Her name was Gillian and she worked as a waitress in a small cafe near to her flat in Hayes. Young and pretty, she lived in a Council flat on the tenth floor of a high-rise block. Nick, her boyfriend, lived there too.
One Friday night she and Nick had drinks at their local pub and, as usual, Nick bought some bottles and they carried on drinking in their flat.
Also, as usual, they got into a row and Nick started to knock Gillian about as he often did. This time though things got out of hand. Nick could be vicious when the drink was in him. Gillian was running scared.
She escaped to the kitchen where she found a potato peeler from lunchtime. She grabbed it, went back and told Nick to leave her alone.
He didn’t and came at her again, fists flying. Gillian fell back onto the sofa and wildly stabbed Nick in the leg to try to stop him.
Nick cried out and crashed to the floor. Gillian got up and saw, to her horror, a great gash in Nick’s upper leg pouring blood.
Terrified that she’d hurt him badly she looked around for something to staunch the blood flowing from Nick’s leg. She spotted his tie thrown on the floor as usual, grabbed it and tied it tightly round Nick’s leg.
Then she telephoned 999 and begged for an ambulance. She was told one would be sent straightaway.
She asked a neighbour to help but was refused. By a nurse.
Ever more distraught, Gillian went back to the flat and waited 22 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.
The ambulance men took off the tie, wrapped Nick’s leg in sturdier bandaging and took him to hospital. They told her to stay where she was and wait for the police who they’d called.
That’s where I came in.
I was called by an old friend who’d been alerted to the issue by a friend of Gillian’s who was a regular at her cafe. He asked me to get in touch with Hayes Police and see if I could help.
I did just that, being a local solicitor and armed with Legal Aid forms arranged a visit. The Inspector in charge of the case told me Gillian had been charged with murder as she’d punctured Nick’s femoral artery and he’d bled out.
I saw Gillian, completed the forms and listened to her story. I told her there were obvious mitigating circumstances and she was entitled to legal representation by a solicitor and a QC for free as it was a murder charge.
Gillian was remanded in custody to Holloway Prison where the QC and I met up with her and took details again of her ordeal.
In the interim I visited her flat with a camera and I found, tucked behind a curtain, a heavily bloodstained tie which corroborated her tale. I gave it to the Inspector with the photos.
Six months later came her trial at the Old Bailey. On Counsel’s advice she pleaded not guilty but guilty to manslaughter. The prosecution did not object.
Gillian was found guilty of manslaughter but sentenced only to the time served on remand – 6 months. She walked free.
And I never saw her again.
I was told later that the Inspector did though.
Foootsoldier Says… 