Wedderburn by Maryrose Cuskelly

Author:Maryrose Cuskelly [Maryrose Cuskelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2018-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

As foreshadowed in Jamieson’s sotto voce conversation before the commencement of the plea hearing in Bendigo, a cat is about to be thrown among the pigeons. In a directions hearing in the Supreme Court in Melbourne the following Friday, barrister Daryl Wraith informs Justice Hollingworth that he is appearing as a courtesy for Jamieson. Wraith is an old hand, a barrister for more than 30 years and a criminal law specialist. Yet like Jamieson’s previous advocate, and despite all his experience, he appears nonplussed by his client’s vagaries. He is ill-informed of the details of the case to date and unsure if Legal Aid will continue to fund his client’s defence. One thing Wraith is clear on: his client wishes to revert to his plea of not guilty to the murder of Greg Holmes.

Justice Hollingworth is way past the point of patience. Any prospect of a quick conclusion to proceedings is fast disappearing. This hearing was scheduled to ascertain if Jamieson had managed to secure legal representation, not to give him a platform to launch an attempt to derail the rest of the plea hearing and delay sentencing. There is no basis on which to proceed with a change of plea, she tells Wraith. She gives him a verbal dot-point list of factors that support her position: Jamieson made a full admission at the time of the killings; he was in possession of the murder weapons; there were the blood trails between the crime scene and his house and his clothing was bloodstained. She also provides him with a brief history of Jamieson’s pleas to date and scoffs at his attempt to alter his plea again. Only exceptional circumstances such as would result in a miscarriage of justice would compel her to grant such an application.

Given that Wraith is only just coming to grips with the case, Her Honour reluctantly proposes another mention for the following Thursday. When the barrister dithers as to whether he will be free to attend, Justice Hollingworth almost loses it, demanding an undertaking that he will show up. She stresses the continued inconvenience of the delays for the victims’ family members, who must travel long distances to attend the hearings in Melbourne. As for his client, she informs Wraith, he appears ‘indifferent to anyone’s needs except his own’. She reins in her ire enough to acknowledge that Wraith is ‘the inheritor of a problem’ rather than the cause of this further inconvenience. Wraith hastily assures her he will be present on Thursday, and the hearing is adjourned. Jamieson, silent but wearing his sense of grievance like a badge, is escorted out of the court by the corrections officers. Prosecutor Andrew Tinney confers in a huddle with Paul Holmes and Maree and Dennis St Clair, as Detective Senior Constable Jason Wallace hovers nearby. Paul and Maree look exhausted, kept upright not by any sense of hope, but simply by their determination to continue turning up.

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