Heavy Duty Trouble (The Brethren Trilogy) (35 page)

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Friday
1
0th
June 2011

Now we return once again to the ongoing trial in Newcastle of
five men for the murders last year on Enderdale Moor,
from where our legal affairs correspondent
,
Eamon
Reynolds
,
has been following proceedings.

VTR

Th
e case for the
Prosecution
rest
ed today with
Counsel
,
Mr Simon Kirtley QC
,
walking the jury through the forensic evidence
as he
describ
ed
to the
m
in detail
the ambush that is alleged to have taken place that evening.

Central to the
Prosecution
’s closure
of the c
ase was
the playing of an intercepted telephone conversation from just after the time of the shooting.
This is of course one of the first times that such intercepts have been allowed as evidence following a recent change in the law.

Now
,
although the call recorded was very short, lasting only some twelve seconds, the quality of the recording was
such that the words were reason
ably distinguishable and the content was quite devastating.

On the tape, a voice is heard to confirm that he had ‘slotted’ the victims, twice in the body and once in the head.

‘Slotted’, it is alleged, is British army slang for shot and it is the Crown’s contention that this recording
is evidence of the victim’s execution style shootings
, which included
a coup de gr
â
ce administered to the head of each victim to ensure that all the men were dead.

When asked about the car the voice was heard to use the expression FFF
,
which the
Prosecution
alleges stands for the criminal motto,
‘Fire F
ixes
Forensics
,
’
and was
therefore
an indication by the caller that the vehicle involved would be burnt out
in order to destroy all potentially incriminating traces
.

Following the closure of the Crown’s case, the
Judge
, Mr Justice Oldham
QC
, adjourned for the weekend.
The
hearing
will
continue
on Monday
when
Mr Adrian Whiteley QC will begin
to outline the case for
the
Defence
.

Eamon
Reynolds,
for
BBC news,
at
Newcastle Crown Court.

END VTR

IN THE CROWN COURT AT NEWCASTLE

Case number 36542 of 201
1

REGINA

–v–

CHARLIE GRAHAM, ANTHONY JOHN GRAHAM,

NIGEL PARVIS,
S
TEPHEN TERRANCE ROBINSON,

PETER MARTIN SHERBOURNE

Court Transcript
–
Extract

13
th
June 2011

Mr
A Whiteley
QC,
Counsel for the Defence

Cross-exam
ination of Mr Charlie Graham

Members of the jury.

You have heard the Crown’s case for the
Prosecution
.

As you know, m
y clients, the defenda
nts in this case, have all pleaded not guilty to the charges made. That after all, is why we are all here
today, to try these men on the
c
ase which is laid
against them.

But before
we
begin to answer these charges, there is something
extremely
important that I would like to say to you about trying this particular case.

Because my clients, t
he people in the dock before you
,
are
also
members of
, or by their own admission, close associates and supporters of,
a club.

And not just any club, but a motorcycle club.

And not just any motorcycle club, but a so
-
called
one-percenter
,
or outlaw
,
motorcycle club
.

And not just any outlaw motorcycle club, but arguably, once of the best known,
you may very well think
notorious even
,
clubs in the country.

That club has a public reputation, parts of which may or may not be justified, parts of which may or may not be exaggerations by the popular
Press
in order to sell newspapers, of which I am sure you are only too aware.

But neither I, nor you, know for certain where the truth of that reputation lies.

As members of this club, they have a
self-
proclaimed lifestyle of rejecting society’s normal rules and conventions, of actively seeking to live outside of society, of the law even.

But they are not on tr
i
al for the club’s reputation; neither are they on trial for their choice of lifestyle.

We live in a free country. To borrow a phrase from the French
Declaration of the
R
ights of
M
an
,
Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else
.

So in judging this case, you must, as the
Judge
has already instructed you to do, set aside any preconceptions or prejudices you may have about the men and the organization to which they belong, and seek to judge the case purely on the facts and evidence laid before you in
C
ourt.

T
hese men are not here because they are accused of being members of a club that
’s wild
behaviour
, excesses and general disrespect for any form of authority,
you or I
,
or many right thinking members of society
,
may
very
well disapprove of.

They are here b
ecause
they
are accused of
something very different
. T
hey are charged with the
premeditated
,
cold blooded murder
of three men
.

And
that is a very
serious
matter.

And so,
ladies and gentleman of the jury, as his
H
onour the
J
udge has told you,
your job is
firstly
to simply look at the facts, the evidence presented to you by the Crown
. Then secondly
,
based
solely on these,
and these
facts
alone, to decide
whether the Crown has proved to the test required, which is to prove beyond reasonable doubt, whether the men
before you today
committed the most serious crime
s
of
which t
hey have been accused.

But
in
the evidence presented to you
so
far
from the unsupported jottings of Mr
Parke
,
you have
,
as we will show,
heard a very one-
sided view of the character of the defendants and the
events
leading
up to the evening in question.

So the first witness the
Defence
wishes
to call is Mr
Charlie Graham.

*

You are
Mr
Charlie Graham
,
is that correct?

Ye
ah
.

You have pleaded not guilty to these murders. Is that correct?

Ye
a
h
,
that’s right
.

You are a member of the motorcycle club that has been referred to extensively during the course of this trial. Is that correct?

Ye
ah
.

Are you in fact an officer of that club?

Ye
ah
,
I am
.

Can you describe what position you held at the time of these events and what position you now hold?

I was P…

I’m sorry Mr
Graham
,
but I don’t follow.
For the benefit of the jury who will not be as familiar as you are with the structure and
organization
of your club, can you clarify w
hat you mean by
‘
P
’
?

P means President. I had been
P
resident of the Northern charter
,
and
I’
d just taken over as
P
resident of the Freemen
charter
.

Which effectively made you national
P
resident of the club, is that correct?

Ye
ah
, well sorta. I me
an it’s generally seen that way.

And was that not a position previously held by the gentleman
referred
to in Court
as Wibble?

Ye
ah
, until I replaced him.

Well, we’ll come on to that doubtless in due course, but before we do I’d like to ask you a more personal question if I may.

Sure. Fire away.

While we talk, so as not to confuse the jury
,
who of course have been hearing
extracts from Mr Parke’s writings during the tr
i
al so far, I intend to
continue to
use the ‘club names’ Mr Parke uses in his documents to refer to the individuals involved.
We have heard that Mr Stephen or Steve Nelson was known to you within the club as Wibble and Mr Peter Milton went by the name Bung. Is this correct?

Yeah.

And that’s how they would be referred to?

Yeah.

Their proper names wouldn’t be used?

No, not really. You call people what you call them.

Now Mr
Graham
in this context, y
ou are known within the club as Charlie, is that correct?

Ye
ah
,
it is
.

And that is in fact your real name, that is correct as well isn’t it?

Ye
ah
,
it is.

And that is somewhat unusual isn’t it within the club? To be known by your real name I mean
?
As a group of friends you generally tend to refer to each other by way of nicknames
do you not?

Ye
ah
,
I suppose so.

Well we only have to l
ook at the proceedings in this C
ourt so far to see that don’t we? The evidence the jury has heard has been about people within the club who are referred to as
Bubba,
and
Evil
, and
Lumpy, and
Fruitcake
, and Scampi, and of course,
Scroat, and Toad
,
and others, hasn’t it? And
I doubt any loving parents ever
actually named their newborn son
Wibble or Bung?

No, I suppose not.

So, Charlie is your real name then
?