Wed, Oct 6, 2010
A baby's corpse is found in a bag at the local hospital, poisoned by gas fumes from a faulty heater in his mother's flat. A fellow tenant, Mike Turner, has been bribed by the landlady, Maureen Walters, to harass the occupants into leaving so that she can renovate the building for higher rents and he is charged with tampering with the heater and killing the child. Although a mistrial is initially called when the building's French caretaker is mistranslated, D.S. Brooks gets the trial back on track when he finds that Mrs. Walters has been bribing environmental health officers and persuades Turner to testify against her.
Fri, Oct 8, 2010
A 13-year-old boy is found kicked to death at Euston station. Mandy, his mother, is a former drug addict and her boyfriend is in the frame as the murderer because he is already suspected of physical abuse towards the victim. At the trial, defence barrister Beatrice McArdle advances a bizarre line of defence - her client is "genetically predisposed" towards murder and, therefore, has no control over their actions.
Fri, Oct 15, 2010
The body of ex-vice squad officer Frank McCallum is found in the back of a car. He apparently was killed after oral sex. Though married to an adoring wife Frank had a roving eye and money from the paint-balling firm for which he worked is unaccounted for. The trail leads to a shop run by two friends,Emma and Kate, who moonlight as high-class prostitutes to pay for their sons' school fees and Emma's unique and expensive lipstick is identified amongst the forensic evidence in the back of the car. She claims that Frank tried to rape her and that she killed him in self-defence. Castle and his team of prosecutors are not convinced and prepare to do battle with the formidable defence lawyer Phyllis Gladstone.
Fri, Oct 22, 2010
The nine-year-old skeleton of David Ackroyd is discovered in Thames mudflats. Ackroyd was clearly shot but in 1999 Luke Slade was convicted of his murder although no corpse was found and an unreliable witness claimed that Slade told him he had stabbed his victim. Whilst in jail Slade has become skilled in the law and wins himself a re-trial, putting James Steel's career on the line in the process. Fortunately for Steel, a visit to Slade's old cell-mate yields results.
Fri, Oct 29, 2010
The remains of a small boy discovered in a wall by workmen are identified as those of Tommy Keegan, who disappeared twenty-five years earlier. A neighbour, Edward Connor, a suspected paedophile, was arrested then but released for lack of evidence. Brooks and Devlin believe that Julia Mortimer, who used to play with Tommy when they were children, is subconsciously suppressing her memories of the events of the time, and, under regression hypnosis, names her estranged father Vernon not only as the killer but as a paedophile himself who molested her too. The court trial leads to angry exchanges between Julia and her father. Which one is telling the truth?
Fri, Nov 5, 2010
An arson attack on a Turkish social club kills seventeen people. The perpetrator, Nazim Kazaba, is caught as part of the device he used went off in the blast and got embedded in his leg. He claims that Ediz Kilic, a respected Turkish businessman, is also a people smuggler who forced him to silence the clubbers, illegal immigrants ready to expose his activities. Amid charges of racism Steel jeopardises his friendship with a Turk from his student days to get information to bring Kilic down.
Fri, Nov 12, 2010
Brooks and Devlin investigate when prosecutor Alesha Phillips claims that gynaecologist Alec Merrick has got frisky with her but conflicting reports from previous clients make arrest impossible. She returns to see Merrick, who drugs and rapes her, which she captures on spy camera, but at his trial his barrister claims entrapment and the jury take his side. But it is not over yet.
Fri, Dec 10, 2010
When a man is found lying on the ground with a kidney surgically removed, Brooks and Devlin have a case that they believed fell more into the category of urban myth than real-life crime. They quickly focus on finding the intended recipient of the stolen organ. Transplantation is highly controlled and centralized to prevent queue jumping but they soon find a recent transplantation that was completed from outside the system. They soon uncover a tale of a sick woman, a concerned parent and a greedy, disgruntled surgeon. For James Steel, the question becomes one of which of these to prosecute. When he makes his choice, he finds that his boss, George Castle, will defend the case.
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Thu, Sep 9, 2010
Five-year-old Connor Reid is strangled and security cameras show the two little girls who baby-sit him, Paige and prostitute's daughter Rose, take him into the empty flat where his corpse was found. In interview Paige breaks down and names Rose as the killer, though, in court, Rose's brief Kim Sharkey invites the court to accept Paige as the guilty party and forensics seem to implicate her as the murderess. Then Alesha finds evidence to nail Rose as the killer and the prosecution, pleading the girl's abusive upbringing as grounds for diminished responsibility, seek psychiatric care for her. However Sharkey, after professional glory, wants an all-or-nothing verdict. James puts Rose's vile mother in the witness box to prove the prosecution point and save Rose from a murder charge.
Thu, Sep 16, 2010
Convicted serial rapist Paul Darnell is released on parole and,three months later, young Ashanti Walker, who lives in the same area as Darnell, is killed after sex. He is the perfect parolee with a loyal girlfriend but he has no alibi and Steel is convinced he is the murderer. He is arrested but his barrister claims persecution and, at his trial, is credible and sympathetic whilst Steel does himself no favors with his bigotry and zeal, with obvious results. However, that is not the end of the matter.
Thu, Sep 23, 2010
Two workers and a customer in a vintage clothes shop are brutally murdered with a bayonet. The fourth,surviving,victim identifies the killer as John Smith,an educated but homeless ex-military man,who is arrested with the weapon on him. It is found out that he was previously charged with stalking a young woman but sloppy prosecution led to the case's collapse. He is also a law graduate and defends himself,despite a history of mental instability vouched for by his sister,Patricia. In court he claims that he was not himself that day and therefore not the killer. Steel brings in Patricia and uses Smith's paranoia to get his conviction.
Thu, Sep 30, 2010
Matt Devlin takes it badly when his old friend and fellow cop,Pete Garvey is found dead,an apparent suicide. Garvey's widow says that he had recently been plagued by nightmares and was seeing Jonathan Nugent,a former priest and pillar of the community but in reality an undetected paedophile,who had molested Garvey and others when they were boys. The prosecution build their case on the fact that Nugent's abuse so unbalanced Garvey that he killed himself as a result but Nugent's claim that Garvey was blackmailing him tips the jury on his side and Steel must do a deal with the Catholic church if he is to get a conviction.
Thu, Oct 7, 2010
Prison officer Charlie Tyner is found, shot dead, on a Hackney council estate. Prime suspect, recently released pedophile Ellis Bevan, has an alibi and the police later learn that Tyner dealt in heroin. A connection is made with Tamika Vincent, a drugs mule serving time in the prison where Tyner last worked who ran drugs for scary gangster Jackson Marshall, a man the Police and Prosecutors have long sought to bring down. The prosecution believe Tamika put Marshall up to killing Tyner and Alesha plays on her own rape and roots in Hackney to get Tamika to confirm this.
Thu, Oct 21, 2010
For two years Stephanie Blake has been pestered by a cyber-stalker who knows every detail of her private life. Conceited ladies' man Russell Lowry tried to contact her from prison but,after being pushed downstairs, Stephanie fails to recognize him - and then she is murdered. Lowry slowly moves into the frame on the discovery that Stephanie subscribed by standing order to an animal charity for which he worked,so he knows her purchasing details. A cell-mate also reveals that Lowry used a computer in prison. The prosecution case is,however, flimsy as Ronnie recorded his view that Stephanie faked the fall downstairs as a cry for help. He determines not to let her down again,bringing his evidence at Lowry's trial into conflict with Matt's view.Up against fearsome defending brief Evelyn Wyndham,James must discredit Matt for a result.