IC - 26 - Calm Before the Storm - Everyone

[Silver Priest]

"I can attest, he was greatly amused by all of the 'delusions' he felt I was experiencing," Simon sniffs. He's still not sure if Balfour has some sort of supernatural power--the very notion seemed absurd!-- but he's seen enough to know the man either does or possesses some sort of technology that can expertly mimic such. Either way, he is greatly dangerous.

[Mephistophilis]

The case is called and the CPS lawyer goes into the court. A clerk leads Kris, Jocelyn, and Simon into the public gallery. The court itself is typical of a provincial magistrates' court, all fake wood panelling and municipal gloom. At the back of the room there is a long table, elevated above the rest of the seating, behind which sit three magistrates in their suits. Two men and a woman. All aged in their fifties or sixties. They look almost bored. Another table sits in front of the magistrates with a single man sitting there. Kris knows this is the legal advisor who provides legal advice to the magistrates who are unpaid members of the local community rather than trained judges or lawyers. Then finally, just before the public gallery there are some more tables where the CPS lawyer is sitting along with an even younger woman - the CPS prosecution team, and there is Ms Acharya, sharply attired in a well tailored trouser suit alongside two men and a woman - the defence.

Johnny Zero is escorted in by a uniformed police officer from a side door and led to an elevated seat which is inside a sort of box-like structure. He sits down and looks over the court room. There's the slightest of nods as he recognises his mother in the public gallery and then he passes over Kris, Jocelyn, and Simon. His gaze lingering on Simon for an uncomfortable minute before he turns back to the proceedings.

Johnny is called to confirm his name, 'John Timothy Allen.' Then the magistrates invite the legal teams to introduce themselves. The CPS lawyer turns out to be called Wayne Hastings and the woman with him is his assistant. The defence team is extensive but Ms Acharya seems to be taking the lead.

Hastings is invited to present the charges and he 'Possession of a Prohibited Weapon, Assault with Intent to Resist Arrest, and Actual Bodily Harm Your Worships.'

Johnny is then asked to plead, 'Not guilty your honour.'

One of the magistrates then says, 'I see we have some either way offences on the charge sheet. Do either of you have any submissions about whether they should be tried here or sent to the Crown Court?'

Mr Hastings coughs and stands up, 'With all due respect, given the severity and culpability of Mr Allen's offences I would submit that sentencing would be outside the remit of this court, Sir.'

'Well that will be for us to decide but your submission is duly noted.' He then leans forwards and exchanges a few whispered words with the legal adviser.

Ms Acharya stands and clears her throat. 'I would humbly suggest that my learned colleague is incorrect on all counts. These allegations, false allegations as we will establish, are certainly not of a nature that would warrant sentences requiring remitting to the Crown Court. The charge under 5(1)(ab) of the Firearms Act 1968 is clearly absurd as there is no evidence of Mr Allen ever having said weapon in his possession and Actual Bodily Harm is frankly overreaching and...' she pauses for a second and looks at Hastings with a hint of disgust, '...and Mr Hastings is well aware of that fact. As for the charge under Section 38 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, namely Assault with Intent to Resist Arrest, we will establish that far from assaulting anyone, Mr Allen was in fact himself assaulted by overzealous members of the intelligence services...'

By this point Hastings has his mouth wide open. He clearly hadn't been expecting this approach by Acharya.

She pauses again, and smiles in Mr Hastings's direction. 'However, I do have medical evidence to submit that far from being imprisoned, Mr Allen requires psychiatric help and should be removed to hospital for further assessment, under, if I may be so bold, Section 35 of the Mental Health Act 1983 if it pleases Your Worships?' She gives a sickly-sweet smile to the magistrates and turns to inflict it on the rest of the court room.

At the mention of requiring psychiatric help, Johnny visibly grimaces.

'If the prosecution has no objections I think we should hear the medical evidence for the defence...' says the magistrate.

Hastings is looking very uncomfortable and rather red. 'If we could just take a ten minute break...?'

So we'll pause there. Anything you guys want to do before the doctors give their evidence? Anything you want to say to Hastings?

[Mr. Handy]

"Who tipped her off about the intelligence services?" asks Jocelyn. She will privately confide to Hastings that she is MI5, consulting with the police on the kidnapping case, and she will also go over the article on Dr. Chaudhary that will be useful to discredit his testimony.

[Philulhu]

We executed the search warrant at the church and the pistol was found, wrapped in a ziploc bag, in one of the toilets. Johnny’s fingerprints were on it so it would be difficult for them to argue that he never had it.

[Silver Priest]

Simon rolls his eyes at Hastings awful performance thus far, though he's hardly surprised, having learned to expect that everyone save him--and to some degree Jocelyn and Kris-- were a disappointment. The whole thing would be rather amusing were it not for the stakes involved.

Since he's not an expert on the topic, he lets the two law enforcement agents take the lead here.

[Philulhu]

Kris thought for a while. ”You were in the interview with me when we spoke to Johnny, Jocelyn. Presumably that’s why they know the intelligence services are involved,” he said. “But as far as us assaulting him, that’s rubbish. He assaulted Jocelyn while trying to get away and any force we used was proportional to protect ourselves and to effect the arrest.”

“And we’ve got him bang to rights with the weapon as his prints were on it. The forensic report bears that out,” he continued, looking at Hastings.

[Mr. Handy]

"Agreed," says Jocelyn. "But I never revealed who I work for in the interview. Balfour must know somehow, and he told Acharya. He does have a lot of highly placed friends. Maybe one of them told him."

[Mephistophilis]

Mr Hastings seems quite flustered. 'This is a simple case. We have all the evidence we need. The magistrates have to remit it to the Crown Court! I don't know what she's playing at. The only way she could get him on a Section 35 hospital order is if the magistrates tried Mr Allen here, found him guilty, and then sent him to hospital for a report. No. She's overreaching. Whatever testimony she has from the psychiatrists can't outweigh all the evidence we have...' then he adds quietly, 'Can it?'

[Philulhu]

”I don’t see how but we haven’t had Johnny evaluated, have we? Yes, I know you spoke to him, Simon, but you’ve been under a lot of strain recently and I don’t think you’re in the best place to give evidence against him,” said Kris.

[Silver Priest]

"We also have information that will show that Dr Choudhury has a consistent bias against religion. It led to him overlooking the case of a woman who later took her own life after he cleared her for release from the hospital. So I would imagine that would be enough to call his so called 'expertise' into question." Simon remarks smugly.

He bristles somewhat at Kris' words. "I assure you that I am perfectly capable of keeping my thoughts on Allen separate from my interactions with him. I am an expert in my field, after all. But whatever you both think puts us in a better position. I'm of course happy to testify if it requires such."

[Mr. Handy]

"She's definitely up to something," says Jocelyn. "Fortunately, you have the information to discredit the doctor, and you have us willing to testify if necessary. It may not be, but it's better to have these cards in your hand if you need them."

[Mephistophilis]

Okay then. Rather than play out the whole court case I'll let you guys roll for the CPS and I'll roll for Ms Acharya in an opposed test and then narrate it. What are you trying to achieve? I assume you want Johnny remanded to the Crown Court and no bail. I'd say that's a regular Law roll (Hastings has a Law of 50% and he gets a bonus die due to the info you've found on Chaudhury and the the witness evidence you can all give. Acharya needs to pass a hard Law roll (but she's a lot better at it, with Law 80%) to persuade the court to try and convict Johnny and then have him transferred to a psychiatric facility.

HHdL(HLFF80%)d%

[Philulhu]

Crown Court, no bail and regular prison, not psych ward. Here goes…

Law: 1d100

Bonus die: 1d10

With a bonus die, that’s 22.

[Mephistophilis]

Anyone want to blow some of their Luck to make that a hard success and get Johnny put out of the picture?

[Silver Priest]

Dumb question but isn't a 22 a hard success for Hastings?

[Mr. Handy]

I was thinking the same thing.

[Mephistophilis]

Dumb question but isn't a 22 a hard success for Hastings?

Doh. Of course it is. I had planned to give him Law 40% but later thought that was a bit mean. Will narrate accordingly.

[Mephistophilis]

The sitting of the Magistrates' Court resumes and Ms Acharya strides in, a confident look on her face and body language that signals she has the upper hand here.

The magistrates ask her to make her case, 'Ms Acharya, if you'll outline why we should be trying Mr Allen here rather than remitting him to the Crown Court, and that medical evidence you promised...'

'Of course, of course. Sirs, Madam. I would never wish to undermine the solemn nature of the duties of this court and contend that allegations such as those pertaining to Mr Allen are precisely those most appropriately dealt with within these hallowed walls. As I outlined earlier, these unfounded allegations against my client are really at the less serious end of the spectrum and would be entirely appropriate for this court. As I have already established, Mr Allen is more victim than aggressor. A black man experiencing brutality at the hands of a partial and prejudiced police force.'

At this point Kris is practically champing at the bit to say something but his professional demeanour returns when Jocelyn places a restraining hand on his arm.

'And what's more. Any criminal activity that Mr Allen might have committed - and I do not for a second concede that he did - bit any such activity, mild as it was, only occurred during a period of intense emotional upset and distress when a child from his congregation, the very daughter of his pastor, was kidnapped and nearly murdered by right-wing extremists attacking a predominantly black church in the heart of multicultural Wycombe!'

She gestures to the two psychiatrists, 'I call on the psychiatric evidence of Dr Michael Choudhury and Dr Yousef Hussein, both eminent practioners in their fields.'

Dr Choudhury gives a rather flashy but quite convincing argument that Johnny has adopted an extremist millennial Christianity that believes in the imminent end times and that he holds such beliefs will a delusional fervour and that these beliefs lie behind his actions. He demonstrates with some fairly impressive rhetorical flourishes how he tricked Johnny into revealing some of these beliefs. It is a virtuoso performance and some of the local court reporters seem positively starstruck. Dr Hussein gives a rather more pedestrian display but argues that Johnny remains a risk and that, while his beliefs could be considered appropriate to a particular religious subculture, there is enough evidence of concerning behaviour to justify a period of detention and assessment in hospital and he suggests his own medium secure forensic hospital in Milton Keynes would be suitable.

When he gets up to start his own questioning, Hastings looks like something of a broken man. Stuttering, lacking in any kind of confidence or charisma. But he ploughs on. First of all recounting the charges against Johnny. Breaking into Lewiston's home. Evading arrest. Assaulting officers trying to arrest him. Assaulting a member of the public when trying to evade arrest. Possession of a firearm that he concealed in the toilets of a church! Then he goes through Johnny's previous convictions. His gang memberships. The drug paraphernalia found in his friend's apartment. Then he cross-examines Choudhury, gently probing his evidence, his professional qualifications, his background, his previous experience, the findings of the General Medical Council, his attitudes towards less mainstream religious beliefs, the possibility that he is ascribing to psychosis what would better be considered strong religious conviction. Simon notices that at this point even Johnny is sat forward in his seat, seemingly willing on Mr Hastings against Choudhury.

Finally Hastings concludes by pointing out the inconsistency at the heart of Acharya's case, that Johnny is both a passionate mainstream Christian persecuted by the police for his faith, and simultaneously that his religious beliefs make him psychotic, unable to know right from wrong, and that he requires committing to hospital for his own and other's safety. Despite the diffidence his evidence is forensic and unrelenting.

There is a period of extensive discussion between the magistrates and the legal advisor from the court. Eventually the lead magistrates says, 'That's enough Mr Hastings, you have us convinced. We will be remitting Mr Allen to the Crown Court for trial. No bail. Nice try Ms Acharya,' he says with a weak smile.

I'd say it is lunchtime. What's the plan?

[Silver Priest]

Hastings had performed rather well, which likely surprised the man himself. Simon pays careful attention to Johnny's reaction when being told he would not be receiving bail.No doubt he was relieved he was not thought of as crazy, but if he was in the know as to some plan to spring him before Tuesday, this ruling may put a wrench in it.

1d100

[Mr. Handy]

Jocelyn congratulates Hastings for prevailing over the more experienced and expensive lawyer. "We should do what we can to ensure Johnny's security in jail," she says. "I'm not too worried that someone's going to break him out, but I am concerned that someone could try to kill him there to make sure he doesn't talk. We also have to make sure Regina stays safe. Balfour will be getting desperate once he hears that Johnny isn't going to hospital."