Free Sex Crimes by Nikki McWatters Page A

around each and they all looked pretty sozzled. The dark girl had piercing eyes and a short dark bob of hair. She was attractive in a Gothic sort of way and did not look fifteen. The blonde looked even older and was stunning. They were girls clearly on the make and if it ever went as far as a jury trial, their wayward appearance would work in our favour. Not always fair, but a fact.
    I looked at her again, peering closer. Elizabeth O’Neil, I wondered, what is your story? Who are you? She was a child. A woman-child with a very loud voice screaming rape and as Chris Bergin was my client and a friend, that teenage girl had just become our number one enemy!
    ‘The first thing I am going to demand,’ I told Chris, ‘….is an independent psychological assessment of the girl from a clinical psychologist.’
    ‘Am I going to be locked up now or is there bail or something?’ Chris mumbled. ‘This is all new to me. They’ve taken photos and fingerprinted me…this is just surreal.’
    ‘Leave that to me. I’ll try to get you released at arraignment on your own recognizance. You pose little to no flight risk. But you may have to post a bond….we’ll see.’
    ‘That’s fine. Money’s not an issue,’ he sighed.
    That was good to hear because if this thing went to trial, it was going to hurt his hip pocket and help mine. We were looking at, potentially, hundreds of thousands of dollars. It would be the most expensive sexual act he’d ever indulged in, that’s for sure. Regrets? He was going to have a few.
    ‘Now Chris. The court will set a date for a preliminary hearing, a committal hearing,  to determine whether there is enough evidence to proceed further. I’ll try to put that off for as long as possible because that is our most vital time to dig up enough evidence to put doubt in the Magistrate’s mind. We need to discredit these charges and now…’ I fumbled through the file. ‘…now we’ll have to submit to questioning. I’ll guide you. Just look to me before you answer. I think you should admit to consensual sex with the blonde…um,’ I looked for her name on the page before me, ‘Abigail Proudfoot. And when you talk about her…use her name it makes you sound more like a lover rather than rapist…’
    I saw him flinch. Poor fellow.
    ‘Chris, you have to realise that rapist and paedophile are going to be words that you hear a lot from here on in. The media will crucify you. It’s a fact. I’m sorry. I’ll do as much damage control as possible but we do not admit any sexual contact with the underage girl at this stage. You can say you don’t remember but until we can confirm that the baby is yours, I say, deny. Not guilty to both charges at present, okay?’
    He  nodded.
    ‘I trust you, Tim,’ he said. ‘Basically I’m putting my life in your hands.’
    ‘One potential major problem here,’ I said, tapping at the page, ‘…is that the girl’s claim they have a recording of you admitting it. They recorded your conversation when they visited you. I should be able to get that struck out because they recorded you without your permission…but again you must say you don’t remember and that you were confused by their accusations.’
    ‘Rape is such a horrible word,’ he said, tears appearing on his face again. ‘There was no rape. I know this sounds lame, Tim, but if anything I feel like those girls raped me. They’ve ripped my life apart and I don’t really remember….’ He began to shudder and sob. ‘I really don’t remember.’
    ‘I know, Chris,’ I said, trying to console him. ‘We’ll win this thing. We’ll turn it around. We’ll show the world that these girls were on the make and entrapped you, misrepresented themselves and deliberately set you up.’
    I really felt sorry for the guy. He was a huge star. An international celebrity. And there were a lot of people out there ready to exploit that. These girls were groupies on the make. Groupies were after one thing. What