The Mighty Fallen

Last month I quoted at some length the Trial and acquital of Francis Bellew. Forty years ago I was up before the beak myself on trivial charges – a case I will tell you about when the time is ripe. Today I’m musing on a quotation from the Second Book of Samuel: “how art the mighty fallen … “

There is a BBC drama about Jeremy Thorpe (A Very English Scandal) that has had good reviews after the first episode. He came to trial in 1979, a year after my appearance at Horseferry Road Magistrates’ Court. Jeremy got star billing at the Old Bailey and I used to see the media circus outside as I cycled to work. He was charged with conspiracy to murder. It seems to me that many lesser charges could have been brought in addition. The judge’s summing up discredited the prosecution witnesses and was largely in favour of Thorpe but nevertheless it took the jury two days to acquit him and his two co-defendants. You could view it as an Establishment cover-up and I do but the trial did perhaps serve its purpose in completely destroying Thorpe’s credibility, reputation and career.

Francis Bellew and Jeremy Thorpe got off because only one extremely serious charge was levelled against them; Francis would have been hanged. The American justice system is rather more thorough as Harvey Weinstein will discover when he answers charges of first-degree rape, third-degree rape and a first-degree criminal sex act. I cannot help showing my prurience in wondering exactly how these degrees of sexual assault are defined. In the unlikely event that he is acquitted on these charges there are other complainants willing to testify, so it looks as if the game’s up for Weinstein.

If he is convicted and sent to prison other cases will follow. This is where justice may be derailed. As we have seen here there can be a host of cases that may not go to trial but cause immense distress and  reputational damage to innocent suspects. Others will go to trial and justice will not always be done in the febrile atmosphere that the Weinstein trial will engender.

Let me conclude by saying that the police did a thorough job forty years ago by charging me on three counts. They withdrew two of them but I was rightly convicted on the third. Had I not made the mistake of defending myself I have good reason to believe that I would have had all charges dismissed.