Common Page #5

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We've been lucky.

We have a good judge.

I'm going to ask him to view it

as a straightforward murder case -

one killer, one victim,

not joint enterprise.

And if he agrees to that? If he agrees to

that, then JohnJo's coming home with you.

No doubt whatsoever.

Kieran Gillespie,

you are accused of the murder

of Thomas James Ward.

How do you plead?

Not guilty.

Colin McCabe, you are accused

of the murder of Thomas James Ward.

How do you plead? Not guilty.

Anthony Wallace, you are accused

of the murder of Thomas James Ward.

How do you plead? Not guilty.

John Joseph O'Shea, you are accused

of the murder of Thomas James Ward.

How do you plead?

Not guilty. Be seated.

I'll hear submissions, we'll break

and I'll respond after lunch.

Who will go first?

Mr Barnes-Williams?

I represent John Joseph O'Shea and I

make four main points, your honour.

First, four young men stand

accused of murder.

Only one of them wielded the knife

and yet the prosecution will make no

attempt to identify that man.

It need not do so because of

Joint Enterprise.

Joint Enterprise, or Common Purpose,

a law introduced in the 18th century

to stop the aristocracy from

duelling, is now being used

increasingly against young

people from our council estates.

And all too often it

results in cases such as this,

where a young man, who is

asked for a lift, gives that lift

and faces life in prison for it.

Secondly, I would submit that for a

joint enterprise murder case to

proceed, all those involved

in the enterprise must face trial.

But in this case, your honour,

one person does not, that is

the pizza manager, Mr Hugo Davies.

Now it could be argued that his

involvement

in all of this was vital,

after all it was he who alerted one

young man to the fact that

another young man, his sworn enemy,

would shortly be in the shop.

So why does Hugo Davies escape trial

when those who are far less guilty,

face it?

Surely his absence from the dock

means that only one man

can be held responsible for this

crime and, again, it is

he who wielded the knife.

Thirdly, there was no joint

enterprise to murder the victim,

there was no planning,

there was no conspiracy.

At worst, Anthony Wallace went to the

pizza shop to confront Albie Flanagan.

During the course of that

confrontation, a young man,

Thomas Ward, an innocent bystander,

was stabbed.

But nobody entered the shop

intent on harming Thomas Ward.

His murder was just

a moment of madness.

With no forethought and no plan.

So, again,

only he who was responsible for this

moment of madness, he who wielded

the knife, should face trial.

And the innocent should go free.

And fourthly,

with specific reference to my client

John Joseph O'Shea.

He will simply say that he

drove the others for a pizza

and there is no evidence

to disprove that.

Furthermore, he didn't go into the

shop with them so he wasn't even

on the scene of the crime

when the crime was committed.

I submit it would be dangerous to

proceed against him

on such a flimsy basis.

Joint enterprise might

allow it, your honour.

Natural justice should not.

Thank you. Next? Mr Cotting?

Your honour, I represent...

Would you like us

to sit somewhere else?

Yes.

Our son is innocent, Mrs Ward...

Please, go. We're going.

I just want you to know he's telling

the truth, he's innocent.

Innocent? Yes.

Then why didn't he phone the police

immediately? Because his head was all...

His head? What about mine?

'And on that basis alone, the case'

against Colin McCabe

should be heard.

Finally, John Joseph O'Shea.

Your first point, Mr Barnes-Williams,

seems to be this -

you do not like joint enterprise.

You are not alone.

However, there is little

I can do about that.

This is not parliament. We can't

amend, create or abolish any law.

The law of joint enterprise exists,

the crown has decided to

prosecute according to that law

so it is my duty to hear it.

Now your second submission

carries more weight.

If there are five people

involved in a joint enterprise,

all five should stand trial.

That is not happening here.

Only four of the five face charges

and the fifth is

a witness for the prosecution.

Rest assured, I will ask

the jury to keep that in mind

when weighing his evidence.

I know that is not perfect

but it is better than nothing.

Justice for four is surely better

than justice for none.

Now, you say there was never any

conspiracy or plan to attack Thomas Ward.

That's correct.

But there was a plan to attack

a young man named Albert Flanagan

and in the course of that attack,

Thomas Ward died.

Whether he was the intended target

or an innocent bystander is

immaterial, it is

still joint enterprise murder.

Finally, you describe

the case against your client as

"flimsy" in that he didn't enter

the shop but sat waiting in the car.

But this doesn't necessarily weaken

the case against him.

It could strengthen it.

The prosecution could argue that

John Joseph O'Shea was

a getaway driver.

And a getaway driver does not

participate in the crime,

he sits in the car with

the engine running.

On balance I think it right for the

jury to consider that possibility.

I'm confident that the case against

all four defendants should proceed.

You're going to have to plead

guilty, Kieran. That's the least you

can do. No way. Take the blame.

You're the one who dropped us in this sh*t. No way!

What, you think you can get away with it?

Yeah, I do. Yeah. You've got no

chance of getting away with it, you prick.

He's told them everything.

Hugo's told them everything.

When we take the stand, we'll tell

them everything. You've got no

chance.

You're gonna grass?

Of course we're going to grass.

You stabbed someone, you knob!

You're going to have to tell them

it were you. Just you.

Right? We knew nothing about it.

We knew nothing about a knife.

Right?

And I'll go down for life.

You'll get life anyway

cos you can't get away with it.

We'll see. No, mate.

You take us down with you, your

life won't be worth living inside.

I'll get to you. And if I don't,

someone else will.

You'll be doing life and you'll

cacking it every single day.

They'll put you with the nonces.

You'll be doing life with

the nonces

unless you tell the truth

and take the blame, mate.

Tell the truth, Kieran.

Go on, you'll be a hero,

then, won't you?

"There's Kieran Gillespie who

pleaded guilty to murder

"so his mates could go free.

"He's a good lad him."

I told my mum I didn't do it.

All right.

OK. I'll do it, yeah.

I'll do it. Who do I tell?

The judge? What? No, you tell the

prosecution. I'll do it.

I know him.

No can do, I'm afraid. No? The judge

will say, "Mr Gillespie's getting

life anyway.

"He's got nothing to lose,

so of course he's going try to

"get his mates off by taking

all the blame."

So what will you accept? Mr

Gillespie pleads guilty to murder,

the other three to GBH or

conspiracy to commit GBH.

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