Bold Counsel (The Trials of Sarah Newby) Read Online Free Page A

looking at the bundle of papers on the table between them. ‘The appeal of Jason Barnes.’
    For the next two hours they worked diligently through the case they were travelling to London to present. It was an exciting opportunity - their first case before the Court of Criminal Appeal. It had come to Lucy out of age and desperation. Jason Barnes had been convicted of murder 18 years ago, and his original appeal had been dismissed. Despite that, Barnes had stubbornly persisted in maintaining his innocence, making it impossible for him to be released on parole. His original legal team had retired, holding out little hope of success. And so the case had come to Lucy, the newest partner in her firm, no one else expressing any interest.
    Jason Barnes had been convicted of the murder of a girl called Brenda Stokes, a student at York university. Brenda had been 20, Jason a year older. It was an unusual case because Brenda’s body had never been never found. But she was last seen driving away from a party in a car with Jason. Jason had been quite drunk and aggressive at the party, and Brenda had a reputation for being promiscuous.
    When Brenda’s flatmate reported her missing the police interviewed Jason, who claimed he’d dropped her off near her lodgings in Bishopthorpe. They saw some scratches on his face which he said were caused by a fight with a cat. They asked whose car he’d been driving. ‘My mate’s,’ he said. ‘He lent it to me for the night.’ He gave the name of a friend who’d initially lied to support him. The police had examined the friend’s car and found nothing suspicious.
    But unfortunately for Jason, he’d knocked over a motorbike in the university car park as he left the party. When the owner saw him, he’d laughed and given him the finger. The furious owner had noted the car’s number and told the police. It matched, not the car Jason said he’d been driving, but a stolen car which had been found torched near Jason’s house in Leeds, that same night.
    So Jason was interviewed again. This time he changed his story. Okay, he admitted, he had nicked the car and torched it. And his face had been scratched by Brenda, not a cat. After the party he’d driven Brenda to Landing Lane, a quiet place by the river Ouse, and asked her to have sex with him (not an unreasonable request given her reputation) When she refused, a row had erupted. She’d scratched his face, stormed out of the car and flounced off into the night. That was the last he’d seen of her, he claimed.
    But the police found a torch, stained with blood, in the bushes beside the river where he claimed to have left her. This was before the days of DNA but it matched Brenda’s blood group. The owner of the stolen car recognised the torch. He kept it in the glove pocket, he said, for emergencies. In the blood on the torch was Jason’s fingerprint. As a result he was charged with her murder.
    Despite a massive police search, Brenda’s body was never found. This, clearly, weakened the police case. But then, while Jason was on remand, his cellmate, Brian Winnick, made a statement. Jason had boasted to him about killing Brenda, he said. He’d hit her over the head with the torch because she’d refused to have sex with him. When he’d realised she was dead he’d thrown her body in the river and watched it float away. After that he’d driven home to Leeds and torched the car to hide the bloodstains. Jason denied all this, but Brian Winnick stood by his statement in court. This, together with the murder weapon - the bloodstained torch - and Jason’s lies about the stolen car, convinced the jury of his guilt. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. His first appeal failed and, because of his continued protestations of innocence, he’d never been eligible for parole.
    The basis of this new appeal that Sarah was travelling to London to present was the evidence of a solicitor, Raymond Crosse, who had visited Brian Winnick in hospital last year,