The Big Breach - Index of

The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comthe grill, belting himself into his seat to watch over me. `And if youpiss in there, you'll do a week in the block when you get back.' Thecubicle reeked of urine, so the previous occupant must have beendesperate.I'd only been in the holding-cell at Bow Street Magistrates court for afew minutes before the flap slapped open and a set of eyes peered in.This time, however, they were intelligent and friendly. `The CrownProsecution Service want you to appear in the dock handcuffed again,'Davies explained. `I'm going up to argue that you should appearunshackled.' He won the skirmish again and half an hour later theprison service guards led me to the door of the court in handcuffs,then released me to allow me to make my own way to the dock. Daviespresented my case for bail first. A barrister friend had volunteeredhis flat as surety, so in addition to my own flat and my father'shouse, he offered property of over œ500,000 as a bail condition. Aftera week in Belmarsh, I was far keener to win it. The CPS barrister,Colin Gibbs, announced that he had an expert witness who would supporthis case that bail should be denied and asked the magistrate forpermission for the hearing to go in camera. The request was granted andcourt ushers cleared the public and press galleries so that onlymyself, Davies and Wadham, Gibbs for the CPS, his assistant and thepresiding magistrate were present. My hearing was now in exactly thesame circumstances that MI6 had argued were `not secure enough' for meto take them to court for unfair dismissal. The expert witness turnedout to be the second `Mr Halliday' who had recruited me. He launchedinto a gratuitous personal attack on me, inventing fictitious reasonsfor my dismissal and giving me no opportunity to defend myself. I heldmy tongue with difficulty, but I knew that there was little chance ofgetting bail, as any sympathy the magistrate may have had for mysituation was gone. And so it proved when he stood up to give hisverdict a few minutes later.Davies and Wadham came down to the court cells to commiserate with me,their eyes gleaming through the tiny-door hatch. `They're determinedthat you don't get bail, not because they are afraid that you willabscond but because they want you to plead guilty,' explained Wadham.`They know that by remanding you in custody, you'll have to spend atleast a year awaiting trial because of the backlog of cases. But if youplead guilty you'll get a sentencing hearing after a few weeks becauseit can be fitted into the court schedule more easily. You'll get ashorter sentence and you'll be down-graded from A-cat.'`I see,' I replied. `They've got the Governor of Belmarsh to make me anA-cat and denied me bail so I'll have to waste a year in toughconditions if I want to plead not guilty.'`Exactly,' Davies chipped in. `They want to avoid the embarrassment ofa jury trial, which you would probably win, so they're making thatoption as unpalatable as possible. And even if you lost, it would stillbe embarrassing for them as you would stand out because you would havespent longer on remand than your likely sentence.' The maximum sentenceif convicted would be two years, which would be automatically halved to12 months as long as I behaved myself in jail. I would thereforeprobably walk out on conviction, as I would already have done the timeon remand. `They're blatantly knobbling the system to persuade you topage- 177 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com