Escape From Evil - Cathy Wilson [140]
They probably won’t even call me, I thought. It’s not worth getting stressed about.
Daniel wasn’t needed this time, but, along with my partner Stuart, he offered to come along for moral support.
‘We’re all in this together, Mum,’ he said.
I loved him so much for saying that, but I wished it hadn’t been the case. I’d have given anything for him to still be blissfully ignorant.
The longer the investigation into Peter went on, the more the claims against him stacked up. Although they couldn’t prove it at the time – and still haven’t been able to – I was told the police suspected Peter to have been behind the ‘Bible John’ murders which had terrorized Glasgow during the late 1960s. Peter had been living in the area, after all, and the deaths of the three young female victims bore the same hallmarks as his other crimes.
From my point of view, if Peter was capable of killing one girl, he was capable of killing more. Although he has always denied each murder, when newspapers reported that he had gloated to a prison psychiatrist, ‘I’ve killed forty-eight people’ – and then challenged the police to ‘prove it’ – I believed it. Even his most outlandish lies were often founded on truth.
December 2009 arrived and I found myself in the waiting room at Chelmsford Crown Court, Daniel and Stuart by my side, about to face my worst nightmare. Even screened off, just knowing Peter was in that room would be enough to make me feel sick. Just knowing he was already in the same building had already got me trembling. When I saw a court official coming over, I prayed and prayed that he was going to tell me I could go home. But he didn’t.
‘You’ll be called in about an hour.’
I crumbled.
Sixty minutes later, I was ready. My official escort and a lovely policeman called Bernie were by my side and we were just waiting for our cue to enter the chamber. The silence was deafening. I swear I could hear my knees knocking – I thought they only did that in cartoons. When the green light came, I struggled to put left foot in front of right.
Bernie had barely started to open the door to the court when I froze. There, right in front of me, was Peter Tobin.
‘Where’s the screen?’ I said, suddenly panicking. ‘There was meant to be a screen!’
Bernie let go of the door and looked at the official, who hurriedly consulted his notes.
‘No,’ he said, ‘there was never a screen for this case.’
I was getting hysterical. ‘But I was promised a screen. They said I wouldn’t have to look at him.’
‘Look,’ Bernie said, ‘I’ve been watching this guy every day for three weeks. He never, ever looks up from the floor. You’ve got absolutely nothing to worry about.’
It was kind of him to say that.
‘Okay,’ I said, wiping my face. ‘I’m ready.’
I was in there for twenty-five minutes. The prosecutor asked me every single question he could think of about Peter’s old cars – their colours, their child seats, their condition – and then the defence lawyer did the same. I couldn’t look at either of them, though, because directly behind them was my ex-husband.
When the judge said I could go, I nearly ran out. Panting, I collapsed into a chair. Stuart and Daniel rushed over, but Bernie the copper beat them both.
‘Now there’s a thing,’ he said. ‘For three weeks that man does nothing but stare at the floor. Then you take the stand and he didn’t stop looking at you for one second. Not one single second.’ He laughed. ‘I think you’ve got him spooked.’
I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. The only thing I knew for certain was that I had seen Peter Britton Tobin for the very last time.
EPILOGUE
This is Where it Begins
2010 started well. The Dinah jury had taken just a couple of hours to convict Peter. On top of all his other sentences, he wouldn’t be a free man again if he lived to be a hundred.
I also made progress with my bête noir, the team driving Operation Anagram, when a new officer took over the project and promised me it would end very soon. He was as good as his word. From two meetings a week in 2007 to two a month in 2008 and one every two months in 2009, I was now