The Poppy Field

Chapter 25

Feeling more hopeful than I had when I'd left the following week, I walked into court on Monday with a slight confidence, having spent the weekend trying to convince myself that it could only go uphill from here. But once again, I'd been mistaken.

We showed the CCTV footage from that night, but as I already knew, it didn't show anything other than the fact that she'd gone back to his apartment. There was no apparent show of force in the ten second clip that I had or in the one minute twenty three second clip of the two of them dancing together in the club. Facts that Mr Walsh was sure to point out the second he could. In fact he managed to undermine every single point that I made.

The medical evidence only confirmed that they had indeed had sex and despite the bruising found all over Kara's body, he dismissed it at a glance saying there was no proof that his client was the cause. It was clear that I was extremely out of my depth. Everyone in the entire building knew it, especially him and he played that to his advantage.

I'd had a number of witnesses', but he'd managed to discredit each one in any way possible. My expert witness, the Doctor who had treated Kara that night and claimed that the wounds were consistent with those of rape victims, was undermined by his expert witness who named a number of possible alternate solutions that couldn't be argued with.

I'd invited some of Kara's friends from that night, although it became apparent, very quickly, that none of them had actually seen enough for a successful prosecution and most of the information they had were just stories that they had heard from Kara.

'Will you please tell the court your name?' I asked my next witness, hoping that she would help to swing things slightly in our favour.

'Stephanie Clarke,' she replied, her jet black hair pulled tightly into a ponytail on the top of her head, her large hoop earrings swinging as she moved towards the microphone.

'And how do you know the defendant?' I asked.

'He's my boyfriend,' she replied, looking towards Harry who was avoiding her gaze. I doubted whether he would have referred to her as his girlfriend.

'And how long have you two been together?'

'Since the beginning of February.'

'And where were you on the night of the 12th?' I asked.

'I was away at a hen party. My sister was getting married that weekend.'

'Has Mr Stephenson ever tried to sleep with you without your consent?' Moving away from formalities and getting straight to the point that I was trying to make.

'No.' She replied. 'He wouldn't do that.'

'Were you aware that he had slept with somebody else?' I said and watched as he brow furrowed clearly not pleased with what I was insinuating.

'He hasn't slept with anyone else. He wouldn't do that.' She replied although I could tell that she was now beginning to panic. It was evident that Harry hadn't told her the whole story.

'Miss Clarke. This trial isn't about whether or not Mr Stephenson had sex with Miss Jones. We have plenty of evidence to prove that fact. The trial is about whether or not she consented to it.' I watched as her face fell, clearly Harry had been lying to her about what had happened this whole time. 'Were you aware that he had slept with somebody else?' I repeated.

'You bastard.' She shouted, turning away from me to face Harry. 'You told me that you hadn't slept with her. You told me that it was all a lie.'

'Miss Clarke, please calm down.' The judge said, banging his gavel against his desk, as she continued to shout across the courtroom, finally being escorted out. But the damage was done and from the reaction of the audience, things had been swung slightly in our favour and there was nothing that Mr Walsh could do to take it back.