Friday May 3rd 2013
Friday May 3rd was the day appointed for the next hearing at the Old Bailey in the proceedings related to the killing of my cousin. The previous week, we had been there for a very short hearing to discuss jurisdiction over the accused. The conclusion was, as we had expected, that the suspect would be tried here first, and afterwards go to Germany to be tried for the killing there.
This Friday morning, my sister and I had an early appointment to meet the Crown Prosecution Service before the hearing, so we were told in advance what was likely to happen today.
We have had to change judge. This is because our original judge has had a promotion and is about to become a judge in the Court of Appeal. (I knew about the promotion already, as I found it when looking up details about him on the web earlier in the week). He will no longer sit at the Old Bailey, but only in the Courts of Appeal. So this time we had the Recorder of London, who is the most senior permanent judge of the central criminal court.
What happened in court was fairly short. The accused was on video link from the secure hospital, and I have to say he did not look at all well. He had had a rather radical haircut, what my sons call 'No 1 all over'. In January, he had short wavy hair and just looked like a fairly ordinary well-educated young man. Now he looks mad, and also very big and threatening; he seems to have put on a lot of weight and his face looks puffy, probably from the treatment drugs. He now looks the kind of person you'd cross the street to avoid! I found it quite disturbing that the video screen was directly facing me, in a court room which wasn't very big, and he seemed to be staring straight at me. Of course, he was staring straight at the camera, and anyway, what he can see is the judge, not me. But I found it very unsettling.
He was formally arraigned - he was asked to plead. He pleaded not guilty to murder, guilty to manslaughter. This plea was accepted, because I understand that he is now diagnosed, by both prosecution and defence psychiatrists, as a paranoid schizophrenic. There was a mention of the killing in Germany, and we learned that a European arrest warrant had been issued but not yet executed. I imagine that's because everything is waiting until this case is over.
The CPS barrister then requested a postponement until May 28th, when, if all is in order, he will 'open the facts of the case' in court. This means he will explain in court exactly what the accused did, and will detail Douglas' injuries. He told us privately we could leave quietly if we found it too upsetting, but he has to do this because it needs to be a matter of public record. They should then be able to move to sentencing, which will be a hospital order and a restraining order. The restraining order prevents his release, if the doctors deem him to be no longer deranged, until his case can be considered again.
Nobody was ready anyway - some of the papers were missing! I think the courts need to employ some better quality filing clerks. The judge complained that he hadn't received one of the three psychiatrists' reports. The defence was missing some of the relevant statements. Worst of all, the Clerk of the Court asked the accused to confirm his name and he couldn't, because it wasn't his name! For some reason, she had his first name down wrongly.
Anyway, it was over this time in under half an hour. We just hope it can all be over and done with next time, at the end of the month. He'll remain locked up in a secure hospital once he has been sentenced. When the Germans are ready with their case, he will go to Germany to be tried there, as long, the judge says, as the German authorities can assure him that there will be no danger to the public in the move. Everybody considers him dangerous, so he will not appear in court at all, he will always be just on the video link. It is possible that he'll be incarcerated in Germany, in fact I hope he will.
There were some journalists in court, so we were not entirely surprised the next day to read some newspaper reports. Not one was accurate! It was quite interesting to compare reports from newspapers here with those in German newspapers. I was surprised to learn that German newspapers never identify suspects or victims by name, so accounts of the killing in Germany are very much less sensational than you would find in a newspaper here.
I am now being very careful what I say In this blog. The suspect has told the British police what he did in Germany, in fact one of the German papers says (this is a translation) 'In his interview with British authorities, the suspect didn’t just speak about the attack in London, but also admitted attacking a woman two weeks earlier in his hometown. During the course of a further interview he was able to describe the sequence of events of the killing in such detail that the investigation authorities have no doubt that he committed the act.'
However, I understand he has refused to speak to the German police - they came over here specially to interview him - and I am told he has refused to give them his fingerprints or DNA. So, in case he pleads not guilty in Germany and there is a trial over there, I am not saying too much in public.
My sister and I are not finding this easy. She finds she has lots of issues with anger management. I worry about walking down the street now, especially in London; I try to be aware of who is around me all the time. And I'm not longer relaxed about the crazy person in the street or on public transport, in fact I take evasive action. I feel Douglas might not have been so vulnerable to attack if he'd been able to see. I find it very hard to believe I'll never see him again. And of course, we both find it difficult not being able to make any plans when we don't know for definite when we need to go to court.
The other thing we both dread is Douglas' killer being classed as 'no longer dangerous as long as he takes his medication' and being let out in two or three years. We don't want him coming back to London again! Apparently, German regulations governing mental health patients who have committed violent crimes are different, so we are hoping he won't be let out to do it again.
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