"Almost two million people are brought before England's criminal courts every year." "The drugs that were found up in the loft were not yours." "Your fingerprints won't be on them, will they?" "Absolutely not?" "No." "OK." "More than half of them are legally aided, their lawyers paid by the taxpayer." "He did spit in my face, so I spat in his face." "Britain's busiest legal aid practice is Tuckers." "They handle thousands of these cases every year." "We've spent 12 months filming with them, gaining access to the privileged relationship, between lawyer and client." "Were you, like, interested in him romantically or what?" "I certainly wasn't interested in him romantically." "There's a great difference in age between us, for a start." "If you did plead not guilty, I don't think you'd win it, simply because you've got 22 previous convictions for burglary." "At a time when the legal system's under increasing scrutiny, this is how justice really works." "I just wanted to go out for a beer." "(BLEEP) the courts, what the judge said." "Don't, like, speak any more cos it's not a private conversation for you there because they can hear what you're saying." "Alex Templar, he's one of our clients." "He was arrested at seven o'clock last night" "It's now two o'clock in the afternoon." "It's a burglary." "Just sit tight." "Rest assured that I am on the case, OK?" "And I suspect that you will be interviewed within the next hour." "So just sit tight and don't do anything silly and don't be interviewed without us, right?" "Promise me." "Shab Aslam is the lawyer sent to Alex Templar." "We get told very little before we go out to a job." "The basics, really, it's a burglary." "I think we are aware it's a non-dwelling burglary, which means it's not a house." "It's possibly commercial premises, a garage or something like that." "(BEEPING)" "Unusually, a camera is being allowed in to film the client interview." "Shab gets the details of the burglary from the police." "His client has been arrested in an office block." "Hi, Alex." "Hi." "Are you all right?" "Yeah." "Within your client's rucksack, the police have found two laptops which are believed to have been stolen from one or both of the premises." "In addition, you are believed to have been identified as entering Salford University campus at approximately three o'clock on the same day." "A report's been received that a mobile phone has been stolen around that time from one of the buildings." "I'm not getting bail out of here, am I?" "It's not looking good at the moment." "It's not looking good, cos you've got quite an extensive record with the police for similar type of offences." "If you did plead not guilty, I don't think you'd win it, simply because you've got 22 previous convictions for burglary." "Alex offers Shab an explanation for his predicament." "OK." "Yeah?" "I want to tell you something, between me and you." "Right." "I took nothing." "Here's what it is." "Tell me which way do you think we should go." "OK." "Here's what happened." "I took a loan out from a loan shark." "This is a mistake I made." "He's given me a Ј300 loan." "I'm supposed to pay him back on that loan every week." "Yesterday, now, right, I've called him, right." "See?" "Right, the day before I've called him." "He says, come on down, let's have a beer, really nicely." "I didn't think nothing of it." "When I got there, he says 'What do you take me for, a (BLEEP) mug?" "You think you can take my money and not pay me?" "'" "Him and his cousin were there." "They grab me, push me up against the wall." "He says 'Listen, you had better pay me my (BLEEP) money or I'll slice your throat.'" "This is why I'm between a rock and a hard place." "I just had to do it." "OK." "Shab knows he's in for a long night in Longsight." "Good morning, Tuckers." "Criminal legal aid costs the taxpayer a billion pounds a year." "Tuckers handles more of these cases than anyone else." "Why are you not coming into Manchester?" "Now, is that definite?" "Franklin Sinclair runs the Manchester office." "Everybody, on the face of it, is against our client." "The police are against him, he feels the court's against him, the prosecutor's against him." "He thinks the judge is against him." "So, we're the only friend." "We're there to support them, to explain everything to them and we're there to help them as best as we can, and so we have to make them feel like we're on their side." "Just read a file of a client we're going to see." "Vera Kennedy and her daughter Joanne Hume." "Both charged with possession of a very large amount of amphetamine with intent to supply it." "She's a regular in that when she gets into trouble she always asks for us." "She's normally in court with her husband and she did appear with him last year and he got sent to prison for supplying drugs." "She got a suspended sentence and, of course, now if she's found guilty of this new allegation, she's in breach of her suspended sentence and she's the oldest drug dealer in town." "Smile, you're on Candid Camera." "Oh, dear." "Nice and slim, you, aren't you?" "Well, I'm not bad." "You knew me when I was a lot fatter, didn't you?" "You weren't fat." "I was." "I was quite chubby." "In the '90s, when I started dealing with you." "Vera's husband Terry has just been released from jail." "But now Vera's in big trouble." "Now, this is the most serious position we've ever had you in." "I know." "Eight months prison sentence, wasn't it?" "Yes." "Suspended." "And if you're convicted of this, you're in breach of it." "I mean, how's your health at the moment?" "Still the same, it's not good." "Not good." "No." "We got a lot of medical reports last time, didn't we?" "Yeah." "This time the judge may say, 'Well, we heard that last time, and we can treat her in jail.' Yeah, well..." "You know, they may do." "Jail would be tough for you, you're 63, aren't you?" "Yeah." "Jeez!" "What you need to know is this." "The police came, searched the property and there's lots of powder in different places, right?" "All over, literally." "There's stuff in the kitchen." "They're not bothered about that." "I know you're not bothered about that." "No, they weren't." "No, they're not but the key thing is, in the loft is three containers of white powder, and that white powder is, first of all, substantial, and secondly, it's... it's quite high purity," "and they're valuing it at Ј28,000 and we have scales, obviously, as well." "With traces of caffeine and a clear Tupperware box." "That had about a gram's worth in, that was in the freezer." "Tupperware box in the freezer." "We go to the police station, and correct me if I'm wrong, Shab advised you to make no comment." "But you don't, do you?" "I don't make no comment." "You have, you've made plenty of comment." "You said, 'First of all, it's both of ours' and then you said, 'No, it's just mine'." "You were then asked about the money and you said it was rebates from council tax and rent that you got." "Then you were asked about the drugs from the loft." "You said it was amphetamine that was yours, for your own personal use." "You said it had been up there for six months, to keep it cool, and it says here 'She stated that she was physically able to get into the loft.'" "It's a typing error, isn't it?" "I did say I could get up there." "Did you say you could?" "Yeah." "Yeah, but you've never tried." "I've never been up there, ever." "No, you couldn't get up there." "I think what we'll do is, after the committal, we'll get you in the office." "Yeah." "And discuss some options, now that you're out, now that you're out." "I don't think there's a lot you can do, to me, anyway." "There's nothing they can do to you." "There's nothing they can do to you." "No, you've done your time, you've done your time and this was discovered whilst you were serving a prison sentence." "Yeah." "Don't worry, we'll have you in Tunisia as soon as you can breathe." "You need a bit of sun, that's what you need." "I know, and so do I. I've got that prison tan on me." "I know." "I'll catch you again." "Right, all the best, Terence." "Take care, see you." "The victims of crime in Manchester include two famous faces," "Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen." "It all started when Coleen went to a concert at the Manchester Arena." "Her camera went missing and with it hundreds of private family photos." "I'll buy or sell tickets..." "The crime generated huge publicity." "Three people are now charged with demanding Ј5,000 for the return of the pictures." "One of them is a Tuckers client, Steven Malcolm." "Iain Johnstone is his lawyer." "He's one of the firm's most experienced advocates." "His assistant is Lisa Paton." "The situation is, if you take into account the whole of the circumstances, it does amount to blackmail." "Iain and Lisa are about to meet their client, to advise him whether he should plead guilty or not guilty." "What do you think he should do?" "It's one of those ones which could, literally, boil down to who likes Wayne Rooney and who doesn't." "You in a world of your own, love?" "Hello, Lisa." "All right?" "How are you, darling?" "Super." "Good, good." "Steven Malcolm is a 42-year-old handyman with a history of petty crime." "But he's adamant it was his boss who'd got hold of the Rooney pictures and dreamt up the blackmail plot." "So he borrowed your phone once or twice." "Yeah." "Started when you got your phone back and that's the first time you had any involvement in it and you didn't know what was going on then." "This is about Thursday..." "Thursday afternoon." "So I finished work round about five o'clock Thursday." "Goes to the local pub, have a few drinks." "Goes home, starts making tea." "It was round about eight o'clock, something like that." "The next minute, gets a phone call." "Don't know who it is." "Hello?" "And that's how it started." "Steven says his mobile phone had been used by his boss, Lee Platt, to start the blackmail negotiations." "He went along with it because he was tipsy." "So, I phones Lee up. 'Lee, this guy's on the phone, don't know who he is." "What's going on here?" "'" "'All right, yeah, yeah, tell him we've got these images and I want five grand for it.' So, next minute, I hangs up, this guy rings me back." "Oh, hello, yeah." "Erm..." "Yeah, my boss says he wants five grand." "Simple as." "'Right, OK, then, meet you down at the Marriott Hotel at half-past two the next day.'" "Steven, why didn't you, at any stage in those phone calls, say 'Listen, mate, got nowt to do with me." "Speak to my boss, here's his number' and give him Lee's number for him to then ring direct?" "I never thought about that at the time." "I just..." "Don't know." "But then why then agree to sort of like be a party to the delivery and set up..." "Yeah, but you've got to understand, right, I work for him." "Yeah." "He assures me that 'You're not going to get arrested, it's a gentleman's agreement, it's all above board.'" "And so I'm thinking, well, OK." "So that particular day I hadn't got a care in the world." "It was when Steve delivered the images to the Marriott Hotel the following day that he was arrested by undercover police." "Doesn't matter what you say about the negative sort of side of it," "I'm pleading not guilty, anyway." "We're duty bound and we have to tell you, Steven, that if you was to plead guilty you'd get credit for that guilty plea." "Yeah." "I can't say it would mean you definitely staying out as opposed to going to prison." "But there is a possibility it could make that difference." "We can say to the judge, 'Without prejudice, Judge, our client's pleading not guilty, but he would like to know, with respect, what is the worst you would do if he pleaded guilty?" "'" "It would be nice if you ask him." "Right." "And see where we go from there." "At Longsight Police Station, Shab Aslam is still dealing with Alex Templar, arrested for burglary." "Alex is desperate to get out of the police station on bail." "But he's forgotten the phone numbers of two people who might help him." "What happens next is a shock for Shab." "I'm going to give you the two people's names." "Yeah." "I'm going to do something..." "I don't know if I should be doing this." "Go on." "Right." "I've got a phone, but it's my phone, it's not no stolen phone." "Right." "I don't know if you want to show this on the..." "No, I don't think you should show it, Alex, but tell me, go on." "Right, there's two people I would like you to call, right?" "I have their numbers on the thing, that's why I have to pull it out." "One of them, right, is Sarah." "Listen, listen..." "I don't know if you should be showing it on camera, you know?" "I don't really want to go back in there with it." "You can't give it to me, Alex." "Alex, you do know that you'd get into a lot of trouble for having that phone." "Well, that's too bad." "That's too bad, you know." "Did you have it in your pocket and they didn't find it?" "They just didn't find it." "This is my phone." "Prisoners in custody are forbidden to have a phone." "It puts us in a difficult position." "We've got to advise him to hand the phone over." "Otherwise we'd be party to him possibly perverting the course of justice." "So we have to be quite straightforward and say, look, Alex, you have to hand that over to the police." "If you get arrested with that or they find it later and you're making phone calls from your cell, you're going to be in a lot more trouble." "Alex Templar handed in the phone." "He eventually pleads guilty to burglary and receives a 12 month prison sentence." "90% of all Tuckers' business comes from their returning clients." "The clientele's very mixed." "There's the kind of sad drug addicted ones." "There's the alcoholic ones." "There's ones with mental problems." "And then there are people who, I suppose, you could say have a bit of an attitude." "And are easily disturbed, quite volatile." "Monday morning." "The lawyers who cover the police stations have been summoned to the office." "Right, guys, thanks for coming." "A bit of an impromptu meeting." "I let you know on Friday that I wanted you to come in." "Essentially, just to put everybody at ease, nobody's losing their job." "Thank goodness for that." "OK?" "No-one's getting a bollocking." "Tuckers earned Ј10 million in legal aid last year." "But the government is cutting these fees." "So law firms need to bring in even more clients." "Each police station client brings the firm Ј180." "The fees mount up if the case goes to court." "Times are really, really hard at the moment." "I'm on the marketing team and I go to a lot of the management meetings." "We are..." "We need more quantity." "Mm." "OK?" "We need shoplifters, we need repeat offenders." "The thing is, we can do all the marketing in the world and we can write to clients and we can have these gizmos and gadgets." "When we've got someone at the police station, we need to keep them." "That is a fixed fee, that is your client." "That is someone that's going to have a mags case and a crown case, and so when we've got 'em we need to be concentrating on the ones we've actually got." "They're the ones that are at least asking for us." "Get loads of clients, loads of co-accused." "In the Rooney blackmail case, it's time for Steven Malcolm to make his plea." "He's been waiting to see if the judge is likely to give a reduced sentence for a guilty plea." "But the judge doesn't say." "So his lawyer tries to strike a deal with the prosecution." "But Steven gets angry with this plea-bargaining process and goes off to the pub." "Iain tracks him down." "Right, they've decided they will accept our basis of plea and we've persuaded them to drop the handling charge, as well, to bring it down to one count." "Erm..." "On the basis that you were just acting as an employee, but you have been actively involved, to a degree, where you've crossed the line, basically." "Where are you at the moment?" "Calm down now." "I don't think he's got the willpower to control that behaviour." "And if he kicked off like that in front of a jury, it wouldn't go down very well." "Steven finally leaves the pub and returns to court." "All I wanted to do was just go for a beer." "I went with my mate, yeah, I just went for a beer." "(BLEEPING) the courts, what the judge said." "I just wanted to go out." "I even bought headache tablets." "I was stressed out." "Do you know what I mean?" "I've had..." "I've took four of them at the minute, and I've got to go back in here... and see what my outcome is." "His boss, who Steven blames for the blackmail plot, pleads guilty." "The court then asks Steven Malcolm how he pleads." "His lawyers advice had been to plead guilty and avoid a trial." "But it's not what happens." "In my mind I just wanted to plead not guilty." "All the way." "Cos I know what happened on the events." "And all right, for a lesser sentence and plead guilty, erm... in my eyes, why should I?" "So Steven Malcolm will face a full trial for blackmailing Coleen Rooney." "It's Christmas in Manchester." "At Strangeways Prison, Gary Cox has spent four days on remand." "He's an accountant." "He's also a convicted sex offender, and he's now charged with harassing his former victim." "Tuckers have just managed to get him bail." "I wasn't aware that anything was happening, but just very grateful that it's happened and that I've got bail." "I don't live in the Manchester area and I need to stay away from here." "I need to stay at my parents' house as a condition of my bail, every night." "Three weeks after Christmas, trainee lawyer, Jonathan Enston, is off to see Gary Cox." "Two years ago, Gary got a community order for sexually assaulting a young man, and was later convicted of harassing him." "He now faces a fresh charge of harassing the same man." "Were you, like, interested in him romantically?" "No." "I certainly wasn't interested in him romantically." "There's a great difference in age between us." "So, how old is he, cos I know - He's 20 now." "20 now." "So at the time he was 18." "Yeah, 18." "So there was clearly quite a difference in age between us that obviously I was very aware of, and so, you know, even if I was interested it was a non-starter because of the age difference." "He's very good looking, he's very intelligent, he's very confident." "You know, he could basically have a relationship with whoever he wanted." "Gary is accused of following the young man one night at Salford Quays." "Gary says he was actually there to gather evidence to appeal against his previous conviction for harassment." "He says that he then decided to hang around that area to feed the ducks." "So, tell me about feeding the ducks." "Tell me..." "I know, it sounds..." "I know it sounds so ridiculous." "'Quackers'!" "Absolutely." "I couldn't put it better myself." "When I used to live in Manchester," "I had occasionally gone to Salford Quays." "I knew there were a load of geese and whatever that winter there." "So, you know, I had fed them there before." "So, I thought while I was in the area," "I'd walk down and there were usually a few ducks and geese around and there were loads and loads, dozens of them, this night." "So I was down there feeding them for quite some time and obviously..." "You didn't see anyone?" "I saw one or two people walk past but, you know, didn't pay any attention to them." "Mm-hm." "Too busy" " I was just feeding the ducks, to be honest." "Jonathan heads off to Salford Quays." "He's checking out statements made by the prosecution witnesses." "'At the footbridge, between the Watersports centre and the Beefeater," "I noticed Gary to my left." "He was on the left side of a smaller canal bank.'" "Which I presume is just down there." "The prosecution's version of events, that comes from the victim and his brother, is that they are walking this way - I'm walking backwards now... but walking forwards having come from the Lowry Theatre." "Gary's informed me, and this is why he wants me to come here, that he was actually over there, by the Holiday Inn, feeding the ducks." "It's about undermining the credibility of the witnesses." "That's something that's definitely been improved by coming down today and taking photos." "There's a week to go before the start of the Rooney blackmail trial." "Lawyer Iain Johnstone has had a car accident and broken his leg." "He's hobbled into the office for a pre-trial meeting with his client." "But there's no sign of Steven Malcolm." "Hiya, Chuck, what are we going to do about Mr Malcolm's no show?" "Still not here, no." "I'll give him till three." "Has he got a current mobile?" "Permanently switched off and he's not updated us." "Okey-dokey." "Some people don't seem to care at all about their fate." "If it was me, I'd be at my solicitor's office every day, going 'What's new?" "What can we go through?" "How can we attack this?" "'" "But, obviously, that's me." "Not everybody is as bothered." "Friday prayers in a Rochdale mosque." "Among the crowd is one of Tuckers' busiest lawyers, Asim Ali." "I go there because it's a sense of community, see people that I wouldn't ordinarily see." "Clearly, if I'm there and if someone's got a problem," "I'm quite happy to speak to people in confidence." "And I make no secret of the fact that I am a lawyer who works in criminal defence." "Today he has a trial in Bury and he's meeting the client at Tuckers' local office." "Nice tan." "I know, I've just come back from Egypt." "I know." "Did you enjoy yourself?" "Yeah, it were all right." "Nigel Walker is charged with racially aggravated assault." "He took a cab home one night in Rochdale." "The police say he attacked the Asian taxi driver." "Nigel says the taxi driver attacked him and Nigel had been the one who'd called the police." "We'll say to him the reason he's not rang the police is because he was the aggressor." "The court's going to say to you, you were drinking from three till about midnight." "So, that's quite a few hours, that, to be drinking." "We'd only had eight pints through the day." "We'd had our dinner." "And I take it eight pints isn't a lot for you to drink." "Not really, not Carling." "Were you probably merry but not on your way?" "No." "I mean, it's impossible to get drunk off Carling." "Is it?" "It is, yeah." "You said that the driver was talking about American foreign policy and didn't seem to be happy about you being drunk." "So, was he going on about the way they interfere with other countries?" "I was trying to have a conversation with my friend and the taxi driver's interfering and trying to make conversation with me and my mate what was in the taxi." "What were you talking about?" "Me and my friend?" "Mm." "Er..." "Just day to day things what had gone on in the town and that." "Now, you say he spat in your face, and did you tell the police that?" "Er..." "I can't remember." "OK." "He did spit in my face, so I spat in his face." "You denied you were being racist, throughout." "Cos you don't really have any problems with people." "Not really." "I might have been a bit racist when he cut my hand in the kitchen when the police officers turned up." "If they believe you, then you'll be acquitted." "Yeah." "If they don't believe you, then unfortunately you'll be convicted." "That's how it works." "It just works on who they believe on the day, with these type of cases." "The trial is being held at Bury Magistrates Court." "Nigel's fate hangs on whether Asim can undermine the witness for the prosecution." "The taxi driver was a young Asian chap." "The way he put forward his account was thoroughly unconvincing." "He went so far as to deny some of the things he'd admitted in his witness statement, and the key fact is in his witness statement he admitted to having a screwdriver and waving this at Mr Walker." "But in court he denied he had anything in his hand at all." "With the main witness changing his story, Asim asks the magistrates to drop the case." "Well, Nigel." "Cheers." "That was a good result, hard earned." "The court, obviously, having heard what he had to say, and the police officers, they felt that they couldn't believe what he said, and he obviously tripped up about the knife/screwdriver part." "Yeah." "So, a good result." "Yeah." "Trust you won't get in trouble again." "No, I won't, no." "All right." "So, take care." "You've got my number if you need anything." "Yep." "Very happy how the case went." "It's been hard in that I've had a few arguments with my girlfriend, because she wasn't sure whether I was telling the truth." "Yeah, I don't like going to courts, you know what I mean?" "It can be a bit intimidating." "Er..." "Because they try discrediting you, making you out to be the liar, which wasn't the case." "The Gary Cox case is Jonathan's last as a clerk on the magistrates' team." "He's just qualified as a solicitor." "I think you're going to have a fantastic career, so all the best to you." "Congratulations." "He's due to hand over his notes on this case to trial lawyer Caroline Wilbraham." "But Caroline can't find the notes and she's an exacting colleague." "Just where are the instructions that he's taken?" "Where is everything?" "Why is it not on the file?" "On the eve of Gary Cox's trial, the stress is showing." "Absolutely (BLEEP)!" "If you had my casebook" " I've got to do the fucking trial tomorrow!" "Have we got these instructions?" "Gary Cox is charged with harassing a younger man he's already sexually assaulted, and Caroline rates the prospects for him as pretty bleak." "He says that he didn't follow them and they wouldn't have been able to see him from where they say they are." "So there are questions that I can put to the witnesses but erm... it all depends on t'magistrates but I think the magistrates will find him guilty." "It's the morning of Gary Cox's trial." "Caroline's finally got the papers as she wanted them, and makes her way to court." "Her client is less breezy." "Just trying to keep it together basically." "But Gary's trial doesn't happen because there aren't any witnesses." "Unfortunately, the Crown Prosecution Service hadn't prepared their file properly and they hadn't warned their witnesses to attend." "The prosecution want to adjourn the trial to allow the alleged victim to give evidence." "But Caroline stops that, using a legal manoeuvre." "There's a new initiative at the moment that's been implemented from January, called Stop Delaying Justice which essentially means that all cases should go ahead at the first available opportunity." "The magistrates agreed that there was not a good and compelling reason to adjourn the case on this occasion." "So, unfortunately for the Prosecution Service, the magistrates ordered that the trial go ahead today in which case, because the prosecution witnesses weren't here, there's no evidence that the Crown can offer in respect of the charge" "and so the charge has been dismissed." "Something at last has gone right in my case." "So for it finally to get dismissed was very good news and a huge relief for the family, as well." "I can fully understand that, with the case being dropped, the alleged victims may feel a little aggrieved at that." "You know, at the end of the day, they've made a complaint about somebody for something they believe has taken place and it's been dropped." "You know, if somebody is guilty, it's not up to me to prove that." "It's up to the prosecution to prepare their case and if the client is guilty, they should be able to prove that through the evidence." "The media are out in force on the opening day of the Coleen Rooney blackmail trial." "Iain Johnstone has heard nothing from his client." "He's not even sure Steven Malcolm will show up." "I'm hoping that the court'll open reasonably early so that I can get in and get changed in court." "Hello." "Hiya." "Are you all right." "What have you done?" "I've bust my knee." "Oh, aye?" "So, where have you been hiding?" "We've written to you and tried ringing you." "Yeah, I know." "To get you in to go through it all." "Yeah, but I feel it is (BLEEP) up to you." "Yeah?" "I feel that there's nothing to discuss, cos on the last visit, you're telling me I virtually had to plead guilty." "So why should I come into your office to discuss things." "You tell me that." "Because I can tell you the sort of questions that the prosecution are going to try and put to you." "If I plead not guilty." "Yeah." "Right." "But you're coming across on the last visit - this is what I'm trying to say to you - to plead guilty." "So why should I come in and see you?" "Are you all right?" "Because what I said to you last time, Steven, was, you're sitting on a very fine line." "Yeah, course I am." "You're sitting on a very fine line and it all boils down to, really, your knowledge of what the prosecution can show." "The prosecution can show, obviously, that you were instrumental in the drop, and that you had telephone contact with the undercover officer the night before, and really that's their case." "That you're associated with Platt, that you were doing his running for him and that you knew what it was about." "Tell you what I'll do, right." "Hurry up, cos I'm losing my patience with these (BLEEP)." "So, hurry up and we'll go in court cos these fuckers here." "I can see them standing there." "So, just waiting for Lisa to turn up." "The trial gets underway and on day one at least," "Steven Malcolm's feeling confident." "I feel good at the minute because I knew from the start" "I was pleading not guilty, and at the minute I'm feeling pretty good." "Yeah." "So, I'm just going for a beer." "I need a beer." "On day two of the trial, Steven's opting for a suit." "By pleading not guilty, he's hoping to avoid prison altogether." "But he's been warned that if he's convicted, he'll pay for it with a longer sentence." "He insists his family makes the gamble worthwhile." "My oldest daughter, Joanne, I only got in contact with her three... three... three years and a few months... and I've got a bond with Joanne." "When she turns up, I always make sure that the heating's on, there's food in the cupboard, the duvet's always changed, nice and fresh for her." "I get on here." "So in the morning, it's hectic because she's using the shower and I'm, like, knocking on t'door," "'Are you finished?" "' 'No.' Right, all right." "It's just like a dad thing that I've missed for so many years." "And..." "I don't want to lose that." "It's day three of the trial." "Steven's about to give evidence and he's given up on the suit." "I'm thinking to myself, hang on a minute, the jury take me as I am." "And the circumstances surrounding this case." "So, I shouldn't have to come here to make an impression and put a tie on." "After today, as soon as I've been questioned, it all gets a little bit easier." "Up to this point, Steven Malcolm's line has been that he didn't realise what he was involved in was wrong or illegal." "On the stand, he changes his tune." "What he in fact said was, he did realise it was wrong, and he realised it was illegal." "At that point the prosecutor said," "'In that case, Mr Malcolm, why are we all here?" "'" "I was quite sad, really, watching him being cross-examined in the way that he was." "He was clearly struggling with his answers." "I think she ran rings round him but I think a lot of it, as well, with him was, not necessarily sure he really understood what was going on." "It was though he was lost." "His lawyers tell Steven he's left with no option but to change his plea to guilty." "The judge accepts Steven's plea and says he'll sentence him after Christmas." "Feel a bit shit at the minute so I'm going to go home." "Yeah..." "What more can I say?" "So erm..." "See you in January." "I feel completely deflated and if I was going to say anything about it, and I don't pass comment very often, that's why we have pre-trial conferences." "They are our clients and we do what they instruct us to do." "If they don't want to follow advice, that's a matter for them." "How are you?" "Not bad." "Haven't seen you for ages." "Vera Kennedy, the oldest drug dealer in town, turns up at the office for a meeting with Franklin." "Hi, good afternoon." "Hiya." "And how are you, my love?" "Good afternoon, Terence." "They need to work out how she's going to plead when she appears in court the following week." "Lisa's here, as well, because Lisa did your last case and did a very good job, as she always does." "She's here, she's brilliant." "The situation is complicated because Vera admitted to the offence at the police station." "When we last discussed the case, you were telling us that in reality the drugs that were found up in the loft were not yours, although you actually admitted to them at the police station." "But in fact you said at the police station that you could get into the loft." "Can you get into the loft?" "No!" "Is it impossible for her?" "Impossible." "Absolutely impossible." "And if we have to" " Never been in it, never." "Never been in it." "She wouldn't fit." "He's very flattering, isn't he?" "He knows how to flatter a woman." "It's a small gap, I wouldn't get through it." "Did you know they were there or not?" "So, you didn't know they were there and your fingerprints won't be on them, will they?" "Absolutely not?" "No." "OK." "Can you explain the position with regard to those drugs that were found around the house?" "The freezer, the living room, etc." "It's just what we all have." "We all have amphetamine, all of us, all my lot." "You take it and to help pay for that and also to help pay for a debt," "I'm right in saying that whilst Terry's been in prison have you been selling it, as well?" "Yeah." "Right, OK." "So, because of that, Vera's going to have to enter a guilty plea to possession of drugs with intent to supply, OK?" "Vera is already on a suspended prison sentence." "So if she pleads guilty, it means she'll almost certainly go to jail." "I'm anxious to avoid a contested - any kind of hearing." "I think that Vera is such a..." "Well, she's such a nice lady." "She'll agree with the nice prosecution barrister and he'll go 'Isn't it this?" "' and he'll put a lot of pressure on her and he'll scare her." "You know what I mean?" "Yeah." "I tell you what, if we keep you out, that will be an amazing, an amazing result." "Vera Kennedy pleads guilty to supplying drugs." "Her daughter pleads guilty to possession." "They are both currently awaiting sentence." "It's been suggested that we profit from our clients' bad behaviour." "Obviously, in very simple terms, we do." "But firstly, let me point out that we are a business and if we don't make any profit, we won't survive, and there won't be any criminal law firms defending anybody." "And, as a senior judge recently said, nobody else protects the vulnerable, as well as criminal lawyers do." "It's sentencing day in the Coleen Rooney blackmail trial." "Steven Malcolm's brief is waiting for him at court." "Steven Malcolm, however, is on the other side of town." "In the pub with his mates." "I just hope the judge, right... has a heart." "Do you know what I mean?" "Has a heart." "You go to jail, all right, you're privileges, your privileges are all gone." "You can't, like, open your front door, open the window." "You can't go to the shop, you can't have sex with somebody, you can't spend your money." "But it's not going to..." "It's not going to change me, OK?" "The only person that's going to change me is my mother." "When I come out, right, and I go to my mam's, and Mam says, 'Son, don't do this again, cos it'll break my heart', this, that, and the other." "Whatever she says, not the judge, whatever my mam says, goes." "Not the judge." "All you've got to do is treat it like a holiday, treat it like a holiday, do you know what I mean?" "You'll be all right." "His daughter Joanne has come along to support him." "We come back into contact last year, 2011, April." "I was just..." "I'm going to miss you." "I'm going to miss you." "Get over there!" "Erm..." "April." "I was going to London, and I know this is his local, so as I was in the taxi," "I was getting on the coach." "You know, National Express, round the corner." "I had 45 minutes to get on my coach to go to London cos I had a hen do on the Saturday." "I'd seen his little ginger bald head and I thought right, get onto you." "'What have you been doing, you naughty boy?" "' He said it's a long story." "I said I'm back from London on Sunday." "Tell me what the script is, exactly what you've done." "And we'll go from there, and this is why I'm sat here today." "So, all you can do, it's family, you know what I mean?" "No matter what you've done, what you've caused, blood's thicker than water, so... so what more can I do?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "You'll be all right, Dad." "Mm!" "It'll be OK." "Yeah, course it will, course it will." "Mr Malcolm..." "Mr Malcolm." "Don't want to know, don't want to know." "Go." "There's no need for that." "We've already spoke to the bleeding TV people." "There's no need." "I'm his daughter." "There's no need." "The judge describes Steve Malcolm as a willing accomplice and sentences him to 20 months in jail." "That's just four months less than the main blackmailer, Malcolm's boss." "I think the sentence was too high." "The distinction between them of four months was, on the face of it, not enough." "Perhaps he should have kept his appointments when he had them." "For some bizarre reason, some people seem to think they know better than I do, as to the correct way to proceed with things." "And obviously, in Mr Malcolm's case, he didn't know the correct way to proceed with things."