‘Let me turn to something else,’ Ben said. ‘My learned friend asked you what Henry was wearing when he came to your house on 28 April, do you remember?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you told my learned friend that Henry had been wearing a raincoat, which he took off and hung up himself?’
‘Yes.’
‘You were careful to emphasise that he hung it up himself, and that you had not taken it from him.’
‘That’s what Mr Pilkington asked me.’
Ben smiled. ‘Fair point. You were just answering the questions put to you. I accept that, of course. But what you were trying to suggest was that Henry must have been wearing the raincoat only because it gave him a place to conceal the knife during the meeting. Would that be fair?’
‘Well…’
‘Let me help you. You didn’t see the knife anywhere else on his person, did you?’
‘No.’
‘You told the jury you thought it was rather strange that he was wearing a raincoat because it was a warm day?’
‘Yes.’
‘And yet, when you were watching Henry sitting on the ground after he had stabbed Susan, it began to rain, did it not?’
She thought for some time, and then nodded.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘Yes, you’re right, there was a shower. I’d forgotten that.’
‘By the time of the meeting on 28 April, had you come to any conclusions at all about the recommendations you were going to make to Mr Justice Wesley?’
‘You mean, about custody of the children?’
‘Yes.’
‘No. I had much more work to do before I could think in terms of recommendations. Besides, judges vary in the kind of recommendations they like you to make. Some – the more senior judges usually – don’t want you to say very much. They like you to give them a factual report and leave them to draw their own conclusions. But there are some who like you to spell it out for them a bit more. What Mr Justice Wesley may prefer, I can’t say. He’s a fairly new appointment, and I hadn’t worked with him before, so I would probably have been quite conservative in the way I expressed myself. But I was nowhere near that stage.’
‘But it would be fair, wouldn’t it, to say that you had a few thoughts in your mind about Henry, as far as custody was concerned? You know, don’t you, that the High Court has allowed us to see the notes you made as you went along, which you had in your file?’
She coloured slightly.
‘Yes. I am aware of that.’
‘Do you have a copy of your notes with you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is it fair to say that you were satisfied about Henry from the point of view of what I might call his material circumstances – his home, the amount of money he was making, and so on?’
‘Oh, yes, very much so. The children would never have wanted for anything if he had custody, and he had a sensible view about their education. He was very aware of the schools in the area, which were the best, and so on. In fact, they had been doing well in all those respects before Susan took them away.’
‘And yet, you had a reservation about him, didn’t you?’
‘Well…’
‘You were worried about how intense he was about the question of custody. You said so today in answer to my learned friend, and it is recorded in your notes, isn’t it? You describe Henry as being “almost too quiet”, “brooding”, and having “feelings that run very deep”. You were worried about a possible loss of self-control, weren’t you?’
She hesitated.
‘You must understand that I never expected anything like what happened…’
‘I do understand that, Mrs Cameron. But Susan had complained that he had hit her; you sensed that he might have a short fuse when it came to the children. That must have caused you some concern?’
‘Yes, it did. It was something that concerned me. But as I said before, she knew exactly how to wind him up. Away from her, and once the proceedings were over, he would have settled down. Most parents have strong views about the custody of their children. There’s nothing unusual about that. It was just that, in Henry’s case, while he was having to deal with her, there was always the potential for something to kick off. Even if the judge gave custody to him, he would still have to deal with her over access, so it was something I couldn’t ignore.’
‘All right. Let me ask you this. Reading your notes, it seems that when Henry talked about the children, he almost always referred to them as “my children” – not “our children” or even “the children”. You’ve underlined the word “my” more than once, haven’t you?’
‘Yes. But again, that’s not unusual in custody cases. Parents do tend to get a bit proprietary about their children when they’re talking about where they should live, and it’s not uncommon for them to downplay the other parent’s involvement with the children.’
‘I accept that, Mrs Cameron. But when you combine that with Henry’s intensity, wouldn’t you agree that this man, for whatever reason, thought of himself as their real parent, if I can put it in that way? Didn’t he think that Susan had in a sense disqualified herself because of her lifestyle?’
‘He certainly felt that way about Susan. Yes, I would agree with that.’
‘You yourself would have brought her lifestyle to the judge’s attention, to the extent you were aware of it?’
‘Yes.’
‘And knowing what you now know about Susan’s lifestyle, Mrs Cameron, that was not an entirely unreasonable view for Henry to take, was it?’
‘I wouldn’t criticise him for thinking that.’
‘No. And in consequence, he thought of himself as the only parent who deserved custody? Would that also be fair?’
‘Yes, it would.’
‘Custody of “his” children?’
‘Yes. Always “his” children.’