Free Sex Crimes by Nikki McWatters

the room and that she repeatedly asked you to stop.’
    ‘I don’t remember that. No,’ Chris looked at me with eyes brimming with desperation.
    ‘Do you remember having sex with her?’ I asked.
    He shook his head, frowning, forcing himself to go back there and remember.
    ‘I was pretty out-of-it…it had been a long tour and I was just relieved to have it all over. Felt like letting my hair down and the coke just pushed me over the edge. I remember the girl, Libby or Elizabeth trying to give me a blow job. I tried to push her away. I’d finished with the blonde and I was feeling bad, man. I was out of it but feeling remorse and guilt. I didn’t want to do it again. But she started…well…going down on me again and I was just…well…I guess I just let her. I felt…like I said…paralysed.’
    ‘So you are not confessing to vaginal penetration and yet this girl is pregnant. That much has been confirmed.’
    ‘But they haven’t confirmed paternity. If it’s  not mine, I’ll just deny everything. They won’t be able to prove anything. It’s not like the girls went straight to the police.’
    ‘I’ve been here before, Chris and I can tell you that while there is a test that can be done on an unborn foetus, it’s a risky procedure and no court will force it. Once the baby is born, the test is risk-free but these charges are not going to wait.’
    ‘I’m willing to offer her money. However much she wants, if she drops the charges.’
    I nodded, figuring he’d take that line.. The girl might just have been a gold-digger. Or being put up to it by her parents. It happens.
    ‘I think our best bet is to admit your consensual act with the blonde…she’s of legal age and deny that you were involved with the complainant. We’ll stick with the version that makes her a spectator.’
    ‘The girls did have some…action…between them. They were so up for it.’
    Chris put his head into his hands. This was going to be very hard on Megan and Olive and the band. It was going to get ugly. The mob of journos were already baying for blood on the street downstairs.
    ‘So the girls can be placed at the gig and the hotel party. There were plenty of witnesses that can testify that they went willingly with you to your room?’ I asked Chris, raising my eyebrows over my spectacles.
    He nodded.
    ‘Clayton even came back to the room with us for a while but he was smart and left as soon as the blonde took her top off and started flashing her boobs around.’
    ‘Clayton Farrelly? Your drummer?’ I said, just for clarification because I knew Clay pretty well.
    ‘And best man,’ Chris groaned and leaned back in his chair.
    ‘I hope he and Julie have gone over to look after Meg and Olive,’ he said and then the tears came. ‘Do you think she’ll forgive me? Will she? I don’t want to lose my family.’
    I had no answers for him. It was harder to think of a more challenging drama for a young family to deal with. It seemed better to say nothing. The room we were in was chilled and I made a mental note to ask them to turn up the heat a little. Although it was officially a non-smoking room, few enforced the rule and the place smelt of stale cigarettes.
    ‘I’ll look into the girl’s background,’ I nodded to Chris. ‘See if she had other boyfriends. Sometimes a false rape claim can hide a sexual encounter they are trying to cover up or feel guilty about and don’t want to shame their family.’
    ‘She’s not normal that girl,’ Chris said, looking up sharply. ‘She came to see me at home a week or so ago, with the blonde. In her school uniform. I offered her thousands and total support of the child pending DNA tests but she wanted my blood. The look in her eyes. There was no mention of rape then.’
    I made a note of that. Any hint of prior mental health issues might work in our favour. A photograph was in the file. A fairly poor quality shot of Chris Bergin with the two girls in happier times. He had an arm