Suspect—William Dent
Lawyer—Kellina Oriol
Interviewing officers—DS Irene MacNeith, DC Cathy Draper
10:32
DS MacNeith—My name is DS Irene MacNeith, joining me is DC Cathy Draper, interviewing William Dent, also present Kellina Oriol. Just to let you know that this interview is being filmed by a camera mounted on the wall in the corner over there. Do you know why you’re here, William?
10:33
William Dent—I was in a fight, I got arrested for it. I said I was sorry, but I didn’t start it anyway.
DS MacNeith—That’s why you were arrested last night in Bakers Moor and it’s being investigated by the officers at Bakers station. What I’m asking is do you know why we asked to have you brought across to Cnocaid so we could speak to you?
William Dent—No.
DS MacNeith—Do you remember Freya Dempsey?
William Dent—Her, yeah.
DS MacNeith—Do you know that she’s gone missing?
William Dent—I heard. Some people came. I think they were cops or something, they asked me about her, yesterday morning. You can talk to them about it if you don’t believe me. I already spoke to you lot; I don’t [unintelligible].
Kellina Oriol—As my client has said, he’s spoken to Challaid Police about Miss Dempsey already, and I assume they were operating in an official capacity because it would be unacceptable if they weren’t.
DS MacNeith—Sounds like you already know something of this case. So when I asked your client if he knew why he had been brought here and he said no, that wasn’t entirely true.
William Dent—I didn’t know.
10:34
Kellina Oriol—He didn’t. I asked him when I arrived here why he might have been brought across and he couldn’t think of a reason. It was his employers who informed me of the visit from the police yesterday.
DC Draper—Your employer.
Kellina Oriol—Excuse me?
DC Draper—Sutherland Bank, they’re your employer, too.
Kellina Oriol—They are. Is that some sort of issue?
DC Draper—Does the bank send its lawyers to defend every member of staff arrested for brawling in the street and public drunkenness?
Kellina Oriol—Seems to me we’re talking about potentially more serious allegations than that. In answer to your question, the bank sends its lawyers to support any member of staff it thinks deserves help.
DC Draper—In my experience that’s not very many.
Kellina Oriol—Then your experience must err on the side of negativity, unless you’re less experienced than you look.
DS MacNeith—William, tell me about the morning you met Freya Dempsey.
William Dent—I told you that already.
DS MacNeith—No, the people you told were not Challaid Police officers.
10:35
Kellina Oriol—But there were two police officers with the men who questioned my client.
DS MacNeith—They were not at that moment acting on behalf of Challaid Police.
Kellina Oriol—That doesn’t sound good, detective, two officers working out of hours.
DS MacNeith—Do you wish to report them?
Kellina Oriol—I may yet.
DS MacNeith—You might want to clear it with your employer, Harold Sutherland, first.
Kellina Oriol—Oh, I know one of the officers was his nephew, and I would imagine he would be thrilled to get the young man he cares about out of the toxic culture of Challaid Police.
DS MacNeith—Would he be thrilled to have a nephew who never spoke to him again?
Kellina Oriol—We appear to be getting side-tracked by family issues that are none of our business.
DS MacNeith—Freya Dempsey. Tell me about the morning you met her.
William Dent—It was ages ago, I don’t remember everything about it, not all that clear. She pulled out and hit me, down the road, corner of Kidd and Siar, just down the road from here. It wasn’t anything big, just a dent for her. Front to side, though, so our bumper got pulled down into the wheel arch. I called for another car, it was all done in a few minutes and we were gone.
DS MacNeith—So it was her that hit you? Her fault?
10:36
William Dent—Yeah, I thought so.
DS MacNeith—But that’s not what your boss thought because he paid her costs.
William Dent—Yeah, well, that’s the gaffer, isn’t it? He didn’t want trouble, not out on the street, and he didn’t want to have to spend time hanging around dealing with her. Just said he would pay for it so he could get into the new car as soon as it got there and get to his meeting. Getting to that meeting was worth a lot more to him than fixing the car. Every meeting he has would be.
DS MacNeith—And she claimed for the cost?
William Dent—I don’t know, I don’t handle any of that. I suppose she must have. Next time I heard anything about her was when the cops came round yesterday morning.
DS MacNeith—Could Mr. Sutherland have heard from her?
William Dent—The gaffer? The gaffer wasn’t going to waste his time handling insurance claims for a person like her.
DS MacNeith—What sort of person was she?
William Dent—Ordinary.
DS MacNeith—So you know nothing about what happened to her.
William Dent—No.
DS MacNeith—Nothing about the fact that her car was destroyed after she went missing, the same one you crashed into?
William Dent—How would I?
DS MacNeith—You don’t seem to like talking about her.
William Dent—I don’t like talking to you.
Kellina Oriol—My client has cooperated with you, and if you don’t have any more questions of worth then I’m sure he’d like very much to go home.
10:37
DS MacNeith—Where were you in the late afternoon and early evening of the fourth of May?
William Dent—I don’t know. I don’t know what day that was.
DS MacNeith—It was a Friday. Eight days ago.
William Dent—I’ll have been working then.
DS MacNeith—All afternoon and evening?
William Dent—All afternoon, some of the evening, I think. Maybe all of it.
DS MacNeith—And the bank will be able to prove that?
William Dent—My work file will tell you when I signed out for the day, to the second.
DS MacNeith—Good, we’ll be sure to check. You can go now, Mr. Dent.
END