Bab’s New Year’s Resolution 37 ©

List of characters

Lola Smith Bab’s adopted trans daughter.
Callista Denton (Callie). Transgendered Duchess of Denton.
Margaret Denton (Maggie). Callie’s wife.
Molly Denton Callie’s grandmother
Ellie Denton Callie’s mother.
Bab’s Barbara Smith. Lola’s adoptive ‘Nana’
Olivia Smith Bab’s adopted daughter.
Angela Smith Bab’s newly adopted daughter
Erica Bab’s foster daughter.
Sergeant Bridie Davies Lady Police detective protecting the girls.
Sergeant Brian Davies. Bridie’s twin brother.
Inspector John, Heading up the anti-rape-gang operation in Birmingham.
Gareth Jenkins, Police office trained in firearms and protection.
Belinda Harrington. Lola’s new girlfriend in college.

Chapter 37

On the Thursday Afternoon, after consulting with both counsels and several of his colleagues in the judiciary, the judge finalised his decision to suspend proceedings until both counsels were content to resume the case after studying and presenting the new evidence.

“I will give you a full week and then some to complete your presentations and I will resume the case on a week next Monday. If you work through both weekends that will give you ten days before this case resumes. My job is to try and determine if these files are legitimate and all importantly to try and determine their route to my court and this case.

In any event, I am prepared to accept that the video evidence is genuine because I eventually persuaded the witness to look at them. I can assure you that my clerk had to work overtime as a mother-comforter to the girl, for the images were extremely distressing!
It’s no wonder this kid was in a psychiatric ward for months. She must have been terrified out of her wits.

Eventually she confirmed the material was factual and she went as far as to identify two of the abusers who are new to this case. I am told that the Dutch police are already interviewing another of the abusers from the video evidence they received while German and Turkish police are already seeking the ones that the girl identified. This case just seems to grow and grow.

It seems that this video was also launched onto Police computers throughout Europe with other pertinent information supporting the validity of the images.

Fortunately, as best as I can determine, the jury have not yet seen the documents or the video so the case has not been compromised. I am therefore going to allow the evidence to be admitted. I’ve also decided that the video evidence will have to be shown ‘in camera’. I don’t think that girl could survive seeing any more repeats of what she’s already been put through.

They branded her for God’s sake!

What’s more, I will have to warn the jury about that!”

Both counsels agreed for in truth, the images of the naked Erica screaming in pain on the video had sickened them. The judge had seen the branding on her buttock that completely confirmed the video’s content. Sadly it also revealed the ‘tramp-stamp’ that Erica had had done of her own volition, when she was a wild, twelve-year-old runaway.

Both counsels left the judge’s chambers with a final warning ringing in their ears.

“You go easy on this kid when next she sits in that witness box. I don’t want a corpse on my hands!”

For his part, the judge left his chambers determined to discover the identity of somebody who seemingly had better access to secret files than the police. He was later to learn that same individual had better access to certain foreign sources than the security services of several major countries including the UK, the USA and Russia.

ooo000ooo

That Thursday evening as the judge arrived home there was a further encrypted email message waiting on his computer. The judges daughter had discovered it but she didn’t have the password to the Judge’s encryption code.

“It’s for you daddy, but I for the life of me, cannot identify the sender.”

The judge studied the encryption then decided to contact Inspector John for the police inspector had been the lead investigation officer during the first trial and the message advised him to contact the officer. The judge phoned the inspector.

“No, I haven’t opened it. I’m phoning you because the messaged suggests that I do so.”

“Are there any encryption number codes attached?” Inspector John asked.

The judge read out a series of numbers, letters and symbols to Inspector John who then passed them to his specialist team in Birmingham police computer centre. They had run the numbers through their secure computers and a very surprising source was revealed.

“The source seems to be GCHQ in Cheltenham boss.”

“Good God!” Inspector John exclaimed before returning the judges call.”

“Yes. GCHQ no less. I’ve checked with my contact there and she gave me a secure number that I can reveal to you so I suggest you call them and they’ll guide you forward your lordship.”

The judge wasted no time making the call and passing the encoding numbers to an anonymous female voice. He heard the lady tapping away on her computer and eventually she came back with a decryption of the Judge’s original email.

“The message says that the source of the video is in Saudi Arabia. It is used by unscrupulous criminals to frighten trafficked women into submission.”

“Can you find out who the sender of my email is and / or tell me how he got the video out of Saudi Arabia.”

“I can tell you that he somehow hacked the video off an original web-site but we’ve no certain information concerning his identity.”

“Are you telling me there’s a hacker out there that can defeat our most sophisticated computers?”

“He hasn’t defeated us because we have not been looking for him. We have only just learned about this stuff tonight, when your police officer contacted us.”

The judge harrumphed with irritation then pressed the agent to get searching.

“I can start right away judge but I make no guarantees. I have already discovered that the hacker went through at least six top-level security sites in Morocco, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan and Mexico. This guy is clever.”

“Well I want him caught; I want to question him in court.”

“Why your lordship. It seems to me from what Inspector John told me, that he’s on the side of the police and the law.”

“That’s as may be. But the courts have to have things above board and in the open. We can’t have anonymous, secret individuals simply feeding evidence into a case without any responsibility for their actions.”

There was a soft ironic chuckle down the phone as the agent explained.

“Your lordship. The last thing GCHQ does is anything ‘above-board and in-the-open’! We’re spy catchers and intelligence gatherers. Secrecy is our middle name. I’ll see what I can do and I’ll call you back on this number on Monday at four p.m.”

As he put down the phone, the judge could not resist his own amused smile as he realised the frustrating truth. The agent was perfectly correct. Secrecy was their middle name.

True to her word, the GCHQ agent called the judge at exactly 1600 on the Monday.

“We have our suspicions but nothing certain your lordship.”

“Well give me the name of your suspect and I’ll try some other avenues.”

“I’m afraid I cant do that your lordship.”

“Why?” The judge demanded.

“It’s come from the top; the very top. The person we suspect is just too damned useful to both us and the CIA in America. If we revealed our suspicions to you we might compromise this individual’s sources and safety. I’m very sorry your lordship but my advice to you is to be thankful for the information this individual has given you and go ahead with the evidence available.”

“Dammit,” the judge cursed mildly, “reading between the lines here; I’m suspecting that you’ve got a good idea who this individual is but you’re not prepared to co-operate with the courts.”

“I can’t say your honour, you’ll have to speak with my superiors.”

“Who are?” The judge demanded.

“MI5 and / or MI6 your lordship.”

“And their phone numbers?”

“Are in the London telephone directory your lordship.”

And they were, much to the judge’s chagrin.

ooo000ooo

During that same weekend, the four girls also wondered who the anonymous provider of the evidence was. They were not really interested in the information on the video for Erica had long ago describe her ordeal to them. They were more interested in the contents of the files that had evidently been hacked off local authority and police files all over Britain.

“Why didn’t this stuff come to light before the trial?” Olivia wondered.

“I don’t know,” Erica declared, “but it stinks. Somebody is hiding something in some local authority somewhere. It’s funny that so far, nobody’s asked me anything about any names in those new files. I know I saw Nottingham on one file on the judge’s computer and the files for London boroughs were all listed separately with a flashing red icon. I’m sure that concerns us and our time in the homes.”

“Should we ask to speak to the judge about it?” Lola suggested.

“That would show that Erica was peeping at the judge’s computer.”

“He didn’t seem to mind. He was scrolling through files while I sat beside him. Then he came to the video and concentrated on that.”

“Yeah, but that would be because the video was prima-facia evidence.” Lola pointed out. “He needed to confirm it was a real video and not some enhanced repixled fabrication.”

“You should ask to speak to your prosecuting counsel Erica.” Angela opined. “Somethings not right here.”

“I’ll speak to Sergeant Bride and ask for a meeting.” Erica agreed.

Their approach to Sergeant Bridie was pre-empted by a request from the prosecution counsel to go through the new files with Erica.

“Some of this makes little sense to us but you of course will be bound to recognise some of the material.” The lead counsel explained to Erica.

“You bet I do. I got glimpses of it on the judge’s computer as he showed me the video. He only wanted to confirm the validity of the video but I saw other stuff as he was scrolling down the screen.”

“Good. So what was it that caught your attention?”

“Nottingham, Brent, Brixton. That’s what I recognised. There was other stuff but he was scrolling too fast.”

“Well the good news Erica, is that we’ve got the whole file here so you can go through it with my team. Each one of us, and you, will have their own screens and you can take us through it at your own speed. I think we’d best deal with the sources and places you recognised. Then my team can investigate those while you search for more. By the way, would you like Sergeant Bridie and Inspector John with you. I’ve noticed that you seem to trust them.”

Erica nodded vigorously and the barrister sagged with some relief. It was a dream to have such a co-operative and informative witness. Bridie and the inspector joined with Erica and another computer was attached to the bank of hardware that now stretched in a circle around Erica. It demonstrated physically that Erica was the centre of attention. She sat at her own table with Bridie beside her while Inspector John took a seat next to the senior leading counsel. The lead barrister then addressed the group.

“Ladies and gentlemen. My plan is to let Erica work through the files at her own speed and if anybody discovers something or has a question, we stop and ask Erica. By the way, Inspector John has a line from these computers to the police team to co-ordinate or exchange anything deemed worthy. So let’s get to it, we’ve got the rest of this week and the weekend.”

Before they even got started Erica raised a question.

“My two friends Olivia and Angela were also in the Brixton home with me. They should be here as well because we were not always together. They might recognise names from when I wasn't there.”

The lead counsel nodded thoughtfully as she realised their oversight and arrangements were made to invite the pair to the sessions.

“What about Lola?” Bridie whispered.

“She was never actually in care with us" Erica replied. "She just absconded from her foster home and lived on the streets or sofa surfed. She’s never actually been abducted or abused by the gangs.”

By lunch time, Erica recognised the strident estuarine accents of both Olivia and Angela as they arrived at the legal chambers. She grinned as they were brought into the dining room and they dashed across to hug their friend.

“Blimey girl! You live high on the hog. Look ar’ all this nosh!” Olivia loudly declared.

“Tuck in gutsy.” Erica replied, giving as good as she got as the legal team just smiled and wagged their heads.

They had got perfect diamonds for witnesses but they were uncut stones.

ooo000ooo