figure on it. Before we executed the search warrant, maybe four or five times.’
‘And were you ever alone in there?’
The question came fast as a whip and with the same sting. Now it was clear what Highsmith was planning. ‘Only briefly.’
‘How many times?’
George frowned. ‘Twice, I think,’ he said cautiously.
‘How long for?’
Stanley was on his feet. ‘Your Lordship, this is supposed to be cross-examination. My learned friend seems intent on a fishing expedition.’
Sampson nodded. ‘Mr Highsmith?’
‘Your Lordship, the prosecution is relying heavily on circumstantial evidence, some of which was found in my client’s study. I think it only reasonable that I be allowed to establish that other people had opportunity to have left it there.’
‘Very well, Mr Highsmith, you may continue,’ the judge grudgingly allowed.
‘How long were you left alone in the study?’
‘On one occasion, a minute or two at the most. On the second occasion, I must have been in the room for about ten minutes before Mr Hawkin appeared,’ George said reluctantly.
‘Long enough,’ Highsmith said, apparently to himself as he picked up another pad and flicked over a page or two. ‘Can you tell us what your hobbies are, Inspector?’ he asked pleasantly.
‘Hobbies?’ George demanded, caught off his stride.
‘That’s right.’
George looked at Stanley for guidance, but the barrister could only shrug. ‘I play cricket. I like to go fell-walking. I don’t have time for many hobbies,’ he said, sounding as baffled as he felt.
‘You’ve missed one out,’ Highsmith said, his voice cold again. ‘One that has particular relevance to this case.’
George shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Highsmith picked up a thin bundle of photostats. ‘Your Lordship, I would like these papers entered as defence exhibits one to five. Exhibit one is from Cavendish Grammar School for Boys school magazine for 1951. It is the annual report of the school Camera Club, written by the secretary, George Bennett.’ He handed the top sheet to the court clerk. ‘The other exhibits are from the newsletter of the Camera Club of Manchester University, where Detective Inspector Bennett was an undergraduate. They contain articles on photography written by one George Bennett.’ He handed over the papers to the court clerk.
‘Inspector Bennett, do you deny that you wrote these articles on photography?’
‘Of course I don’t.’
‘You are in fact something of an expert in matters photographic?’
George frowned. He could see the trap. To deny it would make him look like a liar. To admit it might fatally undermine the prosecution case for a committal. ‘Any knowledge I had is well out of date,’ he said carefully. ‘Apart from family snaps, I haven’t handled a camera for five or six years.’
‘But you would know where to go to find out how to fake photographs,’ Highsmith said.
George was wiser than Ruth Carter in the ways of barristers. He knew better than to leave a statement unanswered. ‘No more than you would, sir.’
‘Photographs can be faked, can’t they?’ he asked.
‘In my experience, not nearly as neatly as this,’ George said.
Highsmith pounced on the uncharacteristic slip. ‘In your experience? Are you telling the court you have experience of faking photographs?’
George shook his head. ‘No, sir. I was referring to attempts at faking that I have seen, not that I have produced.’
‘But you do know how photographs can be faked?’
George took a deep breath. ‘As I said earlier, my knowledge of photography is well out of date. Anything I know about any aspect of photography has probably been overtaken by changes in technique and technology.’
‘Inspector, please answer the question. Do you or do you not know how photographs can be faked?’ Highsmith sounded exasperated. George knew it was assumed to make him look shifty, but there was nothing he could do to alter that impression, short of admitting to being a skilled forger of photographs.
‘I have some theoretical knowledge, yes, but I have never –’
‘Thank you,’ Highsmith said loudly, cutting him off. ‘A simple answer will always suffice. Now, these negatives which the prosecution has entered into evidence. What kind of camera would you need to take them?’
Beneath the level of the witness box, where the jury could not see them, George clenched his fists till his nails left weals on his palms. ‘You’d need a portrait camera. A Leica or a Rolleiflex, something like that.’
‘Do you possess such a camera?’
‘I have not used my Rolleiflex for at least five years,’ he said, knowing he sounded devious even as he spoke.
Highsmith sighed. ‘The question was whether you possess such a camera, not when you last used it, Inspector. Do you possess such a camera? Yes or no will serve.’
‘Yes.’
Highsmith paused and flicked through his papers. Then he looked up. ‘You believe my client is guilty, don’t you?’
George turned his head towards the jury. ‘What I believe doesn’t matter.’
‘But you do believe in my client’s guilt?’ Highsmith persisted.
‘I believe what the evidence tells me, and so yes, I do believe Philip Hawkin raped and murdered his thirteen-year-old stepdaughter,’ George said, emotion creeping into his voice in spite of his intention to keep it battened down.
‘Both of which are terrible crimes,’ Highsmith said. ‘Any reasonable man would be appalled by them and would want to bring to justice the person who had committed them. The problem is, Inspector, that there is no solid evidence that either of these crimes was ever committed, is there?’
‘If there was no evidence, the magistrates would never have committed your client for trial and we would not be here today.’
‘But there is an alternative explanation for every piece of circumstantial evidence before us today. And many of those explanations lead us firmly to your door. It is your obsession with Alison Carter that has brought us here today, isn’t it, Inspector?’
Stanley was on his feet again. ‘My lord, I must protest. My learned friend seems determined to make speeches rather than ask questions, to cast aspersions rather than to make direct accusations. If he has something to ask Detective Inspector Bennett, well and good. But if his sole intent is to deliver slurs and innuendo to the jury, then he should be stopped.’
Sampson
