.
I'm getting up at six.
If I turn it down any more I might as well turn it off.
There's an idea.
OK.
Stop it! What are you doing? Stop it! Billy.
Let me go, let me go.
No, please.
Please, no.
Billy, what is it? You say you weren't on your own.
No, my girlfriend was with me the whole time.
Right.
And you only heard a woman's voice, yeah? My Xbox was pretty loud.
I only turned it down after she screamed.
OK.
One of our uniform will get some more details.
Mrs Golofsky owns the building.
Ah, Mrs Golofsky, hello.
I'm Detective Sergeant Brooks.
Did you hear anything? Sorry? Just trying to find out if you heard anything at all? Oh, no, nothing at all.
What about the girl who fell - did she have a husband or boyfriend? Oh, no, I never saw her with anyone.
As a matter of fact, I used to think maybe she was the other way inclined.
The victim's gone into surgery so we can't speak to her for a while.
OK.
And do you have a spare key for Stephanie's flat? Oh, yes.
In the key cupboard.
Right, we need to have a look around.
Do you need a key to get into the building? Yesbut you can use the buzzer.
Right.
My nephew put in a new lock in April.
He's very technical is Alan.
Well, if you fetch that key for us that would be great and Anne will look after you.
OK? Thank you.
Right, we've got three old dears that were fast asleep.
The bloke who found Stephanie said he was out of the flat as soon as he heard her fall but didn't see or hear anyone else.
So the thing iswho did it? And how did they get out? You won't make a mess, will you? She likes to keep everything looking nice.
Was this her? Oh, yes.
She can look really lovely when she makes an effort.
Do you know what she does for a living? She's a nurse.
On the children's ward.
At Alderman's Hospital.
Oh.
OK.
Thanks for your help, Mrs Golofsky.
We appreciate it.
Leave it to us now and we'll drop the key in when we're done.
Is that OK? Oh, right.
Thank you.
Ronnie.
Yeah.
Look at this.
A whole file of emails all addressed to Stephanie, starting in the beginning of last year, and signed by Giovanni.
I get the impression he was typing one-handed.
They've tried tracking him, blocking him, you name it.
Emails just keep coming.
I take it she changed her email address.
Half a dozen times.
Made no difference.
She's kept hard copies of everything.
I guess she didn't want this clogging up her inbox.
I want to see you in that little pink cami set tonight.
I'll know you're thinking of me when you stretch out on your new Ikea mattress.
Then I want you to strip off Ugh.
I want to wash my hands.
We found these little pink pyjamas under her pillow and she bought a mattress from Ikea when she moved into her new flat.
He knows what toothpaste she uses, furniture polish, everything.
And he's thought of new uses for most of them.
Any word from the hospital? She's sedated until the swelling on her brain goes down.
Any direct threats in here like, 'I'm coming over to push you down the stairs'? No.
I want to know who this pervert is.
Did she report these to anyone? Yes, to a DS Fraser at Northcross CSU.
If someone reports a stalker we don't just tell them not to worry.
But we have to prioritise according to threat level.
And this guy's clever.
He uses multiple email addresses and routes them through anonymous remailers.
Pretty much impossible to track.
When did he start with the threatening phone calls? About six months ago.
Stephanie was freaked out by the emails.
Her work put her on day shift so she didn't have to be out at night.
But she was convinced he was getting into her flat when she wasn't there.
That's why she moved.
That's when he told her to stop trying to avoid him or he'd kill her.
He said he'd go to the hospital and take out as many people as he could.
When was this? Two weeks ago.
That's when we upgraded her threat level.
And still no leads? Only one.
A few days ago Stephanie got a call from Ashbridge Prison.
They said a prisoner had asked to have her mobile added to his list of allowed numbers.
Stephanie had never heard of him and she'd only had that mobile a few weeks.
I made a mistake.
It's easily done.
I put a three instead of a five.
Mr Morgan, you gave Stephanie's name as well as her number.
There's a lot of Stephanies around.
Only one got pushed down the stairs.
Yeah? Well, I've got one hell of an alibi.
It doesn't mean you weren't involved and it won't look too pretty in front of the parole board.
Look, you're pissing up the wrong tree.
A bloke called Lowry asked me to request a number.
Said he was low on phone credit and wanted to hook up with some bird.
Very community-spirited of you.
He made it worth my while.
And where is this Lowry now? Got out last week.
Are we done? Excuse me.
I'm DS Matt Devlin.
Do you know the guy who lives here? A Russell Lowry.
Yeah, I know him.
Do you know where we could find him? He starts at the Lord Palmerston.
Keeps going till he finds a girl who's drunk or dumb enough.
Not a fan? Seemed all right at first.
Offered me a cheap deal on his laptop.
Invited me in to take a look and then puts his hand up my skirt.
And they say romance is dead.
I think that when you feel a connection with a woman, you owe it to yourself to follow it up.
OK, Mr Lowry what about Stephanie Blake? We met in a bar and we clicked.
When was this? It was about a month ago.
It was a place in town, in Soho.
She gave me her number and I was interested in exploring the possibility.
So why then didn't you just call her? Well, I had a little local difficulty.
Remanded for assault in Ashbridge Prison.
Yeah.
It was an unfortunate misunderstanding.
The judge said it didn't merit a custodial sentence.
Why mess around getting Morgan to request her number? He was low on smokes but didn't need his phone credits.
I had cigarettes and a lot of calls to make so worked out well for the both of us.
Not strictly within the rules though.
No.
But it was a victimless crime.
Do you have a job, Russell? I'm between careers right now.
I was up north for a while.
I've only recently relocated to London.
Did you contact Stephanie Blake when you got out? I'm afraid it was a case of out of sight, out of mind.
Another possibility arose.
What can I say? I like to spread the love.
Life's short, you know.
See? It's in the email.
I like to spread the love and that's not all I like to spread.
Is this all you have? No forensics, nothing to link him to the scene? Nothing on the stairs.
No fingerprints, no trace evidence.
The only DNA on the chain was on the victim.
But we know Lowry tried to contact Stephanie from prison whilst hiding his identity and he recently sold his laptop on eBay.
We need a reason to hold on to him while we track down the buyer.
Lowry's neighbour, the one he groped, might she want to report sexual assault? Well, she seemed pretty keen to see the back of him.
Talk to her.
It might buy you some time.
DI Chandler.
Oh, thank you.
Stephanie Blake has regained consciousness.
Do you recognise this man? No.
You think he's Giovanni? He says he met you in a bar in Soho a couple of months ago.
I don't go to bars.
So this isn't the man that attacked you? I don't know.
I never saw his face.
He grabbed me from behind and I tried to turn around but he was too strong.
Oh, darling.
It's OK, Mum.
Why don't you take us through what happened Stephanie? I went out to take my rubbish down to the basement and he grabbed hold of me at the top of the stairs.
I didn't notice any rubbish on the landing.
No, sorry.
It was after I'd taken the rubbish down.
I was coming back up to the flat.
Did he say anything? He said he was Giovanni.
I started to scream and he tried to choke me with the necklace I was wearing and then he threw me down the stairs.
Dear God.
Has anyone stood out at all whose behaviour seemed genuinely suspicious? The only name I ever came up with was Lucas Dutton.
And who's he? We were living in the same block of flats when the emails started.
Why him? I'd go to the local supermarket and he'd be there too or I'd go to the bank on the corner and he'd be queuing for the cashpoint right behind me.
First the emails, then the phone calls, now he tries to kill me.
Please.
You have to help me.
You have to make him stop.
Lucas Dutton's still living in the same flats.
He's got no record and he's working as a hotel porter.
I reckon Lowry's still our main contender.
I think we've hit a brick wall there.
Lowry forgot to mention that his time up north was spent in Woodberry Prison just outside Rotherham.
What was he in for? Computer fraud.
Hacking into people's bank accounts, helping himself.
So he'd know how to send emails that can't be traced.
He didn't get out till last July which means he was still banged up when the emails started.
Maybe he got hold of one of them WiFi phones.
See? I do read the papers.
What, and he spent half a day typing a four-page email on a phone? I know prison security's lax but I think they'd have noticed that.
I wouldn't be so sure.
Matt, you want a bite? No, you're all right.
So what happened with Lowry's neighbour then? Ohshe had him charged with sexual assault.
He's back in Ashbridge Prison.
Good.
At least we know where he is.
It's down to what you get out of Mr Dutton then, isn't it? Are you arresting me? No, we're talking to you.
Then I don't have to answer you.
Can you tell us if you know Stephanie Blake? No comment.
Mr Dutton, look, all we want to do is chat.
If we could come in - That'd be a breach of my human rights.
Sorry? Article 8 European Convention of Human Rights.
The right to privacy.
He knows his stuff.
He does.
We'll come back with a warrant.
Do that.
Did you notice the camera? Mm.
Maybe he's shooting some home movies.
But whose home? Mm.
I don't think we need a warrant, do you? All right.
Seriously, when did you last get a successful prosecution for online obscenity? If someone's in a public place you can take their picture.
You've been filming a woman in her own flat.
The same flat that Stephanie Blake lived in.
That is voyeurism.
As outlined in Section 67 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Section 67 applies only if someone has an expectation of privacy.
If they leave their curtains open and walk about naked Come off it.
.
.
this could be interpreted as consent and then it's not voyeurism.
That's the law.
You reckon? OK.
Lucas, where were you at 1am Tuesday morning? They can't ask me that.
If this relates to a separate investigation I require full disclosure.
Someone threw Stephanie Blake down a flight of stairs.
We know you liked following her around.
I'll bet you filmed her too.
And now we've got your computer so we'll find the emails eventually.
I don't know what they mean.
We're here to talk about dirty movies.
You want to talk about assault, we have to start over.
And you'll have to show me evidence linking my client to the victim.
Hold that thought.
Weaselly-looking fellow, isn't he? Yeah, he is.
You think he's the one who did it? Well, we don't know yet.
Oh, that poor girl.
At least they're letting her home.
Her mother came to collect some clothes for her.
I had to ask her to empty the bin in the kitchen.
There was a terrible smell coming from the flat.
We had rats once, some years ago.
Ohh.
I don't want to live through that again.
No.
Indeed.
Thank you very much, Mrs Golofsky.
You've been a great help.
Thank you.
I thought Stephanie took the rubbish out.
That's what she said.
Right, thanks.
DS Fraser last spoke to Stephanie the day before the attack.
She told her that the prison lead looked like a dead end and she didn't have the resources to trace the emails.
Not only that, she also said that the situation would only change if they felt that Stephanie was in immediate physical danger.
And the next day she gets pushed down the stairs.
Forensics checked the locks.
No-one forced it.
No-one buzzed anyone in.
And then there's the thing with the bin.
I mean, it's It just doesn't add up, Matty.
That's not the only bin in the flat.
I emptied the others.
I was going to do the kitchen one later.
But it just seems a bit odd that you would leave the kitchen bin, considering it was so full.
Especially given how clean your flat is.
It looked to me like you could eat off the floor.
What is this? Someone throws me down the stairs and all you care about is what happened to my rubbish.
No, no, we just want to be sure of the facts, that's all.
You see, in a case like this, assault, it's very, very unusual for there to be no forensic evidence at all.
I don't know.
Maybe he was wearing gloves.
Or maybe he wiped things after he touched them.
Maybe.
It sounds like you don't believe me.
Look, it's just that we know that DS Fraser told you she didn't have the resources to trace the emails and that things would only change if you were seen to be more at risk.
So? So I'm sure that you must have had patients in the past that have genuinely needed help .
.
but have decided to exaggerate their symptoms so as they're taken more seriously.
You think that's what I'm doing.
You think that I'm exaggerating.
Well, no, I I think that you feel scared and isolated and like no-one's doing anything to stop this man.
Because they're not.
For two years the police have done nothing.
This man's tormented me with emails and phone calls and now he wants to kill me and still you won't help me.
But .
.
did he push you down the stairs? Was there actually an attacker? The truth is he's going to kill me.
I'm dead unless you help me and you don't even believe I need help.
You must see that we can't investigate a crime that hasn't happened.
He's going to kill me.
I get that she was desperate but that so wasn't the way to go.
You know we should charge her.
Yeah, but she's got enough problems.
We've got enough to charge Dutton with voyeurism.
With any luck they'll link him back to the original emails.
Not a total waste of time then.
What happened to the other one? Oh, Lowry, yeah.
He got out.
Solicitor managed to get the sexual assault charges dismissed.
So he's back spreading the love.
I guess so.
I can introduce you, if you like.
I think I'll pass.
Actually, Matt, I need to get a copy of your report.
What, you want to check my homework? It's for the hospital lawyers.
They spent a lot of money on extra security because of Miss Blake.
If she's lying then they'll probably fire her.
Have you got her contact details? I can email them.
Leave it with me.
Mm, something smells like feet.
I'm broadening your culinary horizons.
Welcome to the world of Korean cuisine.
Look at that.
It's a claw.
That's an exotic delicacy.
I think you need to see this.
Matt.
Oh, my God.
Stephanie Blake.
Beaten and stabbed.
Broken neck.
On the phone? The last thing she did was call 999.
STEPHANIE: It's Giovanni.
It's the man in the picture.
Oh, no, he's coming in.
What does she mean, the man in the picture? We showed her Lowry's mug shot.
She couldn't mean Dutton? No, she'd have used his name.
Anyway, he was in custody at the time.
Is this all we have? It's him, James.
Russell Lowry.
We sent her home, two days later he killed her.
OK.
Find me enough to charge him.
That will be a pleasure.
OK, so, you are trying to connect me to a murder.
No, we're going to connect you to a murder.
Oh, really? Well, good luck with that.
As you can see, I'm a big fan of classical music.
Especially Mozart.
A lot of copies of Don Giovanni.
Well, you know how it is.
Still trying to find that perfect one.
They found 25 different recordings of Mozart's Don Giovanni.
The unrepentant rake.
Yes, certainly appropriate.
Did they manage to track down his missing laptop? Yeah, but the guy who bought it reconditions them to sell on so, apparently, it's no use.
No luck tracing the emails? They've got someone working on it.
Am I the only one who noticed the bloody great elephant in the room? This guy Lowry was in Woodberry when these emails started.
As far as I'm aware not even Cat C prisons allow inmates online computers.
Why do you think we haven't charged him? So who are the investigating officers? Brooks and Devlin.
And how certain are they that Lowry is our man? Well, they let him go and a young woman got killed.
They're certain.
Well, you're out on a limb here, James.
I'm not sure that I would take that risk in your place.
Call it gut instinct, George.
So what are you and your gut planning to do? Send them to Rotherham to see if they can work out how he did it.
Our philosophy is to give them practical skills and a sense of pride so they're able to play a part in society.
Nice theory.
It's more than that.
We have a fully-functioning car repair shop, courses in joinery and metalwork as well as further education and adult learning.
Not to forget the very particular jewel in our crown.
A professional online marketing company and training facility.
And Lowry would have had access to this? Good God no.
He was in for computer fraud.
We're not completely insane.
Any prisoner applying goes through an exhaustive vetting procedure.
The competition's pretty fierce.
Then, once they're in, all Internet access is closely monitored.
No, Lowry was in one of the workshops.
There's no way he ever set foot in here.
The IT expert confirmed that the early emails originated from the prison's IP address but she can't narrow it down to the marketing company unless they agree to hand over their records.
So how was Lowry able to waltz in and out of this media place, let alone spend hours online, without anyone noticing? Lowry's cellmate, Keith Wilson, started on the training project a couple of months after Lowry got there.
We think he must have been helping him.
Yeah, I know, it's all still supposition.
We're going through Lowry's history but all we have that definitely links him to Stephanie is the 999 call.
Animal rescue.
I beg your pardon? In the two months before he was arrested for fraud Lowry worked in a call centre raising money for an animal rescue organisation.
During that time Stephanie Blake set up a monthly direct debit to the same organisation.
Guess who signed her up as a donor? So, they talked on the phone.
Stephanie used to be friendly, outgoing.
Lowry liked what he heard.
Not just that.
It means he had her bank details, address, mobile number.
The guy's a hacker.
And once he had those he could find out anything about her.
Right down to what she bought with her supermarket clubcard points.
Don't you just love technology? Like I told the police, I've never heard of this Stephanie Blake.
Why would I be emailing her? We don't think you were.
In factwe're pretty sure it was your cellmate Russell Lowry.
But we think you helped him.
You got him into the media centre and gave him your pass code.
No.
No way.
If I did something like that I'd be thrown off the programme.
That job's my ticket out of here.
I wouldn't risk it for Lowry.
I didn't even like him.
Then what was it, Mr Wilson, bribery or blackmail? Trouble is, if you say you're the only one who ever used that computer then that means you must have sent the emails for him.
You'll be charged with harassment and aiding and abetting murder.
What You can't be serious? Are you still convinced Lowry never touched your PC? It was only meant to be the once.
Lowry helped Wilson put together the presentation that got him into the training programme.
So Wilson owed him a favour.
Yeah.
Apparently Lowry told him he was into online dating.
That is one hell of a euphemism.
Didn't anyone notice he wasn't meant to be there? Oh, it gets better.
The guy running the project had a problem with his firewall.
Wilson suggested Lowry might be able to fix it.
Next thing you know, Lowry becomes unofficial IT support.
The governor turns a blind eye cos it's cheaper than a professional.
So Lowry comes and goes as he pleases.
Mm-hm.
And he's got access to the entire prison computer system.
They're lucky all he did was send a few emails.
As far as they know.
Who's defending this? Evelyn Wyndham.
Oh, God.
Queen of the early dismissal.
The victim, in her state of panic, is describing a man breaking in to her flat.
During the call she identifies the intruder as Giovanni.
And you want to introduce this as identification of the defendant Mr Lowry.
Yes.
Miss Blake had previously been shown Mr Lowry's photograph because the police believed he was the Giovanni who was stalking her.
But she couldn't identify my client.
She said she'd never seen him before.
The point is the police never told her the name of the man.
As far as she was concerned he was Giovanni.
Spurious speculation.
No, informed reasoning.
She only knew Lowry as Giovanni so when she used that name to identify her murderer it's as if she was saying Russell Lowry is climbing in my window.
Was she shown photos of any other suspects? Only Russell Lowry.
She briefly looked at a photo then, in a state of high emotion, she saw a man who may or may not have resembled that photo.
Therefore I maintain the prejudicial effect outweighs the probative value of the evidence.
Far from it.
The key phrase here is high emotion.
This is a classic example of res gestae.
Faced with imminent death there is no reason to suspect the victim was lying.
Except that she'd lied before.
A week before she died, she threw herself down the stairs and told the police Giovanni did it.
There is no conclusive evidence that she fabricated the attack.
But the police concluded that no crime had been committed which demonstrates that Miss Blake cannot be considered a reliable witness.
All right.
My ruling is that the tape is admissible.
But defence should apply to adduce evidence of the victim's bad character.
Let's give the jury the full picture.
So the tape's still in.
It is but if Lowry's defence destroys Stephanie's credibility it's as good as worthless.
What about the original contact through the call centre, the email harassment? The emails aren't really the problem.
We can prove he was stalking her online but we can't demonstrate a pattern of escalation leading to murder.
If the first attack had actually happened it would be different but, as it stands He walks? No, we'll get a conviction for cyberstalking.
But not for murder.
Really unlikely, guys.
They think she was lying on the tape? Well, it's It's more that the defence can say that the ID's unreliable.
It's difficult when there's no witness to cross-examine.
You mean because she's dead? So because he killed her they can say what they like? They can tell people that my daughter was a liar? And that means her murderer will go free? Well, he won't walk away from the stalking charge.
He destroyed her life.
He made her afraid to step outside her own front door.
Then she came to you for help and he killed her.
She never harmed anyone in her life.
My daughter was not a liar! He knew that we were onto him.
That's what started the escalation.
He wasn't controlling the game any more.
If we hadn't brought him in she'd still be alive.
You didn't have enough evidence to hold him.
We were investigating the wrong crime.
If she hadn't faked her own attack - Are we sure that she did? You can't change the facts.
It's clear from that report that you were both in no doubt that she had lied.
That was then, this is now.
Oh, no.
Don't even think about it.
It wouldn't hurt if we went back over the evidence.
And then what? Decide you made a mistake? Let a guilty conscience to affect your memory? You go down that route and you not only destroy your credibility, you undermine the whole department.
If the alternative is to let Lowry walk - I don't want to hear it.
Don't forget it was your name on that report.
You stated, in no uncertain terms, that Stephanie Blake faked the attack.
You go back on that now and I promise you that's the end of your career.
I don't hear very well and I always worry that it might be one of the girls needing to get inside quickly.
Of course, yes.
So you just you buzz them in just in case.
Yes.
Do you mind if I take a seat? Oh, no.
Sit down, please do.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Sowhat about the night that Stephanie Blake fell down the stairs? Maybe someone rang the - Oh, I was asleep.
It was very late.
Of course.
I understand.
But what about earlier on in the evening, before you went to bed.
Maybe someone rang - Would you have a biscuit? Oh, that's great.
Thank you very much.
That's very kind.
Yeah.
As I was saying, maybemaybe someone rang the bell, you couldn't quite hear, you thought it was one of the other girls? No, I don't think so.
Oh.
But there might have been someone.
Mm.
Oh, yeah.
There might have been.
Well, that's good.
Thank you.
Very nice.
Mm.
Yeah.
OK, just let me be quite clear about this.
You decided to review your own investigation.
That's right.
And, based on new evidence, you now believe Stephanie Blake was telling the truth about the attack.
Yes, I do.
Ronnie the defence saw the report for the original investigation.
They know you concluded that no crime was committed.
I realise that.
Well, then you must also realise that doing this will undermine everything that you and your colleagues have done in the past two months.
Our interpretation of the evidence was flawed and, in light of subsequent events, I think - That's just my point.
You've got to see the implications.
If police officers rewrite history with the benefit of hindsight - In order to get a conviction.
Then what is to stop every investigating officer with a shaky case from going back and amending their reports? I can only look at the case in front of me and in this particular case .
.
I believe we made a mistake.
The defence won't take your word for it.
They won't have to.
I know you want to put him away.
It's not about that.
Come off it, Ronnie.
James, it's not about that.
We interpreted the evidence based on what we thought we knew.
We jumped to conclusions and we let her down.
Are you absolutely convinced you've got the evidence to back this up? Yes, I am.
OK, I'll apply to amend the indictment.
We'll charge Lowry with attempted murder.
Thank you.
Don't thank me yet.
Why is he doing this? Because he believes it's the right thing to do? But does he believe that Stephanie was attacked? That is not a question we need to ask.
You reckon If Ronnie's new evidence contradicts his earlier conclusion we can re-establish Stephanie's credibility.
We just accept that he changed his mind? If he shows us the evidence then the rest is his business.
Stephanie Blake's landlady remembers letting someone into the building at around 7:30.
She wasn't able to hear what the person said on the intercom because of her poor hearing so she assumed it was one of the tenants.
However, having spoken to all of the tenants I now conclude that the unknown person must have been Stephanie's attacker.
And why didn't the landlady mention this in her original statement? Well, she hadn't realised the connection between that event and the attack so she didn't realise its importance.
The original police report also cited the lack of forensic evidence at the scene.
Surely that must still be an issue.
Well, there was no forensic evidence at the murder scene either.
Nonetheless, Stephanie Blake was still dead.
The attacker was cleverer than we thought.
Thank you.
Miss Wyndham.
Well, my goodness.
This is quite a turnaround.
As I said, new evidence came to light.
Yes, yes, which caused you to revise your conclusions.
And it's just good luck that revising those conclusions has strengthened the prosecution's case against my client.
I'm sorry, was that a question? Did you reopen the case before or after we'd applied to adduce evidence for Miss Blake's bad character? After.
But I fully intended going back on the investigation since the murder.
Of course.
And I'm sure my learned friends for the Crown were very encouraging.
Choose your words with care, Miss Wyndham.
I intend to, my lord.
Far be it from me to accuse the opposing counsel of suborning perjury.
DS Brooks, it wasn't just lack of evidence that made you think that Miss Blake had faked the attack, was it? Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.
As I understand it, didn't her behaviour acknowledge the fact that she'd made the whole thing up? No.
Well, the CRIS report said it did.
When asked if there had been an attacker Miss Blake burst into tears and failed to answer the questions.
Well, this was a young girl that was terrified and we were accusing her rather than helping her.
When you say 'we', do you mean your partner, DS Devlin? Yes.
And he agrees with your revised conclusion? As far as I know.
Well, does he agree or doesn't he? Yes or no? Of course he does.
She didn't stalk and kill herself, did she? What the hell were you thinking? She asked my opinion and I gave it to her.
No, you gave his opinion.
You were an inch away from perjury and now you want to drag your partner down with you.
You could've warned me.
I thought it was best to leave you out of it.
Until you decide to drop him in it.
Look, given new evidence - New evidence? Some old dear remembered she answered a buzzer.
It's pretty tenuous.
Tenuous? That's the understatement of the year.
I told you categorically to leave this alone.
I know.
If it were up to me you'd be suspended by now.
But I've been advised that it would compromise the department if we were seen to be covering up a possible case of negligence.
So consider yourself on gardening leave until the end of the trial.
Thank you.
Ron.
Why didn't you say what you were doing? There's no point both of us being on gardening leave.
You live in a flat.
So, what, it's OK for you to fall on your sword for the greater good, but not for me? Matt, you're being overdramatic.
All I did was go back over the evidence.
That's not evidence.
It's finding stuff that wasn't there.
What did you say to the old girl? It was her fault, it's a chance to put it right? You know me better than that.
Do I? We could have gone back together and found something on Lowry but, you know, this is ridiculous.
We both look ridiculous.
I'll tell you what's ridiculous.
A girl on a landing having a chat with a man who isn't even there, tries to garrotte herself with her necklace and throws herself downstairs.
That's ridiculous.
We both decided that she faked the attack.
You know that and I know that.
And now, thanks to you and your one-man crusade, Lowry is going to walk.
I don't think so.
Well, I do.
And I've been called as a witness for the defence.
And no matter how much I want to see Lowry go down I will not lie under oath, Ron.
Well, I wouldn't expect you to.
DS Devlin is standing by the original report.
Apparently.
I thought he agreed with DS Brooks.
So did we.
Right.
So what now? John Abbott, one of the hospital lawyers, requested a copy of the police report after the first incident.
They were going to fire Blake if she'd made it all up.
DS Devlin told me to leave it with him.
And? They didn't fire her.
We're sure those were his exact words? Abbott takes notes of everything.
He basically gave me a transcript of the conversation.
OK.
Good.
James, are you sure about this? I refer the court to Exhibit 8, a printout of the original CRIS report.
Can you tell me what term you used to describe the conclusion of the investigation? No crime.
Would it be correct to say that if no crime was committed then Stephanie Blake must have faked the attack? That's one interpretation.
I say it's the only interpretation so I ask you again.
When you filled out the report, was it your opinion that she faked the attack? Yes or no? Yes.
And you still stand by that report? Yes, I do.
No further questions, my lord.
DS Devlin, after the original investigation were you satisfied with the conclusions in your report? As far as I could be.
So you saw no need to re-examine the evidence? Not at the time, no.
Whereas your partner, DS Brooks, became concerned that mistakes may have been made during the course of the investigation that may have led you to reach an incorrect conclusion.
Is that right? DS Brooks wanted to go back over the evidence to be sure we hadn't missed anything.
But you yourself, you weren't involved in this process? No.
You didn't reinterview the witnesses? No.
You didn't compare the original crime-scene report with that of the murder and cross-reference for similarities? I was working on other cases.
So you'd moved on because you felt entirely confident that you'd reached the right result.
The case was officially closed.
And yet your partner, DS Brooks, an officer of considerably longer service and more experience that yourself, felt so concerned that he took it upon himself to single-handedly reopen the investigation.
Is that correct? Yeah.
Yet you were still entirely confident.
DS Devlin, did your original investigation conclude that Stephanie Blake was being stalked by someone using the name Giovanni? Yes.
And did you eventually conclude that Russell Lowry and Giovanni were the same person? Yes, we did.
Did you conclude that Miss Blake was in lethal and immediate danger from her stalker? Er, no, no, we So at what point did you reach that conclusion? When you saw Miss Blake lying dead of stab wounds and a broken neck? By that point I assume even you, entirely confident as you were, must have realised you'd made a mistake.
During the initial investigation we found no evidence that an attack had taken place.
As far as we could tell, at that point, no crime had been committed.
So, having concluded that, you decided that Stephanie Blake faced no serious threat from Russell Lowry.
That's right.
And yet you told her employers that she faced a serious threat from Giovanni, otherwise known as Russell Lowry did you not? Well Well, yeah.
Yeah, I did.
So did you lie? I felt sorry for her.
I didn't think she should lose her job.
I'm sorry, DS Devlin, was that a yes, you lied? Yes.
And are you lying now? No.
If you lied to Stephanie's employers to protect her job perhaps you're lying now to hide your incompetence.
Incompetence that you're too arrogant to admit even in the face of new and compelling evidence.
Mr Steel.
I'm curious about the witness's expedient attitude towards the truth, my lord.
I have no further questions.
You didn't have to go that far.
I went as far as I needed to.
Matt Devlin is a good police officer.
Not today.
Today he was collateral damage.
Would the defendant please stand? Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict upon which you are all agreed? FOREMAN: Yes.
On the count of attempted murder, do you find the defendant, Russell Lowry, guilty or not guilty? Guilty.
And on the count of murder, do you find the defendant, Russell Lowry, guilty or not guilty? Guilty.
He was pretty rough on you in there, wasn't he? You think Makes you glad he's on our side though, eh? You put me in an impossible position, Ronnie.
And then you stood by while Steel called me a bad copper.
Worse than that, a stupid copper.
I never set out to make you look stupid, Matt, you know that.
What, that was just an added bonus, was it? Wellevery cloud, eh? Too soon?
These are their stories.
Yes! Come on! Billy.
I can hardly hear it.
I'm getting up at six.
If I turn it down any more I might as well turn it off.
There's an idea.
OK.
Stop it! What are you doing? Stop it! Billy.
Let me go, let me go.
No, please.
Please, no.
Billy, what is it? You say you weren't on your own.
No, my girlfriend was with me the whole time.
Right.
And you only heard a woman's voice, yeah? My Xbox was pretty loud.
I only turned it down after she screamed.
OK.
One of our uniform will get some more details.
Mrs Golofsky owns the building.
Ah, Mrs Golofsky, hello.
I'm Detective Sergeant Brooks.
Did you hear anything? Sorry? Just trying to find out if you heard anything at all? Oh, no, nothing at all.
What about the girl who fell - did she have a husband or boyfriend? Oh, no, I never saw her with anyone.
As a matter of fact, I used to think maybe she was the other way inclined.
The victim's gone into surgery so we can't speak to her for a while.
OK.
And do you have a spare key for Stephanie's flat? Oh, yes.
In the key cupboard.
Right, we need to have a look around.
Do you need a key to get into the building? Yesbut you can use the buzzer.
Right.
My nephew put in a new lock in April.
He's very technical is Alan.
Well, if you fetch that key for us that would be great and Anne will look after you.
OK? Thank you.
Right, we've got three old dears that were fast asleep.
The bloke who found Stephanie said he was out of the flat as soon as he heard her fall but didn't see or hear anyone else.
So the thing iswho did it? And how did they get out? You won't make a mess, will you? She likes to keep everything looking nice.
Was this her? Oh, yes.
She can look really lovely when she makes an effort.
Do you know what she does for a living? She's a nurse.
On the children's ward.
At Alderman's Hospital.
Oh.
OK.
Thanks for your help, Mrs Golofsky.
We appreciate it.
Leave it to us now and we'll drop the key in when we're done.
Is that OK? Oh, right.
Thank you.
Ronnie.
Yeah.
Look at this.
A whole file of emails all addressed to Stephanie, starting in the beginning of last year, and signed by Giovanni.
I get the impression he was typing one-handed.
They've tried tracking him, blocking him, you name it.
Emails just keep coming.
I take it she changed her email address.
Half a dozen times.
Made no difference.
She's kept hard copies of everything.
I guess she didn't want this clogging up her inbox.
I want to see you in that little pink cami set tonight.
I'll know you're thinking of me when you stretch out on your new Ikea mattress.
Then I want you to strip off Ugh.
I want to wash my hands.
We found these little pink pyjamas under her pillow and she bought a mattress from Ikea when she moved into her new flat.
He knows what toothpaste she uses, furniture polish, everything.
And he's thought of new uses for most of them.
Any word from the hospital? She's sedated until the swelling on her brain goes down.
Any direct threats in here like, 'I'm coming over to push you down the stairs'? No.
I want to know who this pervert is.
Did she report these to anyone? Yes, to a DS Fraser at Northcross CSU.
If someone reports a stalker we don't just tell them not to worry.
But we have to prioritise according to threat level.
And this guy's clever.
He uses multiple email addresses and routes them through anonymous remailers.
Pretty much impossible to track.
When did he start with the threatening phone calls? About six months ago.
Stephanie was freaked out by the emails.
Her work put her on day shift so she didn't have to be out at night.
But she was convinced he was getting into her flat when she wasn't there.
That's why she moved.
That's when he told her to stop trying to avoid him or he'd kill her.
He said he'd go to the hospital and take out as many people as he could.
When was this? Two weeks ago.
That's when we upgraded her threat level.
And still no leads? Only one.
A few days ago Stephanie got a call from Ashbridge Prison.
They said a prisoner had asked to have her mobile added to his list of allowed numbers.
Stephanie had never heard of him and she'd only had that mobile a few weeks.
I made a mistake.
It's easily done.
I put a three instead of a five.
Mr Morgan, you gave Stephanie's name as well as her number.
There's a lot of Stephanies around.
Only one got pushed down the stairs.
Yeah? Well, I've got one hell of an alibi.
It doesn't mean you weren't involved and it won't look too pretty in front of the parole board.
Look, you're pissing up the wrong tree.
A bloke called Lowry asked me to request a number.
Said he was low on phone credit and wanted to hook up with some bird.
Very community-spirited of you.
He made it worth my while.
And where is this Lowry now? Got out last week.
Are we done? Excuse me.
I'm DS Matt Devlin.
Do you know the guy who lives here? A Russell Lowry.
Yeah, I know him.
Do you know where we could find him? He starts at the Lord Palmerston.
Keeps going till he finds a girl who's drunk or dumb enough.
Not a fan? Seemed all right at first.
Offered me a cheap deal on his laptop.
Invited me in to take a look and then puts his hand up my skirt.
And they say romance is dead.
I think that when you feel a connection with a woman, you owe it to yourself to follow it up.
OK, Mr Lowry what about Stephanie Blake? We met in a bar and we clicked.
When was this? It was about a month ago.
It was a place in town, in Soho.
She gave me her number and I was interested in exploring the possibility.
So why then didn't you just call her? Well, I had a little local difficulty.
Remanded for assault in Ashbridge Prison.
Yeah.
It was an unfortunate misunderstanding.
The judge said it didn't merit a custodial sentence.
Why mess around getting Morgan to request her number? He was low on smokes but didn't need his phone credits.
I had cigarettes and a lot of calls to make so worked out well for the both of us.
Not strictly within the rules though.
No.
But it was a victimless crime.
Do you have a job, Russell? I'm between careers right now.
I was up north for a while.
I've only recently relocated to London.
Did you contact Stephanie Blake when you got out? I'm afraid it was a case of out of sight, out of mind.
Another possibility arose.
What can I say? I like to spread the love.
Life's short, you know.
See? It's in the email.
I like to spread the love and that's not all I like to spread.
Is this all you have? No forensics, nothing to link him to the scene? Nothing on the stairs.
No fingerprints, no trace evidence.
The only DNA on the chain was on the victim.
But we know Lowry tried to contact Stephanie from prison whilst hiding his identity and he recently sold his laptop on eBay.
We need a reason to hold on to him while we track down the buyer.
Lowry's neighbour, the one he groped, might she want to report sexual assault? Well, she seemed pretty keen to see the back of him.
Talk to her.
It might buy you some time.
DI Chandler.
Oh, thank you.
Stephanie Blake has regained consciousness.
Do you recognise this man? No.
You think he's Giovanni? He says he met you in a bar in Soho a couple of months ago.
I don't go to bars.
So this isn't the man that attacked you? I don't know.
I never saw his face.
He grabbed me from behind and I tried to turn around but he was too strong.
Oh, darling.
It's OK, Mum.
Why don't you take us through what happened Stephanie? I went out to take my rubbish down to the basement and he grabbed hold of me at the top of the stairs.
I didn't notice any rubbish on the landing.
No, sorry.
It was after I'd taken the rubbish down.
I was coming back up to the flat.
Did he say anything? He said he was Giovanni.
I started to scream and he tried to choke me with the necklace I was wearing and then he threw me down the stairs.
Dear God.
Has anyone stood out at all whose behaviour seemed genuinely suspicious? The only name I ever came up with was Lucas Dutton.
And who's he? We were living in the same block of flats when the emails started.
Why him? I'd go to the local supermarket and he'd be there too or I'd go to the bank on the corner and he'd be queuing for the cashpoint right behind me.
First the emails, then the phone calls, now he tries to kill me.
Please.
You have to help me.
You have to make him stop.
Lucas Dutton's still living in the same flats.
He's got no record and he's working as a hotel porter.
I reckon Lowry's still our main contender.
I think we've hit a brick wall there.
Lowry forgot to mention that his time up north was spent in Woodberry Prison just outside Rotherham.
What was he in for? Computer fraud.
Hacking into people's bank accounts, helping himself.
So he'd know how to send emails that can't be traced.
He didn't get out till last July which means he was still banged up when the emails started.
Maybe he got hold of one of them WiFi phones.
See? I do read the papers.
What, and he spent half a day typing a four-page email on a phone? I know prison security's lax but I think they'd have noticed that.
I wouldn't be so sure.
Matt, you want a bite? No, you're all right.
So what happened with Lowry's neighbour then? Ohshe had him charged with sexual assault.
He's back in Ashbridge Prison.
Good.
At least we know where he is.
It's down to what you get out of Mr Dutton then, isn't it? Are you arresting me? No, we're talking to you.
Then I don't have to answer you.
Can you tell us if you know Stephanie Blake? No comment.
Mr Dutton, look, all we want to do is chat.
If we could come in - That'd be a breach of my human rights.
Sorry? Article 8 European Convention of Human Rights.
The right to privacy.
He knows his stuff.
He does.
We'll come back with a warrant.
Do that.
Did you notice the camera? Mm.
Maybe he's shooting some home movies.
But whose home? Mm.
I don't think we need a warrant, do you? All right.
Seriously, when did you last get a successful prosecution for online obscenity? If someone's in a public place you can take their picture.
You've been filming a woman in her own flat.
The same flat that Stephanie Blake lived in.
That is voyeurism.
As outlined in Section 67 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
Section 67 applies only if someone has an expectation of privacy.
If they leave their curtains open and walk about naked Come off it.
.
.
this could be interpreted as consent and then it's not voyeurism.
That's the law.
You reckon? OK.
Lucas, where were you at 1am Tuesday morning? They can't ask me that.
If this relates to a separate investigation I require full disclosure.
Someone threw Stephanie Blake down a flight of stairs.
We know you liked following her around.
I'll bet you filmed her too.
And now we've got your computer so we'll find the emails eventually.
I don't know what they mean.
We're here to talk about dirty movies.
You want to talk about assault, we have to start over.
And you'll have to show me evidence linking my client to the victim.
Hold that thought.
Weaselly-looking fellow, isn't he? Yeah, he is.
You think he's the one who did it? Well, we don't know yet.
Oh, that poor girl.
At least they're letting her home.
Her mother came to collect some clothes for her.
I had to ask her to empty the bin in the kitchen.
There was a terrible smell coming from the flat.
We had rats once, some years ago.
Ohh.
I don't want to live through that again.
No.
Indeed.
Thank you very much, Mrs Golofsky.
You've been a great help.
Thank you.
I thought Stephanie took the rubbish out.
That's what she said.
Right, thanks.
DS Fraser last spoke to Stephanie the day before the attack.
She told her that the prison lead looked like a dead end and she didn't have the resources to trace the emails.
Not only that, she also said that the situation would only change if they felt that Stephanie was in immediate physical danger.
And the next day she gets pushed down the stairs.
Forensics checked the locks.
No-one forced it.
No-one buzzed anyone in.
And then there's the thing with the bin.
I mean, it's It just doesn't add up, Matty.
That's not the only bin in the flat.
I emptied the others.
I was going to do the kitchen one later.
But it just seems a bit odd that you would leave the kitchen bin, considering it was so full.
Especially given how clean your flat is.
It looked to me like you could eat off the floor.
What is this? Someone throws me down the stairs and all you care about is what happened to my rubbish.
No, no, we just want to be sure of the facts, that's all.
You see, in a case like this, assault, it's very, very unusual for there to be no forensic evidence at all.
I don't know.
Maybe he was wearing gloves.
Or maybe he wiped things after he touched them.
Maybe.
It sounds like you don't believe me.
Look, it's just that we know that DS Fraser told you she didn't have the resources to trace the emails and that things would only change if you were seen to be more at risk.
So? So I'm sure that you must have had patients in the past that have genuinely needed help .
.
but have decided to exaggerate their symptoms so as they're taken more seriously.
You think that's what I'm doing.
You think that I'm exaggerating.
Well, no, I I think that you feel scared and isolated and like no-one's doing anything to stop this man.
Because they're not.
For two years the police have done nothing.
This man's tormented me with emails and phone calls and now he wants to kill me and still you won't help me.
But .
.
did he push you down the stairs? Was there actually an attacker? The truth is he's going to kill me.
I'm dead unless you help me and you don't even believe I need help.
You must see that we can't investigate a crime that hasn't happened.
He's going to kill me.
I get that she was desperate but that so wasn't the way to go.
You know we should charge her.
Yeah, but she's got enough problems.
We've got enough to charge Dutton with voyeurism.
With any luck they'll link him back to the original emails.
Not a total waste of time then.
What happened to the other one? Oh, Lowry, yeah.
He got out.
Solicitor managed to get the sexual assault charges dismissed.
So he's back spreading the love.
I guess so.
I can introduce you, if you like.
I think I'll pass.
Actually, Matt, I need to get a copy of your report.
What, you want to check my homework? It's for the hospital lawyers.
They spent a lot of money on extra security because of Miss Blake.
If she's lying then they'll probably fire her.
Have you got her contact details? I can email them.
Leave it with me.
Mm, something smells like feet.
I'm broadening your culinary horizons.
Welcome to the world of Korean cuisine.
Look at that.
It's a claw.
That's an exotic delicacy.
I think you need to see this.
Matt.
Oh, my God.
Stephanie Blake.
Beaten and stabbed.
Broken neck.
On the phone? The last thing she did was call 999.
STEPHANIE: It's Giovanni.
It's the man in the picture.
Oh, no, he's coming in.
What does she mean, the man in the picture? We showed her Lowry's mug shot.
She couldn't mean Dutton? No, she'd have used his name.
Anyway, he was in custody at the time.
Is this all we have? It's him, James.
Russell Lowry.
We sent her home, two days later he killed her.
OK.
Find me enough to charge him.
That will be a pleasure.
OK, so, you are trying to connect me to a murder.
No, we're going to connect you to a murder.
Oh, really? Well, good luck with that.
As you can see, I'm a big fan of classical music.
Especially Mozart.
A lot of copies of Don Giovanni.
Well, you know how it is.
Still trying to find that perfect one.
They found 25 different recordings of Mozart's Don Giovanni.
The unrepentant rake.
Yes, certainly appropriate.
Did they manage to track down his missing laptop? Yeah, but the guy who bought it reconditions them to sell on so, apparently, it's no use.
No luck tracing the emails? They've got someone working on it.
Am I the only one who noticed the bloody great elephant in the room? This guy Lowry was in Woodberry when these emails started.
As far as I'm aware not even Cat C prisons allow inmates online computers.
Why do you think we haven't charged him? So who are the investigating officers? Brooks and Devlin.
And how certain are they that Lowry is our man? Well, they let him go and a young woman got killed.
They're certain.
Well, you're out on a limb here, James.
I'm not sure that I would take that risk in your place.
Call it gut instinct, George.
So what are you and your gut planning to do? Send them to Rotherham to see if they can work out how he did it.
Our philosophy is to give them practical skills and a sense of pride so they're able to play a part in society.
Nice theory.
It's more than that.
We have a fully-functioning car repair shop, courses in joinery and metalwork as well as further education and adult learning.
Not to forget the very particular jewel in our crown.
A professional online marketing company and training facility.
And Lowry would have had access to this? Good God no.
He was in for computer fraud.
We're not completely insane.
Any prisoner applying goes through an exhaustive vetting procedure.
The competition's pretty fierce.
Then, once they're in, all Internet access is closely monitored.
No, Lowry was in one of the workshops.
There's no way he ever set foot in here.
The IT expert confirmed that the early emails originated from the prison's IP address but she can't narrow it down to the marketing company unless they agree to hand over their records.
So how was Lowry able to waltz in and out of this media place, let alone spend hours online, without anyone noticing? Lowry's cellmate, Keith Wilson, started on the training project a couple of months after Lowry got there.
We think he must have been helping him.
Yeah, I know, it's all still supposition.
We're going through Lowry's history but all we have that definitely links him to Stephanie is the 999 call.
Animal rescue.
I beg your pardon? In the two months before he was arrested for fraud Lowry worked in a call centre raising money for an animal rescue organisation.
During that time Stephanie Blake set up a monthly direct debit to the same organisation.
Guess who signed her up as a donor? So, they talked on the phone.
Stephanie used to be friendly, outgoing.
Lowry liked what he heard.
Not just that.
It means he had her bank details, address, mobile number.
The guy's a hacker.
And once he had those he could find out anything about her.
Right down to what she bought with her supermarket clubcard points.
Don't you just love technology? Like I told the police, I've never heard of this Stephanie Blake.
Why would I be emailing her? We don't think you were.
In factwe're pretty sure it was your cellmate Russell Lowry.
But we think you helped him.
You got him into the media centre and gave him your pass code.
No.
No way.
If I did something like that I'd be thrown off the programme.
That job's my ticket out of here.
I wouldn't risk it for Lowry.
I didn't even like him.
Then what was it, Mr Wilson, bribery or blackmail? Trouble is, if you say you're the only one who ever used that computer then that means you must have sent the emails for him.
You'll be charged with harassment and aiding and abetting murder.
What You can't be serious? Are you still convinced Lowry never touched your PC? It was only meant to be the once.
Lowry helped Wilson put together the presentation that got him into the training programme.
So Wilson owed him a favour.
Yeah.
Apparently Lowry told him he was into online dating.
That is one hell of a euphemism.
Didn't anyone notice he wasn't meant to be there? Oh, it gets better.
The guy running the project had a problem with his firewall.
Wilson suggested Lowry might be able to fix it.
Next thing you know, Lowry becomes unofficial IT support.
The governor turns a blind eye cos it's cheaper than a professional.
So Lowry comes and goes as he pleases.
Mm-hm.
And he's got access to the entire prison computer system.
They're lucky all he did was send a few emails.
As far as they know.
Who's defending this? Evelyn Wyndham.
Oh, God.
Queen of the early dismissal.
The victim, in her state of panic, is describing a man breaking in to her flat.
During the call she identifies the intruder as Giovanni.
And you want to introduce this as identification of the defendant Mr Lowry.
Yes.
Miss Blake had previously been shown Mr Lowry's photograph because the police believed he was the Giovanni who was stalking her.
But she couldn't identify my client.
She said she'd never seen him before.
The point is the police never told her the name of the man.
As far as she was concerned he was Giovanni.
Spurious speculation.
No, informed reasoning.
She only knew Lowry as Giovanni so when she used that name to identify her murderer it's as if she was saying Russell Lowry is climbing in my window.
Was she shown photos of any other suspects? Only Russell Lowry.
She briefly looked at a photo then, in a state of high emotion, she saw a man who may or may not have resembled that photo.
Therefore I maintain the prejudicial effect outweighs the probative value of the evidence.
Far from it.
The key phrase here is high emotion.
This is a classic example of res gestae.
Faced with imminent death there is no reason to suspect the victim was lying.
Except that she'd lied before.
A week before she died, she threw herself down the stairs and told the police Giovanni did it.
There is no conclusive evidence that she fabricated the attack.
But the police concluded that no crime had been committed which demonstrates that Miss Blake cannot be considered a reliable witness.
All right.
My ruling is that the tape is admissible.
But defence should apply to adduce evidence of the victim's bad character.
Let's give the jury the full picture.
So the tape's still in.
It is but if Lowry's defence destroys Stephanie's credibility it's as good as worthless.
What about the original contact through the call centre, the email harassment? The emails aren't really the problem.
We can prove he was stalking her online but we can't demonstrate a pattern of escalation leading to murder.
If the first attack had actually happened it would be different but, as it stands He walks? No, we'll get a conviction for cyberstalking.
But not for murder.
Really unlikely, guys.
They think she was lying on the tape? Well, it's It's more that the defence can say that the ID's unreliable.
It's difficult when there's no witness to cross-examine.
You mean because she's dead? So because he killed her they can say what they like? They can tell people that my daughter was a liar? And that means her murderer will go free? Well, he won't walk away from the stalking charge.
He destroyed her life.
He made her afraid to step outside her own front door.
Then she came to you for help and he killed her.
She never harmed anyone in her life.
My daughter was not a liar! He knew that we were onto him.
That's what started the escalation.
He wasn't controlling the game any more.
If we hadn't brought him in she'd still be alive.
You didn't have enough evidence to hold him.
We were investigating the wrong crime.
If she hadn't faked her own attack - Are we sure that she did? You can't change the facts.
It's clear from that report that you were both in no doubt that she had lied.
That was then, this is now.
Oh, no.
Don't even think about it.
It wouldn't hurt if we went back over the evidence.
And then what? Decide you made a mistake? Let a guilty conscience to affect your memory? You go down that route and you not only destroy your credibility, you undermine the whole department.
If the alternative is to let Lowry walk - I don't want to hear it.
Don't forget it was your name on that report.
You stated, in no uncertain terms, that Stephanie Blake faked the attack.
You go back on that now and I promise you that's the end of your career.
I don't hear very well and I always worry that it might be one of the girls needing to get inside quickly.
Of course, yes.
So you just you buzz them in just in case.
Yes.
Do you mind if I take a seat? Oh, no.
Sit down, please do.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Sowhat about the night that Stephanie Blake fell down the stairs? Maybe someone rang the - Oh, I was asleep.
It was very late.
Of course.
I understand.
But what about earlier on in the evening, before you went to bed.
Maybe someone rang - Would you have a biscuit? Oh, that's great.
Thank you very much.
That's very kind.
Yeah.
As I was saying, maybemaybe someone rang the bell, you couldn't quite hear, you thought it was one of the other girls? No, I don't think so.
Oh.
But there might have been someone.
Mm.
Oh, yeah.
There might have been.
Well, that's good.
Thank you.
Very nice.
Mm.
Yeah.
OK, just let me be quite clear about this.
You decided to review your own investigation.
That's right.
And, based on new evidence, you now believe Stephanie Blake was telling the truth about the attack.
Yes, I do.
Ronnie the defence saw the report for the original investigation.
They know you concluded that no crime was committed.
I realise that.
Well, then you must also realise that doing this will undermine everything that you and your colleagues have done in the past two months.
Our interpretation of the evidence was flawed and, in light of subsequent events, I think - That's just my point.
You've got to see the implications.
If police officers rewrite history with the benefit of hindsight - In order to get a conviction.
Then what is to stop every investigating officer with a shaky case from going back and amending their reports? I can only look at the case in front of me and in this particular case .
.
I believe we made a mistake.
The defence won't take your word for it.
They won't have to.
I know you want to put him away.
It's not about that.
Come off it, Ronnie.
James, it's not about that.
We interpreted the evidence based on what we thought we knew.
We jumped to conclusions and we let her down.
Are you absolutely convinced you've got the evidence to back this up? Yes, I am.
OK, I'll apply to amend the indictment.
We'll charge Lowry with attempted murder.
Thank you.
Don't thank me yet.
Why is he doing this? Because he believes it's the right thing to do? But does he believe that Stephanie was attacked? That is not a question we need to ask.
You reckon If Ronnie's new evidence contradicts his earlier conclusion we can re-establish Stephanie's credibility.
We just accept that he changed his mind? If he shows us the evidence then the rest is his business.
Stephanie Blake's landlady remembers letting someone into the building at around 7:30.
She wasn't able to hear what the person said on the intercom because of her poor hearing so she assumed it was one of the tenants.
However, having spoken to all of the tenants I now conclude that the unknown person must have been Stephanie's attacker.
And why didn't the landlady mention this in her original statement? Well, she hadn't realised the connection between that event and the attack so she didn't realise its importance.
The original police report also cited the lack of forensic evidence at the scene.
Surely that must still be an issue.
Well, there was no forensic evidence at the murder scene either.
Nonetheless, Stephanie Blake was still dead.
The attacker was cleverer than we thought.
Thank you.
Miss Wyndham.
Well, my goodness.
This is quite a turnaround.
As I said, new evidence came to light.
Yes, yes, which caused you to revise your conclusions.
And it's just good luck that revising those conclusions has strengthened the prosecution's case against my client.
I'm sorry, was that a question? Did you reopen the case before or after we'd applied to adduce evidence for Miss Blake's bad character? After.
But I fully intended going back on the investigation since the murder.
Of course.
And I'm sure my learned friends for the Crown were very encouraging.
Choose your words with care, Miss Wyndham.
I intend to, my lord.
Far be it from me to accuse the opposing counsel of suborning perjury.
DS Brooks, it wasn't just lack of evidence that made you think that Miss Blake had faked the attack, was it? Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.
As I understand it, didn't her behaviour acknowledge the fact that she'd made the whole thing up? No.
Well, the CRIS report said it did.
When asked if there had been an attacker Miss Blake burst into tears and failed to answer the questions.
Well, this was a young girl that was terrified and we were accusing her rather than helping her.
When you say 'we', do you mean your partner, DS Devlin? Yes.
And he agrees with your revised conclusion? As far as I know.
Well, does he agree or doesn't he? Yes or no? Of course he does.
She didn't stalk and kill herself, did she? What the hell were you thinking? She asked my opinion and I gave it to her.
No, you gave his opinion.
You were an inch away from perjury and now you want to drag your partner down with you.
You could've warned me.
I thought it was best to leave you out of it.
Until you decide to drop him in it.
Look, given new evidence - New evidence? Some old dear remembered she answered a buzzer.
It's pretty tenuous.
Tenuous? That's the understatement of the year.
I told you categorically to leave this alone.
I know.
If it were up to me you'd be suspended by now.
But I've been advised that it would compromise the department if we were seen to be covering up a possible case of negligence.
So consider yourself on gardening leave until the end of the trial.
Thank you.
Ron.
Why didn't you say what you were doing? There's no point both of us being on gardening leave.
You live in a flat.
So, what, it's OK for you to fall on your sword for the greater good, but not for me? Matt, you're being overdramatic.
All I did was go back over the evidence.
That's not evidence.
It's finding stuff that wasn't there.
What did you say to the old girl? It was her fault, it's a chance to put it right? You know me better than that.
Do I? We could have gone back together and found something on Lowry but, you know, this is ridiculous.
We both look ridiculous.
I'll tell you what's ridiculous.
A girl on a landing having a chat with a man who isn't even there, tries to garrotte herself with her necklace and throws herself downstairs.
That's ridiculous.
We both decided that she faked the attack.
You know that and I know that.
And now, thanks to you and your one-man crusade, Lowry is going to walk.
I don't think so.
Well, I do.
And I've been called as a witness for the defence.
And no matter how much I want to see Lowry go down I will not lie under oath, Ron.
Well, I wouldn't expect you to.
DS Devlin is standing by the original report.
Apparently.
I thought he agreed with DS Brooks.
So did we.
Right.
So what now? John Abbott, one of the hospital lawyers, requested a copy of the police report after the first incident.
They were going to fire Blake if she'd made it all up.
DS Devlin told me to leave it with him.
And? They didn't fire her.
We're sure those were his exact words? Abbott takes notes of everything.
He basically gave me a transcript of the conversation.
OK.
Good.
James, are you sure about this? I refer the court to Exhibit 8, a printout of the original CRIS report.
Can you tell me what term you used to describe the conclusion of the investigation? No crime.
Would it be correct to say that if no crime was committed then Stephanie Blake must have faked the attack? That's one interpretation.
I say it's the only interpretation so I ask you again.
When you filled out the report, was it your opinion that she faked the attack? Yes or no? Yes.
And you still stand by that report? Yes, I do.
No further questions, my lord.
DS Devlin, after the original investigation were you satisfied with the conclusions in your report? As far as I could be.
So you saw no need to re-examine the evidence? Not at the time, no.
Whereas your partner, DS Brooks, became concerned that mistakes may have been made during the course of the investigation that may have led you to reach an incorrect conclusion.
Is that right? DS Brooks wanted to go back over the evidence to be sure we hadn't missed anything.
But you yourself, you weren't involved in this process? No.
You didn't reinterview the witnesses? No.
You didn't compare the original crime-scene report with that of the murder and cross-reference for similarities? I was working on other cases.
So you'd moved on because you felt entirely confident that you'd reached the right result.
The case was officially closed.
And yet your partner, DS Brooks, an officer of considerably longer service and more experience that yourself, felt so concerned that he took it upon himself to single-handedly reopen the investigation.
Is that correct? Yeah.
Yet you were still entirely confident.
DS Devlin, did your original investigation conclude that Stephanie Blake was being stalked by someone using the name Giovanni? Yes.
And did you eventually conclude that Russell Lowry and Giovanni were the same person? Yes, we did.
Did you conclude that Miss Blake was in lethal and immediate danger from her stalker? Er, no, no, we So at what point did you reach that conclusion? When you saw Miss Blake lying dead of stab wounds and a broken neck? By that point I assume even you, entirely confident as you were, must have realised you'd made a mistake.
During the initial investigation we found no evidence that an attack had taken place.
As far as we could tell, at that point, no crime had been committed.
So, having concluded that, you decided that Stephanie Blake faced no serious threat from Russell Lowry.
That's right.
And yet you told her employers that she faced a serious threat from Giovanni, otherwise known as Russell Lowry did you not? Well Well, yeah.
Yeah, I did.
So did you lie? I felt sorry for her.
I didn't think she should lose her job.
I'm sorry, DS Devlin, was that a yes, you lied? Yes.
And are you lying now? No.
If you lied to Stephanie's employers to protect her job perhaps you're lying now to hide your incompetence.
Incompetence that you're too arrogant to admit even in the face of new and compelling evidence.
Mr Steel.
I'm curious about the witness's expedient attitude towards the truth, my lord.
I have no further questions.
You didn't have to go that far.
I went as far as I needed to.
Matt Devlin is a good police officer.
Not today.
Today he was collateral damage.
Would the defendant please stand? Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict upon which you are all agreed? FOREMAN: Yes.
On the count of attempted murder, do you find the defendant, Russell Lowry, guilty or not guilty? Guilty.
And on the count of murder, do you find the defendant, Russell Lowry, guilty or not guilty? Guilty.
He was pretty rough on you in there, wasn't he? You think Makes you glad he's on our side though, eh? You put me in an impossible position, Ronnie.
And then you stood by while Steel called me a bad copper.
Worse than that, a stupid copper.
I never set out to make you look stupid, Matt, you know that.
What, that was just an added bonus, was it? Wellevery cloud, eh? Too soon?