‘So, a fascinating first day in the Debbie Mallard murder trial. We have an action-packed evening for you.’ Monday night’s episode of Court TV BTS kicked off with Katrina back on the sofa. ‘First of all, I want to introduce Andy Chambers. Hello Andy.’
‘Hello Katrina.’
‘Andy is chief legal adviser to Court TV, he’s a practising criminal barrister and he’s here to answer all your questions from today’s action – and we’ve had plenty. Then, later on, we’ll be hearing from body-language expert, Katy Moover, who’ll analyse what people were really saying, even when they weren’t speaking.’
* * *
Constance poured herself a second mug of coffee and called Judith.
‘You need to watch,’ she said.
‘I have to prepare my cross-examination for tomorrow.’
‘They’ve got a body-language expert and Andy Chambers.’
‘Andy Chambers? You mean the Andy Chambers we know?’
‘The same.’
‘What’s he doing on there?’
‘He’s “chief legal adviser” and he’s going to answer the public’s questions.’
‘Is he really? How enterprising of him. And who’s the body-language expert?’
‘Someone called Katy Moover. Oh! Katy Moover?’
‘What is it?’
‘She contacted me a few weeks back. Asked if we wanted any help with the case.’
‘I hope you told her that lawyers defended criminal cases –not some jumped-up acting coach.’
‘I politely declined, yes.’
‘Listen, I really do need to get on. I can’t believe Andy Chambers is going to say anything earth-shattering. He’s a decent barrister, as you know, but fairly pedestrian.’
Constance noticed that Judith did not tell her, directly, to switch off, to spend her time more profitably. She was leaving it up to Constance to decide her priorities.
She looked across at her open laptop, containing the day’s transcript. Ordinarily, she would comb through it, eager to find the tiniest inconsistencies, the leads Judith could pick up and develop tomorrow or the day after. And the things Judith had asked her to cover? If she carried on watching, they would all have to wait. And when would she sleep? While she remembered Greg’s kind offer to watch the TV coverage and report back, there really was no way to take this material in vicariously. It had to be consumed first-hand, to savour all the flavours.
* * *
Andy began with some nondescript background, explaining who everyone was in court and their role, with Katrina prompting him, where appropriate. He also summarised, very broadly, the content of the witness evidence from the day in court. Then, suddenly, in his ear, he heard a low voice talking. This is great, Andy, but move on to something a bit more challenging now. The voice distracted him, momentarily, from Katrina, but he tuned back in to hear her saying: ‘…the tactics employed by Judith Burton. She’s the lawyer defending Debbie Mallard. You’ve worked with Judith before, haven’t you?’
Andy hesitated. He hadn’t expected the opportunity to discuss Judith’s performance quite so soon, to promote his own agenda. Then he remembered that he was supposed to be helping the public understand what was going on, not getting personal. And what did the voice in his ear mean by ‘challenging’ and how could he reconcile all these different objectives? Perhaps he could allow himself to be a little provocative, after all.
‘Yes,’ he said, feeling his pulse begin to quicken, the anticipation of undertaking something really naughty kickstarting his sympathetic nervous system into action.
‘And when was that?’
‘A year or so back, I was prosecuting a case against a Syrian refugee and Judith was defending.’
‘And she won, if I’m not mistaken?’ Katrina was smiling gently. When Phil had talked about research in rehearsals, Andy hadn’t appreciated Katrina might be researching him.
‘The defendant was acquitted, which was clearly the right decision in that case,’ he said. There, he’d been totally fair and avoided pointing fingers.
‘No hard feelings then?’
‘No.’ Andy hadn’t felt bad about Ahmad Qabbani’s release at the time, so why was it causing him so much embarrassment now?
‘I understand that, where cross-examination is concerned, Judith is a true veteran,’ Katrina was saying. ‘Can you explain, for our audience, what methods she’s employing with Chief Inspector Dawson and why she’s so successful?’
Andy paused again. Now was his opportunity to be magnanimous, to laud Judith’s skills. But, something held him back. Should he do this? Give away the secrets of great cross-examination technique, honed to perfection by years of practice? However much praise he directed towards her, it might lay Judith’s systems bare and vulnerable to future attack. And was this even what the public wanted? Katrina was waiting for his answer. When it didn’t come, she went further.
‘For example, one of the main pieces of evidence against Debbie Harper was an emergency call she made back in 2017.’
‘Yes,’ Andy said.
‘Can you analyse, for the benefit of our viewers, how Judith dealt with that?’
Andy was boxed in. There was really no way out. Katrina knew her brief. He had to answer – and with more than a monosyllable.
‘Yes,’ he repeated. ‘This really was a masterful piece of cross-examination by Judith.’ If he stuck to saying positive things, he couldn’t be criticised, could he? ‘As we discussed, she begins with a call which, to any casual listener, sounds like a woman reporting violence by her husband against her, and that’s how the prosecution presents it. Then Judith breaks it down into its constituent parts, to show the jury that the call is not what it seems. That’s her aim in any event. To say, forget your overall impression of the call, examine it really closely and you’ll see that Rosie Harper never says she’s hurt, or that anyone hurt her.’
‘Is this one of Judith’s tactics, then?’
‘I wouldn’t call it a tactic; that sounds rather underhand.’ Andy swallowed hard as the camera closed in on him, ‘It’s her job to analyse the evidence carefully. It’s the right thing for a defence lawyer to do.’
‘Why did she make the police officer, Chief Inspector Dawson, read out Rosie Harper’s words?’
In his ear, the voice intervened once more. Come on, Andy, I want something controversial here, it said.
‘Again, to make the jury really focus on what was said, not jump to conclusions,’ Andy’s voice quivered as he hovered on the brink, then decided to dive right in. ‘But, you’re right,’ he said, ‘making Inspector Dawson read out Rosie’s words was brilliant, because it made the whole incident sound less hostile, having a man – and a physically strong man – read out those words, no one felt for a second that Rosie was really being threatened.’
‘I understand.’ Katrina smiled again, enveloping the public at home with her warmth and radiance. ‘That’s a wonderful insight into how defence barristers unpick the prosecution evidence. By the end of that exchange, we’re persuaded, or at least some of us were – we were debating the issue before we came on air this evening and we were fairly evenly matched in our views – that Rosie had wasted police time with that call.’
‘There are twelve people on the jury; they may be equally divided.’ Andy grinned. He was on safer ground, now. But Katrina remained one step ahead.
‘I was going to add, though, that, while we’ve been talking, we’ve had a number of calls to the show, all of them condemning Judith Burton for her cross-examination, saying it belittles the whole issue of domestic violence, particularly against women. What do you think about that?’
‘Oh, I…I am sure that was never Judith’s intention.’ Andy refused, still, to call Judith out.
‘Perhaps not, but if that’s the effect, does that matter?’ Katrina said.
‘The key point to remember,’ Andy was trying to remain in control, reminding himself he was chief legal adviser, not the person sitting opposite him, ‘is that Debbie Mallard is entitled to have the evidence against her tested, and tested thoroughly. I would suggest those viewers who are calling in challenging Judith’s cross-examination ask themselves the question whether, if that call was being held up as evidence against them, they would want their lawyer to question it or just to give up. And, you’ve also got to remember that the person giving evidence is a police officer. He’s not personally involved in the case, and he’s used to giving evidence, so he’s a pretty robust witness, which barristers always consider before they ask their questions.’
‘Thank you, Andy. We’ll be hearing more from Andy later on, after more questions have come through. But now, we’re turning to Katy Moover, psychologist, voice coach and body-language expert. Hello Katy.’
Andy shifted to the right on the sofa to allow the expert in. Well done! the voice in his ear said warmly. And Andy thought he probably had done fairly well, for his first outing.
* * *
In her flat, Constance fidgeted and stared at her phone, half expecting Judith to call any moment, to express indignation at Andy’s deconstruction of her performance. But all was quiet. Judith must be occupied elsewhere.
* * *
Katy Moover began with some background, explaining some of the usual ways she would judge if a person was being truthful, simply from the way they moved their faces and bodies. After a few minutes of scrutiny of both Laidlaw and Judith in full flow, Katrina directed Katy to the footage of Dawson talking about the motorbike glove.
She paused the recording at the point at which Dawson took the clicker from Constance.
‘If you watch the Chief Inspector here,’ Katy said, when he says the glove “doesn’t seem to be visible” he crosses his legs, see, and folds his free arm around his body.’
‘What does that show?’
‘It’s very defensive.’
‘Do you mean he’s lying?’
‘No, not necessarily. Rather, he feels sensitive about this question; he knows it’s an area of weakness. And then,’ she shifted on a few frames to the second, wider-angled photo, ‘now when he identifies the shadow at the bottom of the screen as being the glove, look how he sticks out his chin.’
‘And what does that mean?’
‘It’s a sign of obstinacy. He’s saying, with his body, “I’m sure that’s the glove and I’m not budging”.’
* * *
Constance awoke with a jolt. She was lying on the sofa and the end credits of Court TV BTS were flashing across the screen. She knew that she ought to rewind and find out what Andy had said in his second session, what questions the viewers had posed, but, instead, she stretched out her aching limbs and shuffled off to bed.