Rob will have to be questioned by the police won't he?

[Claire Howard]

I was just listening to the podcast and to the various plot predictions and what Rob’s barrister will do etc etc. However he will have to be questioned by the police and give a statement as to what happened. That police woman who was questioning Helen will probably question Rob. He won’t like the direction her questions go in (tracking of phones and, Kirsty’s comments), and I think he will lose it and give himself away.

So plot prediction time. Rob will give them enough rope to hang him and will be charged with coercive control, and later face rape charges. At which point Helen will be granted bail although charges won’t be dropped at that time, because they still have to prove that she was protecting herself or her child and not just trying to get him out of the way.

Am I right in thinking that even though Helen has been charged, the police will still be continuing to investigate?

[Jim O’Hara]

At this point, it doesn’t seem that Helen has told the police anything about the abuse or rapes. All the little things that added up to coercive control are invisible to the police. Without Helen making a complaint, I can’t see any police even thinking about charging Rob with anything.

I think he’s smart/evil enough to get exactly what he wants out of any police interview.

[Audreyanne Covarrubias]

I hope that he is interviewed by female officers and that his disdain for women becomes evident enough to the officers that is gives them reason to doubt his side of the story and more reason to try to understand Helen’s side.

[Miss Mid-City]

I like the way you’re thinking, Claire …

I’m listening to Friday’s episode and wondering what on earth is going on. This is just stupid.

At the same time I’m thinking, the point of this implausible fiction Rob has made up must be that it leads the police to start asking further questions and they’ll eventually find that this nonsense he’s been spouting doesn’t really add up. He insisted on all that rubbish back story going into his statement when all that the officer wanted to know was what happened that evening. Hopefully it will prove to be his undoing. He’ll be “hoist on his own petard”. So we’re still in tragic territory but we’ve gone from Hardy to Shakespeare.

“She was a danger to everyone around her …” but he didn’t report any concerns. “Unnatural” closeness in the “weird relationship” between Helen and Kirsty? “Incestuous” relationship with Tom and Kirsty? Boiling Henry in bathwater? Taking anti-depressants? The suicide of her former partner? All of this was unnecessary gibberish.

To keep things simple, he’d have been better off just telling the police that they’d had a row and she stabbed him.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Miss Mid-City.

[KatieKing]

I do think that Rob has over-reached himself by telling all those lies; however, none that will be in his statement to the police, who are only concerned now with gathering evidence to support the charge of attempted murder. They know who stabbed Rob, they’ve made up their mind it was attempted murder and I don’t think they’re concerned with investigating anything to do with motive or mitigating circumstances now. It will only be necessary to investigate Rob if Helen opens up and accuses him of the crime of coercive control; I don’t think it’s enough for Kirsty to suggest it. However, Rob thinks he’s being clever, whereas, in fact, he’s being very stupid; his cover story is preposterous nd if he talks like that in court, his deceits will rebound on him.

[Tom Williams]

Rob thinks he’s won so is showboating

If i may make a football analogy
Rob is 2 – 0 ahead at half time he surely he can’t throw the game away here
I’ll take my star player off because i’ve won (I’ve won henry he’s mine now i’ll ruin the rest of her family )

The obvious conclusion is it all goes wrong from here and Rob loses to go back to the Analogy Rob FC loses 3 – 2 To Helen Town

[Miss Mid-City]

Since Rob has given his side of the story to the officer, that’s what he’s going to have to stick to from now on. If he starts to deviate and embellish it even more, if and when the police return to speak with him they’re going challenge his credibility (!).

I’ve made statements to the police and they tend to precis what you say pretty heavily, changing from your normal speech pattern and phrases to “police vernacular”. Which is OK up to a point. I do a similar thing when I draft statements for other people mainly because you can’t have bad grammar and slang in a serious document like that! Most statements don’t have the authenticity of your “voice” in the same way a personal letter would. But there’s nothing authentic about Rob’s story. And, if he’s insisted on all that backstory being included in his statement and he’s read it through and is happy with what it says, that’s going to be the evidence the police will use to question Helen and the evidence that will be relied on in court. And it’s a big pile of rubbish.

[Diane Telford]

Rob won’t have a Barrister. It will be a crown case so they will be from the CPS. They will be using the evidence collected by the police.

I get the feeling that CPS barristers do not speak to witnesses/victims before a case. Is that so?

[Blithe Spirit]

Miss Mid City, as m’learned friend(!), I’m just wondering – what’s your take on the way that the exchanges between Helen and her barrister are being portrayed in the drama?

I’ve just caught up with the episode from Wednesday last week, and was struck by the fact that while Anna answered Helen’s questions directly and honestly about what would happen to Henry, her baby, bail and so forth, at the same time she wasn’t trying to reassure Helen or make her feel safe, to try and get her to open up.

I appreciate that Anna needs to be professionally detached, but she knows Helen is in deep shock – surely in the face of such a distressed client a barrister would be a bit more gentle and supportive? It seemed unrealistic for Anna to confront a clearly traumatised woman with: ‘You’re going to have to tell me what happened soon, no matter how painful or scary that is.’

I mean, flippen’ heck!

Obviously I’m not a lawyer, but it just seemed odd. Also, given Helen’s state, would she not be given some kind of psychological assessment and/or support in prison?

[Claire Howard]

Oooh Miss Mid City – you are right of course. That statement will have lots and lots of points to present to Helen and she/other witnesses and Anna will be able to discredit it. Assuming of course that Helen is a bit more articulate by then and doesn’t just start shrieking “what? No?.. That’s not how it happened….oh leave me alone!!!”

I’m so frustrated by this at the moment. I’d kill for a bit of scandal over the flower arrangements at the flower and produce show.

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