Jump to content
  • Join Gay Authors

    Join us for free and follow your favorite authors and stories.

    Drew Payne
  • Author
  • 1,001 Words
  • 1,420 Views
  • 8 Comments
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The World Out There - 15. Fifteen

The last day of his trail was made up only of speeches. First went Mr Spencer. The man stood up and addressed the jury, talking straight to them. Liam didn’t want to stare at the man but Mr Spencer’s good looks kept pulling his eyes back to him.

Mr Spencer told the jury how Liam had deliberately taken a knife to school with the sole purpose of hunting down Rhys Clarke. He then claimed that Liam killed Rhys Clarke in a vicious and sustained attack, that he showed no remorse for. Mr Spencer claimed that Liam’s behaviour was part of the “knife crime plague” sweeping the country, and that the jury had to find him guilty to send a message that this kind of crime was unacceptable.

Liam stared down at his feet as the man’s final words filled the courtroom. Mr Spencer’s description was of somebody else, not him, and yet Mr Spencer was allowed to say all those things and in court. How could he say all those untrue things? Weren’t they supposed to only tell the truth here? Liam didn’t know what to do, so he just stared down at his feet and hoped for Mr Spencer’s words to stop.

Mrs Stewart-Graham had spoken next. She stood up and in a clear voice told the jury that there was no doubt that Liam had committed this terrible crime but no one asked why. She then talked how Liam was a quiet boy who had never been in trouble before, about a “taunt relationship” between him and Rhys Clarke, that Rhys Clarke was “no innocent victim”, that there were so many things not discussed here. She seemed to be hinting at so much, why couldn’t she say it? Why didn’t she say it? She ended by telling the jury that he was thirteen with his whole life ahead of him. That was true but it seemed his life had also already ended, it was all over now, and it was all his fault.

Lastly the judge addressed the jury. He remaining seated but lent forward and seemed to fix his eyes on the jury, one person at a time. He told them, in great detail, how Liam had killed Rhys Clarke, how many times he had stabbed Clarke and even the depth of some of the stab wounds. Liam again stared down at his feet and tried to block out the man’s words. He didn’t need to relive his killing of Clarke, he couldn’t forget it because he relived it each night in his nightmares.

The judge continued about how there was no doubt that he killed Rhys Clarke but what the jury had to do was decide why he killed Clarke. The prosecution had presented evidence that Liam sort out Clarke, armed with a knife. The defence did not present any other reason for his attack and Liam himself had not given evidence, which was his right, though the judge’s tone was that Liam shouldn’t have done that. Liam had done what Mrs Stewart-Graham said, she was in-charge, she was a barrister.

For his last statement, the judge told the jury that they had to decide whether Liam was guilty of manslaughter or murder, but the tone of the man’s voice made it clear what choice he’d make. The judge then “dismissed the jury”, sending them out of the courtroom to come to their decision, to decide on their verdict. With that his trial seemed to be over for that day.

The two guards had taken him out of the courtroom, via the narrow staircase that led directly from The Dock, down into the basement of the building. There they quickly led him to the walled courtyard where the prison van was waiting for him. Also waiting there was the crowd of people, on the other side of the metal gates, shouting angrily at him. He didn’t look at them as he was led into the back of the van. It was the way he had quickly learnt to deal with those people, to keep his head down and not look in their direction. They were there every day he was brought to the Crown Court, shouting and banging on the side of the van, then crowding against the closed gates when he was taken out of the van and into the building. There were usually more people in the morning, shouting louder and threatening him more, in the afternoon, as he left the Crown Court, there always seemed less of them, at least their shouting wasn’t as loud. That day there seemed just as many in the afternoon as there was that morning.

As he sat down on the metal seat, locked away into that tiny cubicle in the back of the van, careful to keep his feet away from that grate in the floor, he lent his back against the metal wall and closed his eyes, but his mind was racing and no peace come to him. Why did those people out there hate him so much? Why did they gather outside of the Crown Court to shout their hate at him? How did they even know about him? For all his life, so far, he had been a no-body, people just ignored him and he’d slipped into the shadows unnoticed. Part of him had enjoyed it, going unnoticed and uncared about, people didn’t fuss over what he did. Part of him, though, longed for people to notice him, if just once, for him to be the centre of attention. He would day-dream about people turning their attention onto him. He had never day-dreamed that when he would finally be the centre of attention it would be a crowd of people shouting for his blood.

As the van pulled out of the courtyard, those people again banged on the outside of it, shouting loudly their hate, and Liam pushed his body as far away from the van’s wall as possible, in that tiny cubicle.

I want to give a big thank to @pvtguy for the wonderful job he has done proofreading this story.
Copyright © 2021 Drew Payne; All Rights Reserved.
  • Like 10
  • Love 1
  • Fingers Crossed 1
  • Sad 7
  • Angry 12
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
You are not currently following this story. Be sure to follow to keep up to date with new chapters.

Recommended Comments

Chapter Comments

2 hours ago, chris191070 said:

It's feels from the summing up by the lawyers and the Judge, that the Judge wants the jury to find Liam guilty. Liam hasn't been given a fair trial, whatever happened innocent until proven guilty. It's almost if the prosecution and Judge want a successful conviction, another notch on his belt, so to speak.

To me, the judge decided that Liam is guilty the moment he was told he would be presiding over his trial.

It's the adversarial nature of our trials, were the defence or prosecution barristers must "win", that I have problems with. There isn't a search the true but just who can win. As for justice being blind… yes… right.

  • Like 4
1 hour ago, re2 said:

Very difficult to read. I do hope you have a satisfactory resolution soon. 

This story is about a very difficult subject so it’s telling isn’t easy.

This story is going to be about 50-60,000 words long and I'm at the 30,000 point (Though I am haven’t posted all the chapters I’ve written yet). There's a lot more story to tell before I can reach a resolution. Liam is 19 when he's released from Nurton Cross, here he is only 13. There's a lot happened to him in-between. Please hang on in with me.

  • Like 4
16 minutes ago, Parker Owens said:

And so the jury has the case to decide. The judge made it quite clear what he thought, and hobbled the defense to suit. If the jury finds Liam guilty of manslaughter, that in itself would seem a miracle. 

Oh, spoilers, spoilers... Wait until the next chapter.

The jury has been influenced by what they have heard and seen in the court room, but they have also been influenced by what they have seen and heard outside the court room too.

  • Like 4

Okay, I'm a little late to the game but I'm shocked the defense attorney (solicitor) hasn't demanded the judge recuse himself. He is clearly biased and not impartial; he has his own agenda. The judge is not allowed to influence the jury, which he clearly is. In the States this wouldn't fly and, even if Liam is convicted, an immediate appeal would be filed.

Mrs. Stewart-Graham also missed her chance by not putting Liam on the stand. The prosecution's questions would have opened the door for Liam to speak on being bullied and given her the opportunity to recall previous witnesses and add new ones. Additionally, the judge striking Liam's testimony would've proved bias and achieved a mistrial at the very least.

My heart breaks for this poor boy.

  • Like 3
On 12/10/2021 at 2:26 PM, Danners said:

Okay, I'm a little late to the game but I'm shocked the defense attorney (solicitor) hasn't demanded the judge recuse himself. He is clearly biased and not impartial; he has his own agenda. The judge is not allowed to influence the jury, which he clearly is. In the States this wouldn't fly and, even if Liam is convicted, an immediate appeal would be filed.

Mrs. Stewart-Graham also missed her chance by not putting Liam on the stand. The prosecution's questions would have opened the door for Liam to speak on being bullied and given her the opportunity to recall previous witnesses and add new ones. Additionally, the judge striking Liam's testimony would've proved bias and achieved a mistrial at the very least.

My heart breaks for this poor boy.

This story is set in Britain and here we can't ask a judge to recuse themselves. The judge could only be removed from a trial, and before it starts, if there is a direct conflict of interest. In Britain, our judges are there to ensure the law is followed, they have a lot less power than American judges do, and it was through legal arguments, at the beginning of the trial, that Mrs Stewart-Graham’s bullied defence was excluded, though the judge was far too involved in that argument.

At this point, Liam is a shy and very introverted thirteen-year-old. Mrs Stewart-Graham was right not to have him give evidence. He would have come over as stumbling and inarticulate, with one word answers or even silence, which would have only made him look more guilty. Also, Mrs Stewart-Graham could not introduce the evidence that Clarke bullied him by the backdoor, because even if Liam mentioned it on cross-examination, the judge would have had the jury removed and again told off Mrs Stewart-Graham. The ruling at the beginning of his trial meant she couldn't use the bullied defence, or even try and get it in by the backdoor.

(I based this all on two real trials, but I also had help from John Mortimer's Rumpole stories)

There are a lot of grounds for appeal against this trial, not least for Judaical over-reach, but Liam is a minor (though he is tried as an adult, another point I wanted to make here) and they will need his mother's consent for this. When we met his mother in person, her refusal will make sense.

Also, Liam did kill Clarke and, just for a moment, he enjoyed the power he had over his bully.

I didn’t want this story to be a simple black-and-white story, but one of the things I did want to write about is the way children are not treated well by our criminal justice system because it is set up to handle the crimes or adults, not children. A child like Liam cannot participate in his own defence.

  • Like 4
View Guidelines

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Newsletter

    Sign Up and get an occasional Newsletter.  Fill out your profile with favorite genres and say yes to genre news to get the monthly update for your favorite genres.

    Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...