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SHEFFIELD – AUGUST, 1976
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CALLUM COLHOUN WAS in Sheffield and up to his usual tricks. He was a pugnacious advocate in court. His abrasive style earned him enemies amongst both judges and barrister colleagues. Callum did not care. He liked sailing close to the wind and seeing what he could get away with. His motto may have been – ‘Rules are there to be broken.’
Those rules were many. He had been practising at the Criminal Bar of England and Wales for fifteen years. Now aged forty, he was often instructed as counsel in serious cases such as murder. Callum had developed a niche acting as leading junior counsel whereby he was assisted by a second junior counsel in serious cases. He was an expert in manipulating the legal aid gravy train to maximise his earnings.
Callum was in the middle of a murder trial in Sheffield, a trial expected to last ten weeks. His only problem was he was also instructed to appear simultaneously in another trial in London. The logistics involved would have forced most to choose between one trial or the other, not Callum. He had his second junior cover for him so he could pocket two lucrative sets of fees. A ploy that came unstuck when the two trial judges were dining in their Inn and one casually mentioned the upstart Colhoun. Their sharp legal minds did not take long to work out his deception. A brief letter from the Bar Council summoned Callum to explain himself. The summons was one more thing on Callum’s mind. There was also a statutory demand from the Inland Revenue to deal with. He didn’t worry about much but the tax demand gave him sleepless nights as he had not filed a tax return in fifteen years. Callum responded to these concerns by using more cocaine, drinking more alcohol and getting laid by more hookers.
“How is Lady C these days?” inquired Dash. He was the drug dealer Caroline had passed on to Callum.
“Good as always but never mind her. I have customers waiting. Where is my order for the half kilo?”
“Man, don’t be so impatient. You only ordered the product three days ago. I’ll meet you in the usual place. Tuesday at 4 pm. Okay?”
“Right. Be there.”
“I will... one thing... do you want a new girl? Pretty young Thai thing.”
“Yeah. A change is as good as a rest. So yeah. Tell her to come to my room, ten tonight.”
“Usual room? Same hotel?”
“Yes,” Callum replied then replaced the handset on his phone in the Sheffield hotel room. This was his ‘home from home.’ He spent half of his working year there following his chosen line of work; defending killers and rapists as a fearless London barrister. Callum upset the local cosy arrangements between judiciary and local counsel, the latter always mindful of reputation. Callum wanted money, not the reputation.
Callum was content for Dash to deliver the cocaine the following week because he was under no pressure from barristers who had placed orders for the coke. He had enough for his personal use to last him until then so all was good. He decided to stay in the hotel that evening and have dinner courtesy of room service while he worked on some witness statements preparing to cross-examine a prosecution witness the following day.
The chicken cordon bleu remained half-eaten on the table in the centre of Callum’s hotel room. There were also several empty cans of strong lager. The bottle of malt whiskey was on the table but as yet intact. Callum glanced at his watch when he heard the faint knock on the door. It was exactly 10 pm. Dressed only in black boxer shorts and navy blue tee, he opened the door to see Mai standing there, smiling.
“Dash sent me,” Mai said.
Callum did not answer. He held out his hand to Mai and gently pulled her inside his room. Callum discovered Mai was nineteen years old and had arrived in the UK from Thailand last month, ostensibly to work in a restaurant. They talked for a while, drank whiskey together then snorted a few lines of cocaine.
Four Sheffield detectives hauled Callum from his hotel bed. They saw the battered face and body of Mai slumped on the hotel room’s carpeted floor. The hotel staff had heard the screams at 4 am so called the police. They summoned an ambulance to tend to the severe facial injuries Callum had inflicted on his victim. They also handcuffed Callum and took him to the police station.
At 8 pm the same day the police released Callum on bail to return to the police station so they could gather medical evidence to substantiate Mai’s allegations of rape and causing grievous bodily harm. They imposed a condition of his bail that he was to return to London and come nowhere near Sheffield until his next appointment with the Sheffield detectives. Callum Colhoun’s problems were intensifying; tax problems; professional discipline problems; the prospect of many years imprisonment for raping and inflicting grievous bodily harm on a pretty Thai call girl. Dash was furious when he heard of it. He believed Callum Colhoun was totally out of control. He had gone too far this time.
