Part 2: Truth and Lies
'Granddad' looked a hell of a lot like Richard Gere if let his hair grow out and generally stopped giving a shit. If only his crimes were as simple as his, we may have been looking at a simple animal abuse charge (Confused? Google "Richard Gere Gerbil"). He was kept at the back of the court in a glass box. I was thankful for this. It wasn't that I was threatened by him, or that I thought he might leap out and attack if not for the glass, but I really didn't want to be in the same room as this beast. The box gave that feeling of security.
I would constantly find myself staring at him, looking for twitches in his face or something that might give away some truth. Was he looking back at me? It was hard to tell with those beady eyes buried so far inside his weathered face. He gave away nothing. He didn't even seem to bat an eye-lid when his step granddaughter explained, on a live video feed, that she didn't like having his penis in her mouth because it didn't taste very nice.
With young children it is common for their witness statements to take place over a TV link from somewhere else within the courthouse. As she was only 9, this was also the case with Emma. Also for youngsters, the oath was a more simple question of "Do you know the difference between the truth and a lie?" followed by an example from the child.
We were first of all made to watch a video that took place over a year earlier, when the accusations had first been made. To say it was an uncomfortable watch would be an extreme understatement.
Over a period of two years, Emma's Step Granddad (who she referred to as simply Granddad, and who I shall refer to as Ricky G) was in charge of babysitting both her and her younger brother most Saturday nights while their mother went to work. By work, she clearly meant "concentrating on her social life". Almost systematically, every visit would be the same. Brother and sister would fall asleep in the same room. At some point, Ricky G would quietly enter and take Emma into his own bedroom and do, in her words, "all that stuff he does".
This information was first given not to her mother, Catherine, but to a very close family friend almost straight away after her first admitting it. She was obviously embarrassed, scared, confused and did not want to make her Granddad upset. She refused to say anything to her mother. The family friend (We'll call her Irene) had done a lot of work with children over the years and was very good with them. As a trusted friend, Catherine knew she would be the best person for Emma to talk to. According to both of the witness statement, she called and said "please don't say I told you so, but I think my Dad is abusing Emma."
They spent an emotional hour together alone, while mum sat in another room. Afterwards, she asked "Is it the worst it can be?". "Yes..." responded the teary eyed Irene.
You're probably wondering what she meant by the "don't say I told you so" comment. Had they both had suspicions in the past? Well, Irene did. Catherine is just a completely oblivious and naive mother. You see, Emma wasn't the first young girl Ricky G had molested. He'd abused Catherine too when she was 10 years old. She never told the police and only told a few friends in confidence. She tried to block it out of her mind, so much so that she didn't even wonder if maybe he'd do the same to her own daughter. How can anyone be so fucking stupid? Her air headed ignorance is likely to continue pissing me off long after this guy is thrown in jail. And that I was certain of at this point. Obviously he's guilty. If the video recording wasn't bad enough, I then listened to a live interview with a little girl explaining, in great detail, how her own Granddad would remove her clothes, kiss and penetrate her 'mini' with his fingers and make her touch his penis. His fingers would often hurt because his nails were long and would scratch her insides. Of course it hurt even more when he put his 'willy' in there.
No argument. Guilty. Throw the book at him. Throw everything at him. Put him in prison along with all the murderers and psychopaths. The ones that go out of their way to punish child molesters. Hopefully one day, while he's showering, he'll be hit in the back of the head and held down by several inmates while another castrates him with a filed down piece of chicken bone.Why did I even need to stay in that court room for the rest of the week? It felt like a total waste of time when I, and surely all the other 11 jurors, had already made up our minds.
At least that's how I felt until the doctors were called to the stand.
At least that's how I felt until the doctors were called to the stand.
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