Trials and Tribulations 4
I had to go up to take the stand and the statement I gave matched up with the written statement I’d given to the police and the Proof of Evidence I gave to my Solicitor. I have found that if you lie, you have to remember what you’ve said and to whom you said it and therefore, I find it easier to not lie.
The Solicitor for the prosecution seemed to have lost a lot of ‘get up and go’ and I wonder if he realised how poor the previous witnesses performed for his case.
My Solicitor asked questions about me, my character, my working career and he emphasised the points that helped my case (of course). The main thing that helped my case was the fact that I had a written statement from my Physio, stating that I had suffered from a frozen shoulder at the time of the incident. My Solicitor asked about that and I described the limited range of movement I had at that time and how it impacted on my whole body. I was unable to ‘lunge out of the car’ because of the injury and I would certainly not have been able to reach with both hands as the first witness claimed I had.
One other thing that helped my case was the fact that my statement was plausible, realistic and consistent.
I admitted I shouted at the complainant and that I used ‘colourful language’, but that was in response to her colourful language at me to begin with. I replied in kind, I didn’t start it. The reason I challenged the woman was for the threatening gesture she made toward my granddaughter – a gesture which my Solicitor gave a theory that it could have been aimed at Haydn because of the disagreement that morning.
I showed the gesture that the complainant had made, a ‘gun’ slicing across the throat and then she pointed at Mia.
The Prosecutor made a half-hearted case and even when trying to get me to break my continuity, to get me flustered so I’d make a mistake he could pounce on, he didn’t really make the effort.
I was relieved to step down from the stand, even though I instantly thought of things I could have said.
The next three witnesses were for the defence. Haydn came up first.
Haydn’s statement
I picked up Mia (daughter) from school and walked up the street with Defence Witness 2, talking. My mum (Michelle Gent) was waiting to pick us up and we stood at the side of the car.
Mia ran past the car and I shouted at her to come back. Mia got in the car and was fastened into her child seat by my sister (Danielle).
Witness 1 walked past with another woman and my mum opened her car door and said to Wit 1, “What was that about?”
Wit 1 turned to my mum and told her to mind her own fucking business. Wit 1 walked backwards up the street, shouting and swearing at my mum, waving her hand, making gestures. The woman with her also turned and walked backwards, she was encouraging Wit 1.
My mum got out of the car and followed them up the street. She was shouting back at the two women. I hung back and watched.
At the top of the street, the woman with Wit 1 stepped in front of my mum and my mum stopped walking. The shouting continued between all three.
Wit 1 was behind the other woman, still shouting and swearing and pointing at my mum, using the other woman as a barrier.
Then a friend of theirs, Wit 3, ran past me and Friend 1 with a pushchair. Wit 3 aimed the pushchair right into the arguing women, ramming the pushchair into my mum, pushing everyone out of the way, breaking the argument up. I ran up to the group and told my mum to come back to the car.
Apart from naming Witness 3 by his nickname (a self-imposed prefix of ‘Dangerous’ before his name), Haydn’s verbal statement followed his written statement quite well. The prosecution asked a few questions, but didn’t grill him to any extent.
The second witness for the defence came in.
Defence Witness 2
I was attending School to pick my 2 kids up. Whilst in the playground, I saw a friend of mine, Haydn, who was picking his daughter up.
We collected the kids and left the playground on to South Street. We walked up the street, stopping at a silver 4x4. We carried on chatting when Witness 1 walked past with another female. We carried on talking, then a woman got out of the car and said something to Witness 1. Then Witness 1 started to shout and swear at the woman. The woman then started to follow Witness 1 and the other female who were walking backwards up the street shouting obscenities.
As they approached the end of the street, the female with Wit 1 stepped into the middle of the 2 arguing. The male, who I believe was Wit 1’s partner, ran past with a pushchair up to the argument and kinda rammed into the group, at which point, Haydn ran up to where the fracas was happening.
During his statement to the court, Defence Witness 2 showed the gestures the complainant had used as she walked up the street. She waved her hands about like they were guns, pointing them at the people she was in conflict with, showing her contempt.
The gestures he showed to the court matched the one I had shown, earlier.
Def Wit 2 spoke as though he was recounting the event in the manner he would normally speak. In other words, he told what happened in a natural, easy manner as it had happened. He was engaging and credible.
One thing he didn’t say, however, was that I swore. He, Haydn and the third witness for the defence didn’t mention that I swore.
Final part tomorrow…