Ploughing Potter’s Field. Phil Lovesey

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       EPIGRAPH

      Since those times, it is only rarely that someone has talked to the angels of Heaven, but some have talked with spirits who are not in Heaven. It is with difficulty that these can be elevated. Yet the Lord does elevate them as much as possible, by a turning of love; which is affected by means of truths from the word.

      Emanuel Swedenborg

      (Heaven and Hell)

      CLERK OF COURT: All rise. The court is now in session. The Crown versus Francis James Rattigan. Judge Richard Moorland presiding.

      JUDGE MOORLAND: Francis James Rattigan, you have been found guilty by this court of the murder of Helen Julianne Lewis, and it is now my duty to pronounce sentence upon you.

      Do you have anything to say before I do so?

      RATTIGAN: We’re all flies.

      JUDGE MOORLAND (sighing slightly): Much has been said in this court over the last thirteen days which I’m sure has both distressed and appalled all present. I myself freely admit to being utterly horrified by the nature of your crime upon an innocent, unsuspecting woman. Indeed, I would go further, and add that without wishing to reiterate any of the lurid details of what took place on those three days last September, your crimes are without doubt amongst the most brutal acts of unprovoked violence it has ever been my misfortune to sit in judgement upon.

      RATTIGAN (smiling): Bzzzz … Bzzzzz …

      JUDGE MOORLAND (to defence counsel): Mr Sharpe, will you inform your client that another outburst will have him placed in contempt?

      SHARPE: Yes, Your Honour.

      RATTIGAN (singing): Old Spanish eyes … Teardrops are falling from your Spanish eyes …

      JUDGE MOORLAND: I propose to ignore your sorry little diversion, Mr Rattigan. Indeed much has been made by your counsel with regards to your enfeebled mind. I find myself extremely loath to admit that evidence submitted by both independent and the Crown’s own criminal psychiatrists forces me to uphold your plea of guilty via diminished responsibility. Though I’m sure, as I feel are many of us here today, that the legal definitions of ‘mad’ and ‘bad’ require some urgent reanalysis.

      However, it’s my job to dispense the law, not examine its workings. I am fully convinced that the graphic nature of your crimes horrifically indicates your permanent danger to society, and although at times like these I wish I had recourse to more traditional measures, I am forced in this instance to sentence you to indefinite detention in one of Her Majesty’s secure mental institutions.

      Take him down.

      (Cheers from the public gallery, hurled insults, sobbing. Rattigan is surrounded by court officials. A scuffle breaks out.)

      RATTIGAN (shouting above the din): Bitch done me down! Died too quick! Watched me die a thousand times!

      Court Four, Old Bailey, London.

      5th March, 1989.

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Epigraph

Preface

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