The Heirs of Owain Glyndwr (25 page)

50

Ben stood.

‘My Lord, may I inspect the Chief Inspector's notebook?'

Evan Roberts was on his feet yet again.

‘My Lord, this is simply harassment of this officer, which…'

‘Please sit down, Mr Roberts,' the judge replied.

DCI Grainger showed no resistance at all. He had already handed his notebook to Geoffrey, the usher.

‘If your Lordship would allow me a moment…'

Ben flicked through the pages unhurriedly before returning the notebook to the usher.

‘Thank you, Chief Inspector. You interviewed Arianwen Hughes and she made the statement under caution which you have produced as Exhibit 10, yes?'

‘Yes, sir.'

‘It would be fair to say that she has denied any involvement in this conspiracy throughout.'

‘She has, sir, yes.'

‘In particular, she denied any knowledge of the explosive device found in her car.'

‘Yes.'

‘As you said yourself, she was bitterly distressed throughout the interview, to the extent that you gave some consideration to postponing it until she had regained her composure.'

‘That's correct.'

‘Part of the reason why she was so distressed was the way in which you and DS Scripps questioned her about the whereabouts of her husband, Trevor Hughes. Isn't that right?'

The Chief Inspector affected to look surprised.

‘I don't remember asking her about her husband, sir.'

‘There is nothing about any such questions in your notebook, is there?'

‘No. Exactly. If we had asked her about Mr Hughes, I would have recorded that in my notebook, as I recorded everything else.'

‘Would you explain to the jury why you didn't ask?'

‘I don't understand, sir.'

‘The jury has been given the impression that finding and arresting Trevor Hughes was a high priority. Is that not correct?'

‘Yes, it certainly was.'

‘Well, why not ask the person most likely to know where he was?'

The Chief Inspector seemed unsure how to reply.

‘After all, you asked Dafydd Prosser where Hughes was, didn't you? Why not his wife?'

Evan Roberts rose again.

‘My Lord, I would ask my learned friend to be careful with this line of questioning. The jury has not heard about any questions put to Prosser.'

‘And they are not going to hear any details of it now,' Ben replied. ‘I am merely asking whether questioning took place about Trevor Hughes in the interview with his wife.'

Evan reluctantly resumed his seat.

‘Yes, we did ask Prosser about where we could find Trevor Hughes,' the Chief Inspector replied.

‘Yes. You did so because it was urgent to find him. The jury have heard all this before, Chief Inspector. You didn't know whether there might be other explosive devices in play. You had to find him if you could.'

‘That is correct, sir.'

‘In fact, it was so urgent that you made Mr Prosser an offer, didn't you? You offered to put in a good word for him, and for Mrs Hughes, if he gave you information about Hughes' whereabouts, didn't you?'

‘Again, my Lord, this is quite improper.' Roberts was raising his voice now.

‘I have no objection to it,' Gareth interposed quickly.

‘Whether or not my learned friend for Prosser objects, it is improper,' Evan insisted.

‘It is a perfectly proper question,' Ben said.

‘I agree,' Mr Justice Overton said. ‘Continue.'

‘Do you need me to repeat the question, Chief Inspector?'

‘No, sir.'

‘Then, would you please answer it?'

‘Yes. We did say that to Mr Prosser.'

‘Yes. And on another occasion you have admitted under oath that in so doing, you were in breach of the Judges' Rules, have you not?'

‘Yes.'

‘And, so that the jury will understand, the Judges' Rules are rules of conduct, binding on the police, governing the questioning of suspects by police officers.'

‘They are, sir.'

‘The Rules say you are not allowed to put any pressure on a suspect to answer questions or make a statement by the use of threats or inducements, don't they?'

‘Yes, sir.'

‘And the Rules are there to be obeyed. You are under a duty to obey them, aren't you?'

‘Yes.'

‘You broke the same rules again when you questioned Arianwen Hughes, didn't you?'

‘No, sir.'

‘Did you not say to her, almost as soon as you entered her cell, words to this effect: “There's no point in crying about your son. You're not going to see him again for a very long time, if ever”?'

‘Certainly not.'

‘Did you tell her that you might let her see her son if she told you where her husband was?'

‘Certainly not.'

‘And did not DS Scripps say this, and I'm putting his exact words to you: “By the time we've finished with you, you will be lucky to be out in time for his silver wedding anniversary”?'

‘Certainly not.'

‘And that's why Arianwen Hughes was so upset that you had to think about postponing the interview, wasn't it?'

‘Certainly not.'

‘And then you did the same as you had done with Dafydd Prosser, didn't you? You offered to put in a good word for her if she told you where Trevor Hughes was.'

‘No, sir.'

‘But she didn't know, did she?'

‘I don't know whether she knew or not.'

‘So, you thought she might know?'

‘I… I didn't say that…'

‘Why didn't you ask her?'

Ben moved on without waiting for a reply.

‘No trace of Trevor Hughes was found, despite a very intense search, is that right?'

‘That is correct.'

‘What steps did you take to find him subsequently?'

‘As soon as we realised that he was not in the immediate vicinity, we put out an immediate alert to all ports and airports to detain Mr Hughes on sight. We sent his picture and description to all police forces throughout the United Kingdom, and to the Irish Garda.'

‘That was because there was some intelligence that Mr Hughes had fled to Ireland?'

‘Yes. In the following weeks, there were some reports that he had been sighted in Ireland, although there has never been any confirmation of that, to my knowledge.'

‘In the Republic or Northern Ireland?'

‘The North. We also sent his picture and details to Interpol, in case he had somehow succeeded in travelling abroad, despite the ports and airports watch.'

‘But as you stand here today, you have no idea where Trevor Hughes is to be found, is that right?'

‘If I knew where Trevor Hughes was to be found, sir, he would be arrested and brought before a court.'

The Chief Inspector looked around the court to make his point.

‘We will find Trevor Hughes. He can't hide for ever. It's only a matter of time.'

‘But not in time for this trial, Chief Inspector?'

‘Unfortunately not, sir.'

51

‘I put my learned
friends on notice,' Evan said self-importantly, ‘that this afternoon I shall be calling an officer of the Domestic Security Service to deal with certain events which took place in Ireland.'

The court had heard from DS Scripps, who had been cross-examined only by Ben, and then very briefly. Ben had asked the prosecution to make WPC Marsh available for cross-examination on a later day, to which Evan had agreed with an ill-grace which served only to irritate Mr Justice Overton even further. The jury had already left court for lunch.

‘Following the usual practice, the witness will not give his name, and will be referred to only as “Witness A”. He will also give evidence while screened from everyone except your Lordship in order to protect his identity fully. I am sure your Lordship will readily understand that any public exposure would not only limit his professional effectiveness, but might well place him in danger.'

‘That is the usual practice,' Gareth replied. ‘I have no objection.'

‘Nor have I, my Lord,' Ben added.

‘Witness A, are you an officer of the Domestic Security Service, otherwise known as MI5?'

‘I am.' The voice, coming from behind the curtained screen, sounded disembodied, and echoed eerily in the high empty spaces of the courtroom. ‘I will not give my name publicly, but I will identify myself by presenting my identity card to the judge if required to do so.'

‘Not necessary,' Gareth said.

‘I agree,' Ben echoed.

‘I am grateful to my learned friends. Keep your voice up, Officer, please. This is a big courtroom, and your voice may be lost otherwise. In April 1969, were you assigned to duty in Northern Ireland?'

‘I was.'

‘As far as you can, and without going into details you are not at liberty to divulge, will you give the court a general idea of your duties at that time?'

‘At that time, I was partnered with an officer of the Republic of Ireland's
Garda Síochána
. Our remit was to monitor certain arrivals into both the Republic and into Northern Ireland from other parts of the United Kingdom and Europe, and to track certain individuals and groups crossing the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.'

‘On or about 2 April did you have occasion to note the arrival of a particular individual in the Republic of Ireland by means of the ferry from Holyhead to Dublin?'

‘I did.'

‘Are you authorised to tell us his name?'

‘No. I can tell you that this man is a West German national and, according to the West German Security Service, is closely associated with an anarchist group in that country generally known as Baader-Meinhof. This group is suspected of a number of violent crimes which have apparent political motivations.'

‘Thank you. Since you are Witness A, let's call this man “Man B”.'

‘All right.'

‘Did you observe Man B after his arrival?'

‘Yes. My partner and I photographed Man B on arrival and followed him when he left the terminal. He was met by a man. We can call him “Man C” if you like…?'

‘Yes.'

‘Man C has been identified as a probable regional commander in the IRA, based in West Belfast.'

‘When you say “met”…'

‘Man C was driving a motor vehicle, the details of which I have, but am not authorised to divulge. My partner and I followed this vehicle from Dublin to Belfast, and kept observation on both men for the remainder of that day and the next day.'

‘Did any of those observations have any bearing on the present case?'

‘No. But on Friday 4 April, we made an observation which does appear to relate to this case.'

‘Please tell my Lord and the jury about that.'

‘My partner and I were keeping observation in a public house in West Belfast in the early evening, 6.30 to 7 o'clock. At that time, Man B was drinking there on his own. We had seen Man C leave the area in his car earlier in the day, but we decided not to follow, so that we could maintain observation on Man B. At about 7.30, Man C entered the public house in company with three other men, Men D, E and F, who were unknown to us. Man C introduced Men D, E and F to Man B. They shook hands and they all started to talk together. They were talking for about an hour, during which time they had three rounds of drinks. Just after 8.30, Man B and Man E left the group and went into a room behind and to the right of the bar. This is a private room, and we were not able to observe them. They were gone until about 10 o'clock, when they emerged from the room and re-joined the group. Man E was carrying a notebook of some kind. Men D, E and F left not long after this. We did not continue observation.'

‘Were you able to hear anything said between the men?'

‘Unfortunately, no. This was a high-risk surveillance in the sense that it was very intensive. There was a high risk that we would be identified as keeping observation on them just because of the frequency and duration of observation. We did not feel it would have been justified to move closer in an effort to hear. Frankly, we were not concerned with Men D, E or F at that stage. We knew nothing about them.'

‘Thank you. You say that Men D, E and F were unknown to you. Did you later take any steps to identify them?'

‘Yes. Since there had been contact, we did inquire. There was no relevant police or Security Service intelligence. But we were able to obtain photographs taken on their arrival by ferry at Dublin, and from the passenger list and other sources we were able to identify them as follows. Man D was identified as Caradog Prys-Jones, Man E as Dafydd Prosser, and Man F as Trevor Hughes, Man D and Man F having addresses in Caernarfon, and Man E having an address in Bangor.'

‘What did you do with this information?'

‘As there was no active intelligence involving these individuals, it was not regarded as a high priority. We filed a routine report, which meant that information about their contact with Man B and Man C would appear on any future response to an information request about any of them, or about Man B or Man C.'

‘So when Mr Prys-Jones, Mr Prosser and Mr Hughes were named in connection with this case, information about their contact with Man B and Man C would have been available?'

‘Available to my Service, yes. It would have been available to police forces only if specifically requested and in redacted form, but as my Service was actively involved in the events surrounding the Investiture, the information was made generally available as soon as those involved were identified.'

‘Are you saying that, but for that coincidence, the contact might not have been known to the police?'

‘It would not have been known.'

‘It does sound as though there is a certain lack of communication between branches, all of whom have the same goals, doesn't it?' Evan asked.

‘That is a fair comment,' Witness A replied. ‘But that kind of procedural policy is rather above my pay grade.'