The Chamberlain Case by Ken Crispin

Author:Ken Crispin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRU000000, LAW000000, LAW096000, LAW064000
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2012-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

PART IV

THE AFTERMATH

18

Another child is born

MICHAEL AND LINDY were both helped from the court after this shattering denouement. Michael, sobbing uncontrollably, had been released on bail. He was led away by his lawyers.

There had been no initial reaction from Lindy. She seemed stunned. She stood silent and uncomprehending whilst the sentence of life imprisonment was imposed, and then turned woodenly and let herself be led away. Then she, too, burst into tears. She was led down to the cells in the bowels of the Supreme Court building to await the arrival of the prison vehicle. There was something vaguely symbolic about it, like the soul of the damned being taken down to the underworld. Long after she had disappeared from view, the sounds of muffled sobbing still came fitfully to those who lingered outside the courtroom. Phillips and Kirkham went down to her, no doubt wondering what they could say that would not sound fatuous and hollow.

At about 9.20 p.m. she was driven to the Berrimah Penitentiary. The pastor’s wife had began to serve her life sentence for the murder of her child.

The penitentiary is located about fifteen kilometres to the east of Darwin. It is a harsh, uncompromising place, characterised by mesh fences with sections of razor wire at the top and ever-present warders with rifles looking down from the tall observation towers. It stands on a slight rise amidst the open plain. During the wet season, when the humidity sometimes exceeds 90 per cent, the heat can seem almost unbearable. Nearby there is an old abattoir. The extent of the stench depends upon the prevailing winds and the humidity; the locals say you get used to it within a few months, but a new prisoner may find something vaguely disturbing about the smell of cast-off flesh left to rot in the sun. It strikes too close to home.

Yet the women’s section, at least, is not uncompromisingly spartan. It is a modest single-storey complex, set in the midst of well-maintained lawns and gardens. There are never more than a handful of inmates at any given time.

Lindy would ultimately spend three years of her life there. She was to feel the effects of confinement acutely, suffering not only from the loneliness and isolation, but from the knowledge of Michael’s anguish and the fact that her children were growing up without a mother. She was to lose some twenty-five kilograms in weight. There were no special vegetarian meals in jail. The authorities saw no reason to ‘mollycoddle’ prisoners or pander to their fads.

From time to time, one of the police involved in the investigation would bring his vehicle to a halt and come to peer at her through the wire fence. The spoils of victory apparently included gloating over the plight of the vanquished.

On 1 November, Michael was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, but was released immediately upon entering a recognisance to be of good behaviour for a period of three years. Aidan and Reagan would at least have a father.

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