Court Out - By Elle Wynne Page 0,64
from the male shaking my head. God there are some odd people about. Mind you, I probably startled him when I barged him off the pavement. I smile to myself. That probably looked pretty funny actually. By the time I reach my car the man is forgotten and my thoughts have returned to Serena. I drive home, troubled by the situation between us and later that night, fall into a restless sleep.
Chapter Thirteen
“Ryan Dean Hobbs”
“And you are how old please?”
“I’m thirty four,” he replies, looking confidently at the twelve faces staring up at him.
Quinn pauses before asking the next question in sombre tones.
“Now Mr. Hobbs, in a minute I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you about the circumstances leading up to your wife’s death, but before I do, I wonder if you could help the jury with a few preliminary matters?”
“Of course,” he replies, coolly
“When did you marry Marina?”
“February 14th, 2005.”
“Tell us about how you met.”
“Well, long story short, our eyes met across a crowded bar, we began to talk and the rest is history!”
There’s a pause as everyone in the courtroom remembers the far from fairytale ending to their courtship.
“How would you describe your relationship?”
Hobbs looks to the floor and takes a deep breath. When he speaks, his voice trembles and his eyes are shining.
“Perfect.”
“Now on Saturday 19th July 2008 a story broke about you in a number of national newspapers,” continues Quinn.
“Yes.”
“And a young lady accused you of impregnating her?”
“Yes.”
“Firstly, it’s right that you have never been made the subject of any criminal investigation about that allegation have you?”
“No, the police never even questioned me about it.”
“Did the girl carry the baby to full term?”
“No. I understand that she had the pregnancy terminated.”
“So you never had the chance to ask for a DNA test?”
He sighs heavily.
“No, I never got the chance to clear my name.”
“From that, can we assume you deny the affaire?” says Quinn theatrically.
“Yes, completely. I have never had any sort of relationship with Amanda Windsmore. I met her at her school but that was it. She’s just a troubled girl who obviously decided to blame her pregnancy on me in a bid to deflect the anger of her father away from her behaviour. That is, if she was ever pregnant.”
“So how did you feel when the story broke?”
“Devastated. I just couldn’t believe that someone could be that malicious.”
“Where were you when you became aware of the story?”
“On my way to the football stadium for pre-match training,” Hobbs replies.
“Did you know if Marina had seen it?”
“No. My phone had run out of battery so I hadn’t received any calls.”
“Now the jury have already heard about your performance on the pitch that day. You were eventually sent off due to an incident with another player. Why don’t you tell us about that?”
“All the lads from the team had been really supportive, they’re used to tarts selling stories about us, so they were really good about it, but the opposition were trying to use it against me, make me lose my focus. Kyle kept making comments about me being a ‘nonce’ so I snapped.”
“It must have been a sensitive subject?”
“It was, I was feeling really fragile. I just couldn’t take it any more.”
“Where did you go after the game?” asks Quinn.
“I drove to Ghost, I needed to unwind.”
“We’ve seen the CCTV, so why don’t you give us your version of events?”
“Well, I admit I got very drunk. I’d had a terrible day and I guess that made me behave in the way you’ve seen. I just got more upset as the night went on. People recognised me and tried to wind me up too. I left at about three AM with Andre.”
“And where did you go?”
“Just back to his. I crashed on the sofa and woke up at about eight on the Sunday morning.”
“Had you spoken to Marina at all?”
“No. I walked home to try and clear my head and saw that the house was surrounded by police. I panicked because I thought they were after me because of the Amanda thing.”
“So what did you do?”
“I went and hid in a nearby phone box.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Well I didn’t want to be arrested, did I! I hadn’t done anything wrong,” he exclaims.
“And we know an officer found you and arrested you.”
“Yes, I was taken to the police station.”
“Mr. Hobbs, did you kill your wife?”
There’s a dramatic pause. Everyone is waiting for his answer, although it would be totally inconceivable that Hobbs would suddenly confess at