Read Verdict Unsafe for Free Online

consistent with their having been held apart to facilitate anal penetration,” she said.
    “In your medical opinion,” asked Whitehouse, “having examined the other victims after they had been assaulted, was there any similarity with those previous assaults?”
    “Similar bruising was found on the other three victims.”
    “Did you also examine Mr. Drummond after the alleged assault?”
    “I did. There was slight chafing to the penis, and his knees were quite badly grazed.”
    “Thank you, Doctor,” said Mr. Whitehouse.
    Harper stood up, and looked at the doctor. “Surely minor bruising and ‘slight chafing’ could occur during consenting anal intercourse?” he asked.
    “It might.”
    “These minor injuries bear no relation to those found on the other victims, do they?”
    “To the extent that I mentioned, they do. The anal assault in the first three cases was markedly less violent than the ones which followed, being apparently intended to establish the assailant’s dominance over his victims, and to facilitate the binding of his victims’ hands and feet.”
    “Did you find any evidence during your examination of Miss Benson of the tearing injuries that might be expected to result from forcible insertion into an orifice not intended for the purpose?”
    “No,” said the doctor. “But despite her years, this victim was, unlike the others, very sexually experienced. Insertion in this instance would have been achieved with comparative ease.”
    “May I ask then what led you to the belief that this was an assault?”
    “The grazing of the defendant’s knees indicated the level of force used, in my opinion,” said the doctor.
    “The grazing on his knees,” repeated Harper. “Did you not consider—given the supposed ease of insertion, and the low level of bruising—that the grazing on the defendant’s knees might have had another cause altogether?”
    “I did, but the defendant offered no other explanation,” she said.
    “He is now offering an explanation,” said Harper. “Mr. Drummond is a motorcyclist, and you may have seen motorcycle races where the rider bends into the corners with his knee almost touching the ground. My client will state that he was at the disused Malworth airfield, practicing just such a high-speed maneuver, without the usual protection of leathers, a matter of ten minutes or so before this incident. Isn’t such a maneuver, attempted by a non-professional,
more
likely to explain the grazing than the carrying-out of this alleged assault?”
    The doctor frowned a little. “Yes,” she said, a little reluctantly.
    “I will be producing a witness to the fact that carrying out this and other high-speed maneuvers on his motorbike is indeed how my client spent that evening, my lord,” said Harper.
    “Thank you,” muttered the judge.
    Harper smiled at the doctor. “Given that information, would you, on the medical evidence alone, have come so readily to the conclusion that this young woman had been violently assaulted by the defendant?”
    “Possibly not,” she said, after a moment’s thought.
    My God, thought Judy. He wants him found not guilty because he hadn’t had the chance to tear her open like he had his other victims.
    “I understand that you have made a particular study of both the victims and perpetrators of rape and sexual assault, is that right?”
    “Yes, I have.”
    “Mr. Drummond was eighteen years old at the time of these offenses, and yet this court has heard of someone who washes his victims, and removes the materials used to bind their hands and feet, in order to foil the forensic procedures—does that seem likely to you?”
    “It isn’t as unusual as you might think for rapists to wash their victims,” said the doctor. “Or to remove other evidence.”
    “You were of the opinion, weren’t you, that the assailant was likely to be a previous sex offender who had been through the mill of a forensic examination, and knew to some extent what