Two Thousand and Ten Ch. 04

Mrs Eversley folded the sheet of paper upon which Peter's statement was written and placed it on the table along with the rest of her papers. Stevie merely sat motionless in the dock opposite the judge.

Monday, July 5th 2010 - 3:31pm

This was the moment Peter had been dreading - the court usher accompanied him to the witness box and handed him a small leather-bound bible and a small card with some words printed on it. Peter stood, cleared his throat and held the bible in his right hand and read out the words he had heard on TV so many times but had never thought he'd ever be in a position to say in real life.

"I swear by almighty God that the evidence I shall give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

As soon as he finished the oath, Mrs Eversley rose to her feet.

"Could you please confirm your name for the court?" She said.

"Peter Adrian Swanmore." Peter replied clearly.

"Now, I know this may be embarrassing for you Mr Swanmore, but I would like you to describe to the court exactly what happened on the night of Friday the 9th of April and the early hours of April the 10th." Eversley said as she stood before her bench, "Please try to leave nothing out and take your time."

"Er... yes, right." Peter said before clearing his throat, "Well, I was in Nottingham attending the annual conference of the Royal Institute of Chartered Mechanical Engineers. It had been a long day of speeches and seminars during which I delivered a presentation of my own on robotic manufacturing. The rest of the delegates went their separate ways for the evening, most of them to the bar at the hotel where the conference was being held.

"I didn't really fancy spending any more of my time at the hotel so I decided to head into Nottingham City Centre nearer to the hotel I was staying at so that I could find a decent pub."

"So you weren't staying at the hotel where the conference was being held?" Mrs Eversley asked, mainly for the benefit of the court, since she already knew all the details.

"As the hotel where the conference was being held was full, and as I was giving a presentation, the Institute had put me and several other senior delegates up in the Metropole Hotel." Peter continued, "Anyway, I eventually settled on the Sheriff's Head as it seemed like a decent enough place and it wasn't too far from my hotel. And since I was a stranger to Nottingham, I knew I could find my way back easily.

"The only downside was, what with it being a Friday night, the pub was quite busy. There also only seemed to be one member of staff working the bar itself, so getting oneself served was proving difficult. I noticed it seemed especially difficult for one particular young lady and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't seem to attract the barman's attention long enough. I couldn't simply sit and watch her, so I did what I thought was the gentlemanly thing to do and approached her to see if I could attract the barman's attention on her behalf.

"After a couple of attempts, and having to raise my voice somewhat, I finally managed to get the young lady some service. In order to thank me she offered to buy me a drink, a pint of lager, and she introduced herself as Stevie. I liked her immediately and so I suggested that we should see if we could find a table away from the bar. She agreed and so we found a small table by the window overlooking the street outside.

"We sat for a while and we talked about what I was doing in Nottingham and about the town where I'm from on the East Sussex coast. She talked about her university course and how she was studying for a career in pharmacology. She just seemed to be a nice, attractive and intelligent young lady - I guess I kind of fell for her almost immediately. I knew that she was a bit younger than myself but I was sure she was mature enough. After a while we finished our drinks and so I offered to buy her a drink in return and so I went back to the bar and got another round in.

"Once I had finally managed to get served, which took an inordinately long time, I paid by credit card as I am normally in the habit of doing, and took our drinks back to my table. While I was at the bar I had a vision of Stevie deciding she had had enough and making a quick getaway while my back was turned."

Peter paused for a moment to take a sip of water from a glass that had been set on the shelf at the front of the witness box.

"To my relief, as I returned to our table I found that Stevie was right where I left her." He continued, "I knew then that she was interested in me. We continued to sit and talk for a while and there was a little bit of light cuddling involved but nothing more serious than that at that particular time. We sat there together right up until the barman called time just after 11pm.

"I didn't want my evening with Stevie to have to end so soon, so I suggested to her that we go and find a nightclub somewhere. She pointed out that I wasn't really dressed for clubbing - I was still wearing my suit and tie from the conference - and she suggested instead that she would rather come back with me to my hotel, to "see the man underneath the suit" she had said at the time."

"Would you describe Ms Williams as being particularly drunk at this time?" Mrs Eversley asked as Peter's testimony had reached a critical point.

"Absolutely not." Peter replied emphatically, "We had only had two drinks together at the pub, and even though there was the possibility that she had been drinking earlier before I met her, I could tell she was in complete control of herself. She wasn't slurring her speech and she wasn't unsteady on her feet or anything like that. I was fairly confident that although not entirely sober, she was most definitely not drunk. With hindsight, I should have simply left her to go home but I simply agreed to her request and escorted her back to my hotel."

"Did she need any assistance to make it to your hotel?" Mrs Eversley enquired.

"No, I draped my arm over her shoulder - mainly because it had become a little chilly outside - and we simply walked to my hotel which was about a five minute walk away." Peter replied, his heart rate began to increase as he approached the more embarrassing and lurid details of his encounter with Ms Williams.

"Once we arrived at the hotel I took her up to my room. Since events had suggested that erm... sex might be on the cards, I did what I thought was the romantic thing to do and I ordered some champagne from room service." Peter continued, fighting against the lump in his throat and his pounding heartbeat. He took another sip of water to calm his nerves momentarily before continuing.

"Your ordering of champagne was not an attempt to deliberately get Ms Williams drunk?" Mrs Eversley asked.

"Objection your honour!" The defence counsel said sharply as he rose to his feet, "The counsel for the prosecution is leading the witness!"

"Objection upheld." Judge Richards replied, "Mrs Eversley, if you could rephrase that last question please."

"Yes your honour." Mrs Eversley answered the judge before returning her attention to the witness box, "Was your ordering of the champagne in any way an attempt to decrease Ms Williams' state of sobriety?"

"Most definitely not." Peter replied firmly, "I honestly just thought it'd be a romantic thing to do. I wanted Stevie to be at ease and I had never done anything like this before, so I thought it'd help us to be more relaxed. While we waited for the champagne to arrive we simply sat on the bed and kissed and cuddled for a while."

"What happened once the champagne arrived?" Mrs Eversley asked.

Peter took a deep breath.

"I answered the door to take delivery of the champagne and while my back was turned as I was signing for the champagne Stevie, er - Ms Williams, had undressed herself. By the time I returned to the bed she stood before me in only her bra and knickers. She simply stood there in her underwear and said, "You don't mind if I make myself more comfortable do you?" To which I replied that I didn't mind at all. She then asked if I cared to join her, so I began to undress myself down to my own underwear. Once we were both in only our underwear I opened the champagne, poured a glass each and I raised a little toast to us."

Peter was beginning to feel ever more uncomfortable as the nature of his testimony became ever more lurid and embarrassing. He cast his eyes up at the public gallery where Lindi sat next to Clive. He could see a look of sympathy in her eyes - a look that ignited a sudden feeling of desire for the woman who was his best friend in all the world, and all of a sudden he was reminded of their encounter in the swimming pool changing room where he had seen her naked for the very first time - where they had so nearly touched each other. He tried to shake that immoral thought from his mind. She had a boyfriend now, and it was wrong of him to think of her in that way. Although... that didn't seem to deter him from the time when she had accidentally placed her hand upon his crotch whilst reaching for some popcorn as they sat and watched a horror movie together. The film was of a somewhat erotic nature and the scene they were watching had caused him to become erect. Lindi looked most apologetic as she accidentally touched his straining erection underneath the lounge pants he was wearing. It was a look of apology mixed with a sudden flash of desire. He should have simply left it there, but something had stirred within him - something he suddenly couldn't help to resist. He had pulled down his lounge pants to reveal his erection to his friend - and once she saw it, rather than be repulsed by it or be offended by his sudden impulse to show her his tumescence, she took it in her hand. He had managed to bury the incident at the back of his mind after it happened, but as he stood there in the witness box and looked into her eyes in the public gallery, he was flooded with recollection. She had masturbated him that night - she had taken hold of his impressively erect penis and had stroked him until she made him come. And it had been... it had been good - it had been really good. Only a matter of months ago, the very thought of doing anything as intimate as that with Lindi was something that had never entered into his head. She was his best friend, the girl he had grown up with, the closest thing to a sister he had in his life - any notion of sex had never factored into their relationship. And yet, in the past six months they had become closer and closer to each other and their friendship was in danger of becoming a relationship.

"Mr Swanmore?" Came the voice of Mrs Eversley all of a sudden.

Peter was brought back to reality with a bump. He looked down and could see his sudden erection throbbing in his trousers, straining at the elastic of his underpants - thank goodness nobody could actually see it!

"Erm... Yes, sorry." He said and took another sip of water, "Ahem! Anyway, after we drank our champagne and had erm... made out with each other, as they say in America, Ms Williams suggested that she wanted to freshen up and asked me if I would join her in the shower. She erm... told me to take my pants off so that she could see me naked, "I want to see what you have got for me to play with", she said at the time.

"So I took my pants off and I stood naked in front of her. She said she thought my erm... my private parts looked beautiful and that she "couldn't wait to feel it" inside her. She um... she began to erm... stroke my um... penis until I er... until I began to have an erection."

Peter had to take another sip of water to steady himself. He was sure every single person in the public gallery was enjoying the spectacle of a fully grown man in his 30's being made to recount his sexual exploits in such graphic terms.

"Erm, anyway she released my penis after a short while and I went to the bathroom to turn on the shower." Peter picked up where he had left off, "And we spent some time erm... washing each other. I sort of... spent some of that time kind of er... fingering Ms Williams."

"Please be clear for the court Mr Swanmore - did you masturbate Ms Williams while you were in the shower with her?" Mrs Eversley asked.

"Yes." Peter admitted with a sigh, "Yes I did. But only briefly - it wasn't my intention to give her an orgasm at the time."

"What else happened while you were in the shower?" Mrs Eversley continued.

"While we were in the shower she said she wanted to return the favour and so she took hold of my penis once again. Only this time she um... she sort of... masturbated me."

"Did Ms Williams cause you to ejaculate at that time?" Mrs Eversley queried, her voice flat and professionally emotionless as though she asked men that sort of question all the time.

"Yes, she did." Peter answered, suddenly feeling his cheeks begin to flush with embarrassment, "And while she was using one hand on my penis, with her other she... she... erm... penetrated me."

"She did what Mr Swanmore?" MrsEversley enquired.

"She... inserted her finger into my erm... my rectum, in order to stimulate my prostate."

A brief moment of shocked silence followed. Peter looked across at Stevie as she sat in the dock, her face was ashen as Peter revealed to the court about how she had penetrated him.

With his mouth suddenly dry, Peter took yet another sip of water.

"Did you enjoy Ms Williams' stimulation of your prostate?" Mrs Eversley asked flatly.

"At the time, yes." Peter admitted sheepishly, "Like I said earlier, it caused me to ejaculate. Once we left the shower and had towelled each other, we went across to the bed where we spent some more time kissing and cuddling each other. Things were becoming somewhat steamy, but I was determined that I wasn't going to do anything Stevie didn't want to do. I was quite content to let her take the lead, and if she didn't want to have sex with me, I would've respected her choice.

"But she did want to have sex with me. After a little while she rolled over onto her back, parted her legs open wide and said "I want you inside me Peter, I want to feel your dick thrusting and pumping away inside my cunt!!" Again, those were her exact words.

"I was about to penetrate her when I realised I didn't have any condoms with me - the last thing I wanted was for her to accidentally become pregnant. But she assured me that she was on the pill and she once again implored me to penetrate her - "c'mon, fuck me already!" She said. So I did as she wished and I... inserted my penis into her vagina.

"I had intended our lovemaking to be soft and slow - I wanted us to both enjoy the moment and for it to last as long as possible. But Ms Williams it seemed, had other ideas. Only a few moments into it she was already imploring me to thrust myself in her hard, "fuck my pussy hard," she said at the time, "give me everything you've got." so that was precisely what I did.

"After a while she decided she wanted to change position, so she got herself onto her hands and knees and implored me to penetrate her from behind. So, once again I did as she asked and I inserted my penis into her from behind. 'Doggy-style' as they say. We continued like this for a short while and I could feel myself about to climax - I told her I was about to er... come inside her, so that if she didn't want me to ejaculate inside her she would have a chance to tell me to pull out of her."

"And did she?" Mrs Eversley enquired calmly.

"No - in fact she responded by reaching down and grabbing hold of my testicles." Peter answered, "Whether the effect was intentional or not I'm not entirely certain, but it delayed my urge to come and whilst she had my testicles in her hands she implored me to continue to thrust myself into her. After another minute or so I felt her begin to have an orgasm - and it wasn't until it passed that she released my testes from her grasp. She then urged me to ejaculate into her, "Cum in me baby!" she said to me, "Cum inside me! I want to feel your hot sperm in my pussy!!" Once again, I did as she asked me to, so I let myself go and a few moments later I ejaculated into her. When my own orgasm finished I withdrew my penis from her and we simply cuddled each other for a moment. She said to me, "Thank you baby, that was wonderful", and we kissed and cuddled a little more before falling asleep.

"When I awoke the following morning I discovered that she was no longer there - she had left sometime during the night. I had no phone number for her so I couldn't call her to ask why she had left or even if she was okay. The only thing I knew about her was her name and the name of the halls of residence she was living in. I would've gone there to try and see her but I didn't want her to think I was stalking her or anything. Reluctantly, I came to the conclusion that we were just 'ships that pass in the night' as they say, and that would be the end of it. However, on the Monday morning as I was preparing to check out of the hotel I found myself suddenly being arrested for apparently raping her."

"Thank you Mr Swanmore." Mrs Eversley said once Peter had reached the conclusion of his testimony, "I have now finished with the witness your honour."

"Very good Mrs Eversley." Judge Richards said over the rim of his spectacles, "Does the counsel for the defence wish to cross-examine the witness?"

Despite how hard his testimony had been, this was the moment Peter had been really dreading. With his heart in his mouth and a lump in his throat, he waited as the defending QC and his small team conferred amongst themselves for a moment that seemed to take forever. Finally, the counsel for the defence rose to his feet.

"No your honour." He said simply before returning to his seat.

Peter breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank you Mr Swanmore, you may now stand down." Judge Richards said in a kindly manner.

Monday, July 5th 2010 - 5:45pm

The prosecution had rested its case. Mrs Eversley had called upon Detective Inspector Barlow to give his testimony about Stevie Williams' original allegation and the so-called investigation that had apparently not nearly been thorough enough, such was their haste to get Peter behind bars. She also called upon Lindi to testify about her attempts to track Ms Williams down in order to secure her confession that she had lied about being raped. The defence briefly cross-examined her, and Peter felt she had handled admirably, but it was clear that the defence were fighting a losing battle. During a brief adjournment Mrs Eversley questioned Stevie's sanity in pleading not guilty - Peter concluded it showed yet more of her immaturity and that it wouldn't be fair on her to face too harsh a punishment.

After the 10-minute adjournment, the defence put their own case forward but the whole thing was over in little more than 20 minutes. As the defence rested, judge Richards addressed the jury before sending them out to deliberate and come towards a verdict. In the end it took the jury just 35 minutes.

Once everyone had shuffled back into the court and Judge Richards took his seat once again, the clerk of the court addressed the foreman of the jury and instructed her to rise to her feet.

"Have you reached a verdict of which you are all in agreement?" He said to the foreman, a woman in her 60's dressed in a green cardigan that looked as though she had knitted it herself.

"Yes." She replied solemnly.

"On the charge of perverting the course of justice, do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty?"

A short pause followed - Peter glanced down at Stevie, he could only see her from behind but it was clear she was extremely anxious.