Court Out - By Elle Wynne Page 0,67
have to stay fit,” he replies, patting his toned stomach with his hand.
“Presumably you pay someone to change the chemicals?” Corr enquires.
“Yes, they visit once a month”
“So when you have leaves in the pool I presume you remove them with the implement that we saw you use yesterday?”
“Er, yes”
“And that’s an item you’ve had for a while?”
Hobbs nods.
Corr goes in for the kill. “Did you use that pole to hold your wife underneath the water until she died?”
“My Lord!” interrupts Quinn, getting to his feet. “Mr. Corr has no evidence of that so the Defendant should not have to answer that question.”
For a split second, Mr. Justice Wynne looks troubled.
“Mr. Quinn, the members of the jury did all in fact see the Defendant cleaning his pool with such an item yesterday. In light of the evidence he has given, the jury may draw an inference about the death from this. He should answer the question.”
Hobbs looks discomforted before he replies.
“I didn’t kill her. I had nothing to do with it. I was with Andre.”
“So what about this?” asks Corr, handing around the enlarged, enhanced photograph of the broken champagne bottle. “It would appear that a bottle of the very rare champagne that you were drinking that night at Ghost also turned up at your house.”
“There was some of that in my cellar”
I’m ready for this one. I pass my second note forwards. Corr nods and makes a noise of assent.
“Again Mr. Hobbs, we saw your cellar yesterday. It was full of cheap, mass produced bottles.”
“Well I drank all of the good stuff.” he tries to explain.
“And do you have any receipts to support this claim?”
“No,” mutters Quinn.
“Sorry, what was that Mr. Hobbs? Please try and keep your voice up.”
“I said NO!” he yells.
“Because the truth is you bought that bottle home with you from Ghost didn’t you? You were drunk, you saw she was leaving you, you were angry and you attacked her.”
“No! For the hundredth time, I did not. I loved my wife!” shouts Hobbs
“No Mr. Hobbs you controlled your wife and when you lost control, you killed her.” he finishes.
As he sits down I feel an overwhelming sense of pride. He totally took him to pieces. I look at the jury and see that they look very uncomfortable, which hopefully means they’ve realised they’re sat in the same room as a murderer.
Quinn has gone very pale and has turned around in his seat to talk to Rivers. The pair of them are having an animated discussion in hushed tones and I’m dying to know what is being said.
Quinn gets to his feet. “The next witness for the defence is Andre Plushenko.”
Andre Plushenko is a very tall, slim dark haired man wearing a very expensive pale grey suit. He delivers the oath in a heavily accented voice and introduces himself to the court.
“My name is Andre Plushenko,” he says, rolling the ‘r’ in his first name.
Quinn takes him through how he knows Hobbs: they’ve been playing football together for the best part of six years. Predictably, Plushenko is telling the court about how Hobbs stayed with him for the night after they had left Ghost together.
“Ve vent back to my house. He stay on ze sofa. It vas no problem. When I get up at seven, he vas still asleep. I give him some coffee and he vent home about haff past eight. I know he not leave as I check on him at five to make sure he vas ok.”
Plushenko gave this evidence at the last trial and I remember when I read the transcript thinking that it was pretty convenient that he had a perfect alibi like this. The prosecution have looked into every angle as to why Plushenko would lie and have drawn a total blank. His salary as a footballer means that he’s rich enough already so it’s not like we can suggest that Hobbs is buying his support.
Further, there are no apparent skeletons in his closest to suspect that blackmail is involved, so no-one seems to have a clue why he’s supporting Hobbs in this cover-up. When Corr cross-examined him last time he didn’t really get anywhere as Plushenko stuck firmly to his guns. I can practically hear his brain working from here. Plushenko looks totally bored by his involvement in proceedings and is currently studying his nails with a slightly irritated look on his face.
“You and Mr. Hobbs have been very good friends for some six years now?”
“Yes. Vot is your point Mr.