The Perfect Girl

MONDAY MORNING
SAM

Zoe did not plead Guilty. Against her father’s wishes, and guided by her mother, she pleaded Not Guilty and went for the Special Reasons defence instead. It was an unusual defence – I had repeatedly warned the whole family of that – but, at first, it seemed that we might be successful.

Zoe went into the stand and presented herself fairly well when speaking about the events that had taken place that night. She showed that she had terrible regrets, and she admitted her guilt by accepting that she had been the driver, but assured the judge that she wasn’t knowingly drunk. She agreed that she’d had a drink when she arrived at the party, a spritzer, but insisted that she’d asked only for Coca-Cola after that, and repeated her conviction that her drink must have therefore have been spiked.

It wasn’t until Eva Bell, Jack Bell’s twin sister, and a witness for the Crown, took the stand that any chance of success we might have had was ruined.

The Crown called Eva Bell to give evidence that Zoe knowingly drank an excessive amount of alcohol, and Eva couldn’t have been a more successful witness.

There were a minimum of people in the courtroom, because of Zoe’s age, and we’d been there for a week already hearing testimony from experts about the site of the accident, the condition of the car and blood alcohol levels, so some of the tension had left the proceedings to be replaced by boredom. The walls of the courtroom were clad in wooden strips and there was no natural light so it felt a bit as though we’d all been buried underground for a week. Zoe had agreed to her mother attending but didn’t want her father to be there, because she was embarrassed that she’d ignored his preference for an early Guilty plea. If she’d done that, there would have been no trial.

Eva Bell arrived with her own mother. They were ushered into the court from a separate waiting area to Zoe and her mother, a service the court provided to minimise ugly scenes. They sat alone on a bench across the aisle from the prosecutor.

In contrast to how Zoe had described her, which was as some kind of tormentor, Eva Bell presented as demure, intelligent and, most of all, incredibly sad. Her mother sobbed audibly as she gave evidence, and Eva did not once look at Zoe.

It didn’t help us that the prosecutor was a woman who you’d like to make godmother to your children. She led Eva down a gentle path of questioning that was devastating to us.

‘Were you with your brother Jack when he got a drink for Zoe?’

‘Yes, I was.’

‘In your view did Jack add anything to the drink that was alcoholic?’

‘I poured the drink myself, so I know he didn’t.’

‘Did you pour the drink from a bottle?’

‘Yes, but I had to open it.’

‘So you don’t think the drink was spiked?’

‘No. I saw him carry it to the room they were in. If he spiked it, he would have had to do it in front of her.’

I saw the panic on Zoe’s face during this testimony and I willed her to stay calm, because of course the story that she’d told the court directly contradicted this.

‘And did you see Zoe taking a drink earlier in the evening?’

‘Yes.’

‘And what did she drink?’

A tiny stumble in Eva’s composure here, but it could easily be read as grief by the judge.

‘She drank,’ Eva said, ‘vodka and coke.’

‘Did you make that for her?’

‘No. She made it herself. And she was generous with the vodka.’

‘And did you see her refill her glass?’

She pursed her lips, before replying, ‘Yes, yes I did,’ and Maria’s gasp was audible throughout the entire courtroom.

And the prosecution hadn’t finished there. Another girl, a friend of Eva and Amelia, testified to the same thing and there was nothing we could do to contradict it. It was their word against Zoe’s, and they were in the majority.