Free Cold Blooded Murders by Alex Josey

evidence—my gloss on his evidence.
     
    Mr Coomaraswamy continued that his other
point was that if the flipper was, in fact, Jenny’s flipper, the presence of
the rocks could well account for the flipper having come off. He described the
evidence of the discovery and subsequent location of the flipper as ‘totally
unsatisfactory’.
    Counsel dealt with the assumptions he had
made. First, no proof of Jenny’s death. Second, no evidence that she died from
drowning. What was the act? “I have yet to hear what the prosecution say was
the act done by the accused and upon which they rely on this charge of murder.”
Counsel said it was his submission that if that heel-strap was cut in any way
it would not have survived the tension that would be applied to it in the
process of putting it on. It would be a matter of law for the judge to indicate
whether one can ‘in the state of our Penal Code’, commit a murder by
inducement. “In any event, my Lord, it is my submission that there is
absolutely no evidence of the accused having induced Jenny to do anything at
all.” Defence counsel submitted, “most respectfully, my Lord, that one must not
decide to call upon the defence purely out of curiosity as to what the accused
would say.”
     
    His Lordship: I shan’t do that, Mr
Coomaraswamy.
    Mr Coomaraswamy: No, I have no doubt
that your Lordship would not do that. But, nevertheless, I feel it necessary to
state, if not for present purposes, at least for subsequent purposes, my Lord,
that one does not call upon the accused to make his defence purely out of
curiosity, or to know what it is he would say.
    His Lordship: Come, come! You are
wasting time, Mr Coomaraswamy, please. We are not here out of curiosity. We are
here to try and do justice in a case where a man is on trial for his life. No
one is curious. We are trying to perform a very onerous and responsible duty to
the best of our ability.
    Mr Coomaraswamy: The point I was making
was this, my Lord: that the sense of ‘Let us find out what he has to say’
should not be a consideration in deciding whether or not to call upon the
defence.
    His Lordship: It does not enter my
mind, Mr Coomaraswamy.
    Mr Coomaraswamy: Now, as I said
earlier, my Lord, we are going purely on assumptions, and I submit to your
Lordship that there is no evidence that the accused committed this offence as
to make it necessary for his defence to be called.
     
    The judge did not trouble Mr Seow to rebut
defence counsel’s submission. He said, “In my judgment there is evidence that
the accused committed this offence. Whether the evidence in the eyes of the
jury is acceptable or satisfactory and sufficient is entirely a matter for
them, and I shall therefore call upon the accused to enter upon his defence.”
    The judge addressed the accused, “Ang, now
is the time for you to make your defence to this charge of murder. You can do
it in any one of three ways. You can go into the witness-box and make it on
oath, in which event you are liable to be cross-examined by the prosecution,
asked questions by myself and members of the jury. You can remain in the dock
and make an unsworn statement, in which event you are not liable and cannot be
asked any questions at all. You can remain silent. Which of these three courses
do you wish to adopt?”
    “I elect to give my evidence on oath,” said
the accused.
    “Let him be sworn.”
    Calm and confident, aware that all eyes in
the court were upon him, knowing that he was making headlines in all the
newspapers, Sunny Ang, who the prosecution said murdered a bar girl for the
money to go to England to become a barrister, stepped into the witness-box to
defend himself. He was asked by crown counsel to speak louder.
    “Ang, try to keep your voice up,” said his
Lordship. “It must carry right across to the jury. They are very interested to
hear what you have to say.”
    Ang said he could not remember exactly when
he first met Jenny, but it was at the beginning of