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Prospero’s Singapore and London teams are once again reunited this week in London, where I have come to spend two weeks training. Today we made our first UK fieldtrip to Snaresbrook Crown Court. The purpose of the morning was to better understand the UK justice system by observing proceedings in Court, under the watchful eye of the Prospero World Charitable Trusts Chairman and Judge, Murray Shanks.
The journey to Snaresbrook takes 40 minutes from Notting Hill. As we speed east to Snaresbrook on the rush hour Central line, sipping our morning coffees and pressed up against legions of other commuters, Sita rummages through her handbag for her phone before looking up aghast, shocked to discover a hammer lurking in the bottom of her bag. Thankfully, out of the tunnels of the underground, Murray is phoned immediately! He says he will speak to the security guards to explain that the hammer wielding lady is a friend of his and should not be arrested.
As we walk up the sweeping driveway to Snaresbrook Court, we are struck by the power of the building’s purpose. Originally built as an Infant Orphan Asylum in 1843, the building was first converted into a school before it became a court of law.
I am overcome with a sense of nervousness and tension looking at this building whose walls contain history’s life-changing verdicts. For some, this building stands as strong a symbol of justice, for others, it may be the last glimpse of freedom before being locked away.
The building has great poise and elegance. Its magnificence is initially shrouded by the foliage around it, but eventually its faded grandeur is revealed. Surrounded by Snaresbrook’s impressive grounds, I almost forget I am in London,
Cases at these public criminal courts range from petty theft to drugs and murder. They also have been known to host high profile and celebrity cases including. Boy George and Pete Doherty have both stood trial within Snarebrook’s walls.
We arrive at 9:45am. Sita, the hammer and I glide through security with no problems before being escorted to Murray’s chambers via the courtroom where a handful of people mill about, waiting for the first case of the day to begin.
I am immediately struck by the room’s austerity. There are no windows. The carpets, chairs, walls and desks are a monochrome of brown. Seats are immaculately aligned to face the centre of the room, where the prosecutor and defender make their cases. The judge’s bench is slightly elevated at the front of the room, giving a birds eye view of proceedings.
We arrive at Murray’s chambers to find him sipping his espresso behind his desk in his robes, which to me strongly resemble royal Bhutanese robes. The welcoming smell of musky incense and coffee makes us feel right at home.
With wigs and gowns in tow, we enter the courtroom before Murray to await his arrival. This first case is against a middle-aged Bengali worker who had applied for and received benefits he was not entitled to in the amount of £18,000. The prosecutor investigates his assets to see if he can pay for his crime. The defendant has already received a suspended sentence of 15 weeks and now is claiming he does not have the money to pay his debt. His lawyer goes through every transaction of the defendant’s bank statement while playing with the curls on his Victorian wig. During the proceedings the defendant sits behind a glass pane, patiently as he watches as his case unfold.
The more gripping case was the next trial. As the story told by the prosecution witnesses unfolded, it seemed that in a housing complex on valentines day this year, some friends were having a quiet drink when a known, but not amicable, man forced his way into their apartment and threatened them with two knives and an empty wine bottle (likely to have been emptied into his stomach earlier that night). The motive was unclear. It was a classic case of drunk violence, though involved older men and a rather young girl, apparently 17 or 18. Upon seeing the defendant, it was apparent he’d had a tough life. He looked old beyond his years and his mannerisms indicated to a life of not only alcohol but possibly other intoxicants. He was claiming however that all the accusations against him were incorrect. His lawyer was painfully questioning all eye-witnesses, forcing alcohol as an excuse for them to not remember details of the night, despite the fact that there was more than one eye-witness that saw the defendant with knives. It made my wonder what the defence barrister herself really thought. Could one defend a defendant whose position you were unclear on?
Following the cross-examination, proceedings ran smoothly. We watched three witnesses testify before lunch.
When you hear of cases of corruption within courts of law in countries such as Cambodia, bribing behind backs and poking and prodding of defendants in front of the judges, one can only praise the British for bringing their gracious system to the countries of the commonwealth. Though many have unfortunately done away with the wigs…
Incidentally, I am told that the man whose trial we watched was found not guilty by the jury on Monday morning.
After a 20 minute flight in a 1960’s propeller plane, I arrive in the small, bustling, industrial town of Birgunj a mile and a half from the Indian border. This is prime trafficking territory.
I leave the airport and head straight to my first meeting. My senses are overwhelmed. People, cars, taxis, buses, trucks, dogs, goats and cyclists busy the streets. Pollution swarms in the air. Fruit-walas spill onto pavements. A man in front of me spits dust he has collected in his throat as I pick my way through the battered roads to Maiti Nepal’s head office in Gaushala. With the helpful directions of locals, I find my way there without getting lost. Everyone, it seems, knows the organisation.
The hospice serves HIV positive women and children as well as those with drug resistant tuberculosis, hepatitis and other incurable diseases. Many of the women and children here have been trafficked and prostituted. Others are orphaned, or have been expelled from their villages because of their illness. For the 70,000 people who are HIV positive in Nepal, life is marked by stigma. They are typically, neither accepted nor cared for. Where their families accept the condition, the disease is frequently hidden to avoid embarrassment or being ostracised.
The plight of young girls sold into prostitution – often deliberately- by a family member has been written up in harrowing detail by Cambodian author Somaly Mam in her award-winning book, ‘The Road of Lost Innocence.’ Prostitution and the giant and menacing rackets that grow around it are well documented. Paedophilia is far more sinister – although the young age at which many of the young girls are sold, and the level of abuse they experience, mean that in reality the two terms are often interchangeable.
I ask what the scale of the problem really is and how one can be sure that it is accurately documented. He replies that according to EU research, 4.5% of all tourists are sex perpetrators, of which 10% are paedophiles. That means that out of 2.2 million tourists travelling to Cambodia, 80,000 are sex perpetrators and 8000 of those are paedophiles. To make it tangible, it means that in a plane carrying 200 people, 1 at least would be a child abuser.
In the last year APLE performed 254 investigations leading to 37 arrests. They work with hundreds of children every year.
Auray takes me to see the recently built school for deaf and blind children. It is made up of several large buildings and is painted bright yellow. It cost around a million dollars to construct. There is the sound of plinking and plonking which comes from a faraway music room.
I land in Phnom Pehn at 9:30 and zoom to the guesthouse to drop my luggage before bouncing back into a tuktuk and speeding off to the North West of Phnom Pehn to meet with Krousar Yoeung. Sandra spent the day visiting their project work on 2nd December, but we have arranged another short meeting with their Executive Director, Ky Samphy.
It is a simple, fascinating and noble mission enforced by a dedicated, talented team. I leave the centre to visit the “Building” where a workshop is being held in preparation for a performance tomorrow night. “Building” is also the subject of Alnoor’s film and