77

THE CAFETERIA AT CARDIFF CENTRAL WAS LUNCHTIME BUSY but Williams managed to find us a table.

‘So what happened after they came in?’ asked Joesbury.

‘I played it by the book,’ said Williams. ‘I had a feeling it was one that could get very nasty. I separated the girls and got a WPC to sit with each until I could get the doc over. We have a dedicated rape unit now, with officers trained to deal with sexual violence, but in those days we just had to do our best.’

‘What about the boys?’

‘The girls knew where they were staying, so I sent a couple of cars out to fetch them in. They arrived thirty minutes later and I arrested all five of them. That’s when it all started to go pear-shaped.’

‘How so?’ asked Joesbury, leaning back in his chair.

‘The games teacher came with them,’ replied Williams. ‘Started throwing his weight around. He was an old public-school type himself. He insisted none of the boys talk to anyone until they each had a solicitor. It was nearly two in the morning by this time. You can imagine the picnic trying to find five solicitors. And these were minors we were dealing with, remember?’

‘Oh, I can just see it,’ said Joesbury.

‘The girls’ foster mother arrived and started getting hysterical,’ said Williams. ‘Then we had Social Services pitch in.’

‘How were the girls coping?’ I asked.

Williams looked at me. ‘Victoria was holding up well,’ he said.

‘Quite self-possessed, that one. Cathy was a mess. Sobbing and crying, begging to go home.’

My hands were shaking. I wrapped them around my mug to keep them still.

‘Then the doctor who attended refused to examine Cathy. He said that because she was underage, she needed to be seen by a paediatrician.’

Joesbury gave a small, sympathetic smile.

‘Well, there was no finding one of them in the middle of the night.’ Williams had a pinched look on his face and I didn’t think it was just the effects of the cold any more.

‘So you let them go home without Cathy being examined?’ I asked.

Williams held up one hand. ‘Love, I knew it wasn’t right,’ he said. ‘But I had two social workers, the foster mother and the lass herself telling me to let her go. And by that time, the boys’ parents were starting to arrive. It was bloody mayhem, if you’ll excuse my Welsh. And I didn’t let them go. Someone else took that decision.’

‘OK, but Victoria was examined properly?’ prompted Joesbury.

‘She was,’ replied Williams. ‘But the examination wasn’t conclusive. No traces of semen at all.’

‘The boys used condoms,’ I said. ‘There wouldn’t be.’

Williams nodded. ‘They did,’ he said. ‘And the dunking in the Taff would have got rid of any accidental spills, if you get my drift. The examination did find some minor lacerations and bruises, but nothing that couldn’t be consistent with consensual sex.’

‘It was starting to look like their word against the boys’,’ said Joesbury.

‘As soon as it was light, we did a search of the park,’ said Williams. ‘We found the condom packet with Victoria’s prints on it. And the batch number showed that it had been bought from the girls’ lavatory in the pub where they’d been drinking.’

‘When did you let the boys go?’ asked Joesbury.

Williams ran his hands across his eyes. ‘We were getting towards the end of the twenty-four-hour period,’ he said. ‘The parents had brought in some heavy-hitting legal help by this stage. It was either charge them or let them go.’

‘What did the girls want to do?’ I asked.

‘Cathy was falling apart big time,’ Williams answered. ‘She had a counsellor advising her not to talk to us if she didn’t want to. Victoria wanted to press charges and I didn’t blame her. Them lads were nasty pieces of work. We see it a lot. Kids with rich parents think they can get away with murder.’

‘But Victoria changed her mind?’ I asked.

‘She did, love,’ said Williams. ‘And this is the bit I’m really not proud of. The lawyers requested a meeting with her and eventually she agreed to it. I went too, with our own legal help. We weren’t going to be walked all over.’

‘And?’ said Joesbury.

‘It was very short and to the point. They pointed out that she was the only one in the park that night over the legal age of consent and that sex with a minor, of either sex, is considered statutory rape. They would agree not to press charges, if she did too.’

‘They threatened to charge her with rape?’ Joesbury, to give him his due, looked incredulous.

Williams inclined his head.

‘Would they have got away with it?’

Williams shrugged. ‘Possibly. They had the fingerprints on the condom packet and technically they had the law on their side. If the sex had been consensual, Victoria would have broken the law. They also pointed out that her sexual history would be brought up in court. As I said, she was no angel, even at sixteen she had a past.’

‘You allowed a juvenile rape victim to be intimidated out of pressing charges?’ said Joesbury.

‘We broke the meeting up at that point,’ said Williams. ‘But the damage was done. Victoria knew she was on a hiding to nothing. And she didn’t want to put her sister through a court case.’

Williams showed us out. We stood on the front steps of Cardiff Central police station and thanked him for his time.

‘When did you last see Victoria?’ asked Joesbury.

‘That day,’ said Williams. ‘I came across Cathy a few times after that, she turned into a bit of a tearaway, but Victoria I never saw again. We had a bit of a hunt for her when she disappeared, you know. She took a stolen car with her.’

I’d been looking at the graceful white buildings around me. ‘What do you think, Sergeant Williams?’ I asked, turning back to him. ‘Were the girls telling the truth?’

His eyes held mind steadily. ‘I never doubted it for a moment, love.’