John Stonehouse, My Father by Julia Stonehouse

Author:Julia Stonehouse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

14

Bonnie and Clyde are Back

The arrival of the notorious runaways at Heathrow Airport on Friday 18th July provided a fantastic opportunity for press photographers, who’d been corralled behind metal railings on either side of the steps leading from the door of the British Airways jumbo jet. My father came down the stairs first, and was funnelled through the tunnel of flashing lights by detectives on either side of him, quickly put in the back of a waiting car, and driven off. Sheila appeared next, looking as if she’d lost weight, and was guided into another car by one of the two plain-clothed policewomen who’d been sent to Australia to collect her. They were taken to Bow Street Magistrates’ Court, where another crowd of photographers waited, along with my sister Jane. The plane had been delayed and it was too late for a bail hearing before a judge, so they both spent the night in the court’s grubby cells. The next morning, in a courtroom full of reporters, Sheila was given bail, but my father was not.

The following Monday, a bail appeal was refused by a judge in chambers, Mr Justice Kerr. My father was represented by Sheila’s barrister from Melbourne, George Hampel, who’d been quickly admitted to the English Bar. He and Jim Patterson had flown to London at their own expense to help with the cases. Michael O’Dell became my father’s solicitor in London, and was to prove an absolute gem and true family friend. The press emphasised that the charges against my father came to £154,000 but I don’t think the public realised that £125,000 of that related to life insurance policies which had never been claimed. However, emphasising big numbers made a good story and sold newspapers. Meanwhile my father was remanded to Brixton Prison, where he would spend the next six weeks, during which Josef Frolik was doing the publicity rounds and generating reviews for his book The Frolik Defection, which was published on the 25th July. For him, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

The first chance I had to see my father was that same day, Wednesday 25th July, five days after he’d been escorted back from Australia, when my mother and I visited him in Brixton. After eight months of trauma, it was a phenomenal relief just to hug him, and have the opportunity to say we loved each other. He felt thinner, and his hair had gone slightly grey, but I was relieved to find him in good spirits. He had no idea, then, that he’d be incarcerated on remand for weeks to come. The guards did what they would always do, whether in prison or at court – stand a few feet away trying to overhear his conversations. There was no privacy.

The next bail hearing was on Monday 28th July, my father’s 50th birthday. He made the appeal himself, and failed. There had been reports in the newspapers that he’d been on hunger strike. This wasn’t true, and he told the judge that he occasionally goes on a starvation diet for health reasons.

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