Chapter 9

Eric.

Ernie phoned nearly at midday. "I'm sorry Eric, they want us to give statements this afternoon and Terry wants to talk with us first. Can you bring Louise to his office for about two o'clock? I know it's short notice, but it will be best if we get his advice and if he is in the interview rooms with us." Louise was upset by the news but I pointed out that it was better to know what was going to happen rather than a long wait without knowing.

Terry's face lit up when he heard Ernie and May were engaged to be married and thought that would provide another reason for Ernie not charging Louise immediately the incident occurred. "What about you two?" he asked. "Not at the moment," I answered and Louise said, "No," but she didn't say it with the vehemence I expected.

He sat with us at the interviews and indicated which questions to answer. They did Ernie first, then Louise and finally it was my turn. It all seemed straightforward questions until I was asked, "Did you rape Louise?" For a second or two I had no idea how to answer but fortunately Terry stepped in. "Miss Redman has made no allegations that she was raped therefore the question is irrelevant." It was a relief to know that. "She says she was spanked and agreed to become a servant to him, that is all. As you know Mr. Laxley is employing her in his landscape work and is looking after her as well but that has nothing to do with the assault on Mrs. Redman."

Ernie had an interview with his superintendent the next day and when I asked how it went he was quite cheerful and said he'd been given a verbal reprimand that wouldn't appear on his records so he wasn't going to be suspended or dismissed. With only two years to go before retirement, that was good news for him as dismissal would have affected his pension. Apparently his super was in a similar age bracket and couldn't officially condone what Ernie had done, but when Ernie said, "I was only trying to protect my future wife," he was just given, 'you shouldn't have been a naughty boy' treatment, a smacked wrist and told not to let it happen again. At least he's come out of it okay. My worry was more for Louise.

Louise

I was a nervous wreck and I'd snapped at Eric several times already that day but he hadn't responded; he knew that I worried about my trial the following day. He was too.

We'd lived together fairly peacefully for nearly a month and I was beginning to think they weren't going to bring me to court but a week previously they fixed a date with a Mrs. Jacqueline Saunders-Smythe as judge. I could tell Terry wasn't pleased with the information but he didn't say anything to me. Once more the prospect of imprisonment faced me and there seemed no way out of it. I'd been advised to plead guilty and show remorse and plead for a non-custodial sentence. Eric and even Ernie were going to speak on my behalf and Heather Roberts sent a good report on my work at The Grange but I doubted if that would be enough. I'm just beginning to get my life together and it's all going to fall apart again.

Mother's face was a lot better but some bruising still showed and she'd been advised not to give any evidence so I hoped, and indeed, prayed, that the judge was in a good mood. That didn't appear to be the case.

I'd pleaded guilty and Mrs. Saunders-Smythe started. "Louise Redman, you have pleaded guilty to a barbarous and vicious and largely unprovoked attack on your own mother. The photographs I have show your poor mother's face to be swollen and in a very painful state. You committed a criminal offence, and one for which you could serve a long term in prison and yet your friends and even your mother do not wish that and wish to plead on your behalf. I will of course listen carefully to what they say but these photographs speak for themselves. Mr. Shaunessy you wish to speak and introduce your evidence?"

"Yes, your Honour. First I would like to introduce the photographs taken by Mr. Eric Laxley on the day of the attack and the following day. They show the severity of the stripes on Mrs. Redman's face and I have to agree, they are deep and painful welts but ... but they are not as bad as the ones taken at the hospital, the ones you have before you, for the simple reason that Mrs. Redman did not have them treated properly at the time because she, even then, wished to save her daughter from prison. It was only after an infection set in and she had to attend the hospital that she received treatment and the swelling went down."