Catalyst (29 page)

He waved to the crowd, ratcheting up the volume of their cheering. People had been camped outside the Old Bailey, and along the road approaching it, for a couple of hours. It was reminiscent of the final day at Wimbledon; the queue for tickets for a pop concert; or the January sale at Harrods.

Inside the courtroom, the privileged hundred followers of the accused man who had gained entry to the public gallery settled excitedly in their seats feeling like a gathering of celebrities at ‘An Audience with James Lorimar', With the order to “all rise” from the Clerk of the Court, they almost leapt to their feet as the judge entered the court, as if their own perceived haste might expedite the start of the proceedings.

He addressed the Defence.

“Mr Calvert, please… ”

“I should like to take a small amount of the court's time, m'lord, to establish the relationship between Mr Lorimar and Mrs Deverall.”

Judge Templar said nothing but opened his arms wide in a signal to proceed.

“Mr James Lorimar, would you please stand.”

There was a burst of animation around the room with several people offering gentle applause as the prisoner rose to his feet.

“Very briefly, Mr Lorimar, please describe to the court how you came to know Mrs Deverall,” said Dean.

“Yes, of course. I am currently an Investment Manager with Germaine and Rolland. Before that I was in the armed forces where I was a close friend of Mrs Deverall's only son. He was killed in action a few years ago, but before he died he asked me to look out for his mother, Alma, as he would not be around to do so any more.

“Alma and I became friends. We pretended I was her carer – it was our little secret – and when she became ill and depressed, I found her the apartment in Hammersmith – as you heard from Mr Venables – for a period of respite. As you have also heard, it was there she took her life just prior to the end of the tenancy, when she was due to return to the estate.”

The calm control he had displayed throughout the trial, seemed to briefly leave him and for a fleeting moment he visibly slumped. He recovered immediately.

“Thank you, Mr Lorimar. No further questions from me, m'lord.”

There was a ripple of disappointment around the public gallery.

“Ms Cartwright?” The judge turned to Penny. “Do you have any questions for the prisoner?”

“No, m'lord,” she said.

“That will be all, Mr Lorimar. You may be seated.” He turned again to the Defence Counsel. “Over to you, Mr Calvert.”

“Thank you, m'lord,” said Dean. “If it pleases the court, I would like to summarise this plea for mitigation before you pass sentence.”

Justice Templar gave the slightest of nods. Dean gathered himself for his keynote speech, sweeping his right arm round in almost a full circle to have it stop, pointing, open-palmed, towards the dock.

“The man standing before you is a brave man… ” He paused for effect. “The man standing before you is a good man… a
just
man. And yet, the man standing before you is a guilty man. Guilty of what? Guilty of rendering a form of justice consistent with that which he has been required to do for a quarter of a century in the defence of the freedom of this country and its allies. In law, this man is a criminal; in reality, he is a saviour, whose efforts have liberated a community from a lurking menace which plagued their every day's existence.”

He paused again, this time receiving a gentle ripple of applause from the gallery. David Gerrard was thinking about the counsel's ill-chosen adjective. ‘Lurking' was not how he would have chosen to describe the Bradys. ‘In-your-face', he thought – in every sense of the expression – would have been much more suitable. Dean Calvert continued.

“We should not condone this act, nor praise it, nor rejoice in it. After all, the act of taking another human being's life goes against every instinct of law-abiding people. But we can perhaps
understand
it, and I believe we have before us a person who was driven by sadness and desperation to do something in recompense for the sorrow in losing a person whom he clearly cared for very much.”

Again a ripple of applause, the judge glowering to silence it this time.

“And, m'lord, having taken such a decision, Mr Lorimar was clearly in no position to change his mind, faced with the wrath and venom of his intended victims. In the end, ironically, they left him no choice and, through their own evil intentions, sealed their fate. I respectfully request, m'lord, that you see this man as he is – as I said. A brave, good and just man, a criminal in law,” – he paused for emphasis – “but a
victim
of his own high ideals.”

The courtroom spontaneously erupted in shouts of support and appreciation. Justice Templar banged his fist onto the bench in front of him, in obvious anger and exasperation. His voice boomed across the room.

“We are nearing the end of these proceedings. That is the only reason why I will not be asking the attendants to clear this courtroom. Does everybody – I mean –
everybody
– understand?”

The room almost crashed into silence. People nodded; some actually said ‘yes'; some even ‘sorry'.

“Thank you, Mr Calvert, for your eloquent justification of the defendant's act of murder. Because, notwithstanding your comments, a simple act of murder is what it is. Premeditated and callous. It is an undisputed fact that Mr Lorimar has shown much courage in his chosen profession. In that context, I agree that the word brave may be justifiably applied to him. But not so, I believe, in the perpetration of this crime. In spite of the numerical odds against him, the three young men would have had little or no chance against someone with his training. In any case, I must carry out my obligatory duty. Ms Cartwright, do you have any comments before I pass sentence?”

“No, m'lord,” she replied.

“And does the prisoner have anything to say for himself?” The question was asked wearily and mechanically to the court in general.

“Yes, m'lord. My client would like to make a statement from the dock.”

“Please have him go ahead.”

The prisoner stood and removed three folded A4 sheets – stapled together – from the inside pocket of his jacket. He unfolded them, cast his eyes for a few moments over the first sheet, then looked up and addressed the judge directly.

“First let me thank you, m'lord, for allowing me to speak today, and also for permitting Mr Calvert to spend so much of the court's time yesterday on my behalf in relating the mitigating circumstances leading up to the incident. However, I want to make it clear to everyone that my act of retribution was premeditated and carefully staged. I could not be more gratified by the way this one incident has served to unite those oppressed people of our communities and highlight the plight in which so many find themselves. That has been an enormous bonus and a great and necessary comfort to me.

“I say a necessary comfort, because it was certainly
not
my intention to get caught. Indeed, I did not
expect
to get caught, and my somewhat reluctant congratulations must go to Detective Chief Inspector David Gerrard and his team, for their tenacity and skill.”

For one bizarre moment, David wondered whether he should get to his feet and bow to the gallery.

“The proceedings of the last two days have also demonstrated how fortunate we are in possessing such institutionalised integrity in our judicial system. No-one need fear when the machinery of the law is in such good hands – no-one, that is, except people like me. So we have laws to protect us, we have good, professional people to ensure we comply with these laws, and we have solid reliable systems in place to enable those people to deal with the likes of me when they do not comply. So what is wrong? Because something most certainly is!

“I quote from a statement made by ex-Squadron Leader Arnold Danby at a meeting of the Third Age Forum, just prior to my arrest. This quotation has been subsequently used by Mr George Holland and reported in the press.

“‘… more important than the law is justice. It appears that, in the space of less than an hour, a single person, now being hunted as a triple murderer, and whose freedom – and, effectively, whose life – will end when he is caught, has put to rights something that all the agents of the law have abjectly failed to do for God knows how many years. Isn't it ironic that justice, it seems, has been done, and the law will now punish the person who achieved it.'

“I feel he captured the essence very concisely. However, I must take issue with one aspect of the squadron leader's words. He said ‘… something that all the agents of the law have
abjectly failed to do
… ' That part of his statement implies a level of incompetence on the part of those agents – the police, lawyers, barristers, judges. I do not believe that is true.

“
It is the law itself that is failing us!
Or more specifically that part of the law that dishes out justice. How can it be right that the likes of the Bradys and their disciples are allowed to roam the streets like a pride of hungry man-eaters, causing widespread distress and intimidation, whilst good people cower in fear behind their curtains in darkened rooms? And all this is going on when the police are
fully aware
of the sort of people they are and the sort of things they are doing. So why don't they put them away? Well, to do so we must rely on people with complete faith that their testimony will lead to these heathens' imprisonment. And how can they have that faith when so many attempts to imprison them fail on technicalities and trivial details – not cautioning them at the right time, incomplete paperwork, and witnesses trapped into saying what they don't really mean. And without faith in a guarantee of success, who with any sense would put themselves in a position where the likelihood is they will face retribution as this flawed system pours the antagonists back onto the streets.

“If I had any doubts before, then the reaction of the public to this whole issue has wiped them out. I now know for
certain
how our society needs to change –
must
change. It needs to focus on the good people, the nice people. It needs to care a lot less about those who
choose
not to be good and nice. We are all sensitive to the effects of poverty, parental guidance, local environment, peer pressure, etcetera. These are massive forces for shaping behaviour. But even in their extreme forms they are resistible forces. Carrots are fine in the first place for attempting to lead these disadvantaged people onto the path of righteousness. But when the carrots have failed, or have all been devoured with no discernable effect, then we must bring sticks to bear – heavy sticks, hurting sticks. Not gentle apologetic taps which do no more than induce sneers and mocking laughter. And after the carrots and the sticks – the most singularly effective measure of all – so obvious, and with a
guarantee
of success, but so radical very few even dare to mention, let alone propose, it.
Permanent separation and isolation!

“And I don't mean life imprisonment as we have it now. Judges
are
able to put away people for good as the law stands now – a situation where justice and law may be perceived as being the same. But so many times, life imprisonment means a relatively short period weighed against a full life span of, say, eighty years, or perhaps fifty or sixty remaining years. But this is not the point anyway! Not at all! Such sentences are currently reserved for extreme cases of violence and murder, and for those involved in the planning and execution of acts of terrorism. And it is right that such people are excluded from our society; they have no place in a civilised world.

“But these are not the ones who plague so many lives day in, day out. People are not scared of going out for a walk around their neighbourhood streets in the evening for fear of being blown up by a suicide bomber, or brutally murdered by a psychopathic stranger lurking in the shadows. The chance of that happening is less than the likelihood of being killed by a slate falling from a roof as they pass. They stay at home to avoid the threats, hassle and intimidation heaped upon them by roving gangs seeking soft targets, whose success criteria is the look of fear on the faces of their randomly chosen prey.

“They need stopping. They need stopping permanently. Or at least they need to be placed where they can pursue their interests without the wholesale pain and anguish they cause the people who wish to live in peace. Let them kill; let them maim and wound and torment. And let us find a place where they can do this away from the world they reject, where they can inflict their misery on each other. Forget the specific crime; forget the need for proof; forget the requirement for witnesses and their subsequent protection and – quite often – their necessary isolation for their own safety. The question should not be – ‘are they guilty or not guilty?' It should be ‘would the world – society, community, define it as you wish – would it be better or not
without
these people in it?' If the answer is ‘better', then it is the law's duty to make it so by removing them.

“This is a radical step. It would mean an enormous amount of parliamentary work, even if there was a will within the powers that be to address the nation's concerns so controversially. But the controversy is all in the means; the end is indisputable in its benefit. Unfortunately, the do-gooders will concentrate on the means; they will point out that these criminals are just misunderstood, have had too little guidance, suffer from coming from a poor background, a poor area, have single parents, little education. In other words, none of it is their fault, so nothing should be done about them. Except, of course, pour more money into leisure facilities, counsellors, corrective centres and so on.

“We must focus on the finished product, the end-game, the future state scenario, call it what you will. In other words, the
end
as opposed to the means. And it will be a painful process to get there, but well worth it. To do so we need to be prepared to put at risk part of a generation – those non-conforming to be banished for ever, irreversibly exiled. There would be mistakes, innocents swept up in the street-cleansing process. This would be unfortunate, but an acceptable risk for the overall benefit. I passionately believe that. We need to focus on that better world in the future – hopefully, the
near
future – where the good people can take charge of their simple needs and wants without fear and compromise. We need to insist that those who can achieve it for us do so, or move aside to make way for those who will. And in that better world, people like me will be justly castigated and repulsed for needlessly taking lives, instead of revered for doing somebody else's job.”