‘Let’s talk about the move to Alwyne Road at the beginning of last year, 1970,’ Ben said. ‘How did that come about?’
‘We both wanted to move,’ Henry replied. ‘With the children getting older, the place we had wasn’t big enough. We needed more space. The business was doing well, and we could afford it, so we were looking around. We both liked the flat as soon as we saw it, it was close to work and school, and the Pettifers seemed like a nice couple, so we took the plunge and signed the lease.’
He paused.
‘And, I don’t know how Susan felt, but I hoped it might give us a fresh start, you know, new place, moving on, moving up a bit.’
‘Did anything change?’
‘Again, for a short time, it did seem to, but it wasn’t long before she started going out on her own again, and it started happening more often. Now she might be out twice or three times a week, and I was exhausted. And there were other things I was noticing.’
‘Tell the jury about that, Mr Lang.’
He breathed out sharply and shook his head.
‘I knew she was drinking. I could smell it on her breath when she got home, and she would slur her words, and she was obviously hung-over in the mornings. But after a while, I started smelling cannabis on her, and there were times when I got home from work when I could smell it in the flat.’
‘Did you ask her about it?’
‘Yeah. She said some of the people she went out with smoked cannabis, but she didn’t do it herself.’
‘Did you believe her?’
‘No. The smell was too strong, and as I say, I was pretty sure she was having a smoke in the flat.’
‘What did you say to her?’
‘I told her it had to stop. We had some pretty loud arguments about it. She always denied that she smoked, but at the same time she was saying that there was no harm in it, and everybody did it. I said I didn’t want drugs in the flat, I didn’t want all that going on around the children, and I was worried that we might lose our lease if the Pettifers knew she was doing drugs.’
‘Did she respond at all? Did she make any changes?’
‘No, she didn’t.’
‘Mrs Pettifer told us that she heard arguments between you when Susan came home at 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning; she said you would ask her where she had been and accuse her of being drunk. What do you say about that?’
‘That’s true. I’d had about enough of it, to be honest, and yeah, I did shout at her, and she would shout back, and we would have a right old go at each other.’
‘Did you ever hit her?’
‘No.’
‘Mrs Pettifer says she heard the sound of slaps.’
‘She would try to hit me sometimes. She could get herself wound up when she was drunk, and when we argued she would try to hit me. She never managed to do it, but there were times when I would put my hands up to defend myself, and she hit my hands, so it’s possible that Mrs Pettifer heard that.’ He grinned. ‘But she must have pretty good hearing if she did. I think, more likely, Susan was feeding her a line when they were drinking coffee downstairs.’
‘Did you ever strike Susan under any circumstances before 28 April?’
‘No. Never.’
‘Mr Lang, did there come a time when you decided that you needed to find out what was going on when Susan went out at night?’
‘I did, yeah.’
‘Why was that?’
‘Well, as I said, I didn’t like the situation, and I wanted to know who she was with. To be honest, I was worried that she was doing some other stuff, apart from the cannabis. Her eyes would look, what’s the word – dilated?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yeah, dilated. And she was acting all hyper when she got home. It was getting out of hand.’
‘What did you do?’
‘I was pretty sure that one of the people she used to go out with was a friend of hers called Louise Farley. I knew Louise and her boyfriend used to drink at the Canonbury Tavern, so I went down there one night and found them, and asked Louise to tell me what was going on.’
‘When was this?’
‘Just after New Year, this year.’
‘What did Louise tell you?’
‘She didn’t want to tell me anything at first, but I insisted, and her boyfriend backed me up; he said I was entitled to know, and eventually she opened up. She said it started innocently enough, with her and Susan and one or two other friends going out for a few drinks, here and there, sometimes even up to the West End, Soho. But she’d decided not to go with Susan any more because she didn’t like the crowd she was hanging out with.’
‘Did she tell you what she meant by that?’
‘Yeah. She said they would go to bars and clubs where people would do drugs. She told me that Susan was doing drugs – not just cannabis, but cocaine as well – and that she’d been introduced to some men who were involved in dealing drugs, and other criminal stuff. She also said…’
Henry bowed his head, and the tears came again. Ben was about to offer another break, but he recovered.
‘She also said that she was carrying on with at least one of these men, you know, they would disappear somewhere in the club for a while, and it was pretty obvious what was going on.’
‘Did Louise mention any names?’ Ben asked.
‘Yeah, she gave me the names of one or two places they went, but I don’t remember now. She also told me the names of some of the men she had met. One of them was known as “Danny Ice”.’
‘That’s Daniel Cleary.’ The interruption from the bench took the whole court by surprise. ‘Is that who you mean, Mr Lang, Daniel Cleary?’
Henry looked questioningly at Ben, who nodded.
‘Yes, my Lord.’
‘A man with a serious criminal record,’ the judge added, looking at the jury.
‘I know that now, my Lord,’ Henry replied. ‘All I knew then was that he was involved with drugs.’
‘Involved with drugs,’ the judge said, looking at the jury again. ‘Yes.’
Ben waited for some seconds in case the judge had a question, but he gave no sign of asking one. He glanced at Andrew, who shrugged and raised his eyebrows.
‘Mr Lang, we know that in February this year, Susan left the flat at Alwyne Road and moved into a flat of her own in Pimlico, taking the children with her. Did she give you any advance warning of her intention to move, or take the children?’
‘Not a word. I left for work one Monday morning, and when I came home she was gone, and so were the children. I don’t even know where she got the money for a place of her own. It certainly wasn’t from me. I had to phone her parents to find out where my children were. She wasn’t going to tell me, was she?’
Ben nodded.
‘Mr Lang, with everything that had gone on, everything that you’ve told the jury about, did it ever once occur to you to kill your wife?’
He shook his head. ‘No, of course not.’
‘What did you decide to do?’
‘A couple of days after she left,’ Henry replied, ‘I went to see Geoff Bourne, my solicitor, and began divorce proceedings.’
‘And did you, at the same time, make an application for custody of the children?’
‘Yeah. Well, that was the main point, really. It wasn’t whether we got divorced or not. I didn’t care about her any more. I just wanted to make sure my children were safe – that was my first concern. I wanted them away from drugs, and away from people like this Danny Ice. I wanted them safe at home with me.’
‘We will leave it there until tomorrow morning,’ Mr Justice Rainer announced abruptly. ‘Mr Lang, we will conclude your evidence tomorrow. You won’t be able to speak to your counsel or solicitors until you have finished giving evidence.’