Heavy Duty Trouble (The Brethren Trilogy) (40 page)

If it was you ladies and gentlemen of the jury
who had just successfully carried out this murderous attack
, and you
now
wanted to make your getaway
;
what possible reason
would you
have for
not just
simply
leav
ing
the bodies there to burn when you
set fire to
the car?

And the answer to that question is that there
is
really only
one
proper
explanation
f
rom
the evidence you have seen. On
ly on
e explanation which makes sense. On
ly on
e explanation that accounts for all the facts.

On
ly on
e explanation which you will see, clearly proves that the truth
is that my clients have no case to answer.

So let me tell you a story about what happened that night. Let me explain to you what I think might have happened.

And then
it will be up to you
ladies and gentlemen
to consider
what I will tell you, in the light of the rest of the evidence that you have heard,
and to decide whether it
covers the facts that are known at least as well as
, if not better than,
what the
P
rosecution thinks happened.

And when you do so, remember
also that
Mr
Graham
is here and has taken the stand
. H
e has been questioned and cross-
examined on the events leading up to this incident
. You have had a chance to hear his testimony directly fr
om him and to hear him be cross-
examined on it and his evidence tested by
C
ounsel for the
P
rosecution. On this basis you have had a chance to decide on the truthfulness or otherwise of what he has had to say.

W
hereas
by contrast,
the
P
rosecution is relying on a single document, of dubious veracity, who
se
author is not here to examine in the same way.

And if you think the explanation I shall give fits the facts just as well, if not better than what the
P
rosecution thinks happened, then you have to ask yourselves, has the
P
rosecution proved their case beyond reasonable doubt?

Because
I would suggest to you that
the only reason you might want to take bodies away from this scene, is if they walked away.

If
,
in other words, they were still alive.

Because
the truth is,
there were in fact no murders that evening at all.

I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen of the jury, but for the last week the reality is, you have been having your time wasted.

T
his whole trial is an enormous mistake, one where the Crown has been tricked by three very dangerous men
into bringing a wholly spurious case
.

For
Messrs
Wibble, Bung and Parke, s
etting up this fake ambush was in truth a simple exercise
, and i
f you set aside the Crown’s
efforts at
dramatic reconstruction
,
and simply look at the facts, you can easily see how it was done.

You have seen the CCTV footage of them leaving the clubhouse that night. But that v
ideo only shows them as they dro
ve away from the building. Between that moment
,
and the point at which the burning car was found, there is no hard evidence at all about what happened.

In fact, having left the clubhouse,
the first step in their plan was to
drop
off one
member of the
ir
team just as they got to the main road from the track
over the fields
. His job was to stay there,
as close as possible to the property
,
while
keeping out of sight of anyone who might come by
, and we’ll return to him in just a moment
.

Then the
remaining two men
drove the car over the moor and down to the site they had chosen for the scene
they had decided to play out. Either they had arranged to leave the getaway van there earlier in the day, or at this point they were joined by a confederate who brought it there.

Quickly drawing up the car
it would only have been a matter of moments to
hurriedly drop the fake police items in the front and scatter
the
empty pistol shells that they had brought with them
beside each of the doors.

Another few seconds to douse
the car’s interior with petrol
from a can
and then they
would have been
ready.

While the
other man or men
stood back by the van, one of them took up position behind the wall with the loaded AK47 and pulling the trigger, riddled the car with bullets. On fully automatic, he would have emptied the magazine in seconds.

A few more seconds for someone to throw a
lit box of matches
into the car and they could be away, piling into the van
to
mak
e
their
escape
,
well
before Mr and Mrs
Walton glancing up from their evening meal noticed the flames and made their call
to alert the authorities
.

Which way would they go? Well in f
a
ct, we believe they headed back up the way they had come
,
and
up
on to
the moor
s and towards the clubhouse.

Why? In order
to get a signal to make the call you have heard
from an anonymous pay as you go phone,
to the waiting mobile
being held by the member of the gang they had left behind
.

They obviously felt their communications would be under police scrutiny, hence the charade of the call you heard. But even if the calls were not being recorded, they would know that the police could use phone company records to triangulate the location of caller and receiver, although only to within a limited degree of accuracy.

So by waiting
with the other pay as you go phone
and taking a dummy call in the area of the clubhouse the receiver would be hoping to incriminate those inside, which of course it
successfully
did
,
according to the
Prosecution
.

Once he’d done that, he could
begin to
walk the mile or so in the other direction from the car, down to the little hamlet to wait to be picked up.

After that,
it was just a matter of driving. They knew the area and the available routes. They would have been past the clubhouse
and,
having picked up their colleague
somewhere near the village, be
well up the moor road towards the summit by the time the fire engine
was
arriv
ing
at the
burning
car.

From there it’s only
another
mile down to the main east-west road along the valley
on the other side.
By the time the police arrived and began to secure the scene they would have been travelling down the hill
in either direction
.

Perhaps they had another car waiting here. Perhaps they sp
l
it up, someone taking the gun
s
for disposal, someone taking the van to burn it out. Perhaps we’ll never know.

But why go to all this trouble you may ask? If they simply wanted to disappear, why set up this fake ambush, these fake deaths?

Well for two reasons
,
I would suggest to you.

Firstly, to cover their tracks from the authorities and anyone else who might otherwise come looking for them. Remember these are men who have been running a substantial criminal enterprise that must have netted them many millions that they now want
ed
to be able to enjoy in peace.

But how peaceful can that be if you know that the police may come looking for you at any moment? So what better thing to do than to play dead? After all, the police aren’t going to go looking to arrest dead men are they?

And as for their former comrades, again, these are men who are making off with many millions in cash here and overseas, some of which other individuals within the club who’ve been involved in the business might feel they also had a claim to. So disappearing from the sights of these people might also be a strong motive to create a convincing set of deaths.

But in addition to that, they went to significant trouble to set up the scene so that it would appear
to
lead back to the club.

The
fact
that
it happened on their way back from the clubhouse and their confrontation and expulsion by Mr
Graham.

The fact
that
the weaponry used in the attack w
as of the same type that
some club members allegedly had in their possession, at least according to Mr Parke’s earlier work
,
of course
.

The fact that
the phone call taped by the police
, whoever it was between,
was made to a mobile in the vicinity of the clubhouse.

A
ll of these have
clearly and conveniently
acted to point the finger of suspicion towards the club, and the defendants in particular.

So why go to these lengths? Why try to set up the club’s leadership like this?

As re
venge for their expulsion? Possibly.

More likely
I would suggest to you,
it was in order to sow confusion and suspicion within the ranks of the club. If the club itself did not know who had
committed the apparent killings
, members might be expected to start to suspect each other, particularly once it became clear that the money involved was not to be found. Perhaps they were hoping that the club’s members would turn on each other, perhaps they were simply hoping that a level of mutual mistrust and suspicion would be generated that would prevent the club co-operating effectively to track them down. However far they hoped it would go, they must have reckoned on the manner of their supposed deaths creating a massive internal distraction that would aid them in their effective disappearance.

And of course, now they could disappear more easily, abroad at least. Because with project Union Jack, the club had severed its links with The Brethren MC worldwide, and so it had lost its network of friendly eyes and ears that could otherwise be expected to be looking out for them.

But the point is, in the few seconds it took to set up and execute that dummy ambush, these men had created a perfect cover for themselves and their escape, deliberately left all the clues
that
the police had found, and created a massive diversion that pitted their two biggest threats, the police and members of the club against each other.

It was a masterpiece.

And it almost worked.

It would almost work I should say, unless you, the jury, can see through it and what they have done.

And now I would like to turn back to Mr Charlie Graham here on the stand.

Mr Graham,
sorry,
Charlie, can I ask you, did you kill these me
n
?

No
,
I didn’t
.

Did any of your co-defendants do so?

Not to my knowledge, no.

Did you arrange for them to be killed?

No.

Did any of your co-defendants do so?

Not as far as I know.

Did you ask somebody else to kill them, or to arrange for it to be done?

No
,
I didn’t.

Did any of your co-defendants do so?

Not that I know of.

So in short
,
it’s your contention Charlie
,
that
neither
you
, nor as far as you know your fellow
defendants
,
are responsible for these murders,
isn’t it
? You deny them completely? You ha
ve just done so in fact?