The Way Back by Dominique Kyle

Author:Dominique Kyle [Kyle, Dominique]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-02-21T23:00:00+00:00

Chetsi took me to the Crown Court. She said I had a right to have someone supporting me through the initial interview and came in with me. We went in by way of a special Victims and Witnesses door to kept us away from the accused and their families, and were taken to a waiting area that was also kept especially separate. The prosecution co-ordinator took us to a private room and asked me to re-read the statements I’d made to the police. Chetsi kicked up a fuss about them not having prepared me properly. For not having given me a chance to be shown round the court and so forth. The woman seemed uninterested. “She didn’t keep us informed of her changes of address. The last known address we had for her was in somewhere in Italy. By the time we’d tracked her down it was too late.”

“But she’ll be behind a screen, right?” Chetsi established.

The woman just stared at her. “Those sort of special measures have to be applied for in advance, it’s too late now.”

“That’s unacceptable!” Chetsi said angrily.

The woman shrugged. “She’s an adult and she wasn’t abused by the men. She’s not considered vulnerable so it wasn’t considered necessary.”

“She’s been threatened,” Chetsi insisted.

“A screen won’t make any difference to that,” the woman said dismissively. “They all know who’s testifying. She can use the separate entrances and exits. Police are in attendance every day outside the Courthouse due to the daily protests and disturbances. And she can apply to the police for protection to and from the courtroom if she needs to.”

I glanced at Chetsi at the mention of daily protests and disturbances. I’d had no idea. Sahmir was right – I’d set off a hornets nest and then just buggered off to leave everyone else to deal with the resulting mess. I hadn’t even bothered to check up online, or get the local newspapers sent to me. I hadn’t even known the trials had started until Sahmir turned up.

“So which of the accused will be in court?” Chetsi asked.

“Mohammed Noorzai, Hussein Malik,” the woman said and then went on to name several names that I didn’t recognise before mentioning Faraz Iqbal, the town councillor, who I knew was Zahoor Umrani’s Uncle and Abid Qureshi, a name which I vaguely remembered had been mentioned in connection with the other middle-aged geezer I’d been made to watch getting his rocks off. At such a long list of names I just froze.

“I thought I was here to just testify against Mohammed!” I protested, suddenly panic stricken.

The woman raised her eyebrows. “Your evidence impacts on eleven cases and they can’t use your camera and audio recordings in court. The police were able to watch and listen to them and analyse them in order to construct the cases against the men that you captured on your recordings, but now you need to go in and affirm to the jury in person, all the events you witnessed.”

Eleven cases? Eleven hostile glaring men

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