Miss Montgomery closed Lisa Clarke's defence today, because the only witness on her behalf, John Campion, decided not to appear in court. To paraphrase Charles Bukowski, "If you want to find out who your real friends are, get yourself a court case".
Peter Knowles decided not to testify on his own behalf.
Vaughan Davies took the stand to give his version of events. Contrary to Lisa's claim that they met the first time on May 4th 2012, he said that he first met Lisa in 2010 and has seen her a few times since. He never claimed to be her son. He says that on the May 4th Lisa kept calling him Aidan, her son's name, while she was drunk. At first he contradicted her, but then went along with it to keep her quiet.
Vaughan travelled by taxi to Bateman House with Lisa Clarke and John Campion on May 4th, and he remained in Brian Farmer's flat until the afternoon of May 7th. When he arrived on May 4th Jason Alexander was not asleep in the bedroom, as Jason had claimed in his testimony. Lisa telephoned Jason a few times, asking him to come round, and he eventually arrived a few hours later. During the three days nobody else visited, in particular he didn't see Peter Knowles or Daniel Swift.
Vaughan claimed that there were four attacks on Brian while he was there. The first took place shortly after Jason arrived. Lisa said that Brian had been sniffing her knickers and was punching him in the face. She asked Jason to do something, but he wasn't interested. She kept nagging him until Jason finally took a stereo loudspeaker and smashed it over Brian's head, causing a large cut over his eye. Vaughan cleaned Brian up with a towel. John Campion left, and it was peaceful for the rest of the day. Vaughan claimed that John didn't return, but CCTV footage shows Vaughan going shopping with John on May 5th. Vaughan said that he doesn't remember this.
The next attack took place on May 5th. Vaughan was in the bedroom, and when he came out and saw Jason cutting Brian's beard with a bread knife. He went on to cut his hair. Lisa poured a bottle of cider over Brian's head. Brian told Vaughan that in 1985 he (Vaughan) used to piss on the floor. This annoyed Vaughan, so he slapped his face twice.
The biggest attack took place on May 6th. Lisa was throwing food at Brian. She was opening jars and throwing the contents at him. Jason poured a kettle of boiling water over Brian's head. Vaughan said that he poured a kettle of cold water over Brian to relieve him. Jason was hitting Brian with various items, such as picture frames and ornaments. On Lisa's suggestion Jason forced Brian to swallow four olanzapine tablets.
The fourth attack took place in the evening of May 6th. Jason was stabbing Brian in the neck with a pen. Vaughan asked Brian if he needed an ambulance, but Brian said that it wasn't too bad, similar things had happened before.
When questioned Vaughan denied having seen Brian being stabbed with a knife. He didn't see a hacksaw being used, and he hadn't seen Lisa forcing Brian to drink her piss.
In the cross-examination Mr. Benson suggested that Vaughan's testimony was all lies, and he was blaming Jason for the things he had done himself.
Miss Montgomery questioned Vaughan at length about his previous reports to his social worker and the police, all of which differed from his testimony in court. Vaughan admitted that he had invented the story about the two black men, but he was unable to say why. He also denied that he had been traumatised by seeing an old man "stabbed in the arse", as he had claimed in a previous testimony. Vaughan said that he liked to make things up, he's done it all his life, but he's telling the truth now.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Tick the box "Notify me" to receive notification of replies.