The Accused

Mitchell I felt sorry for him.

Barrington Ah, yes, I remember, it was raining. Have you any idea, Ms Mitchell, how unlikely this story is sounding?

Mitchell It’s the truth and he knows it.

Barrington Well, then let’s continue with this morality fable, shall we? The following morning Mr Sherwood called you into his office, locked the door and started trying to undo your uniform?

Mitchell Yes, he did.

Barrington And then he made love to you on his couch?

Mitchell Yes, just as I described it.

Barrington What time of day was that?

Mitchell I don’t remember exactly.

Barrington Well how about vaguely - eight o’clock, nine o’clock, ten o’clock?

Mitchell I think it must have been about nine thirty. Yes, it was just after we’d completed the early-morning rounds.

Barrington So you’re asking the court to believe that having left you, exhausted, at three in the morning, he then made love to you again at nine thirty?

Mitchell Yes, and I wasn’t the only nurse

who’d been subjected to ‘after-rounds’ sex.

Barrington Strange, because I don’t see any of those nurses on the list of Crown witnesses.

Mitchell They didn’t want to know, once they realised the police were involved.

Barrington Strange how everybody and everything disappears whenever you’re involved. And after this romp on the couch, he regularly made love to you in his office and sometimes spent the night with you back at your flat?

Mitchell No, he never stayed the night. He always left around three in the morning. He didn’t want anyone to find out that we were having an affair.

Barrington And you say that this relationship went on for several weeks?

Mitchell Over three months.

Barrington And you would also have us believe that on one occasion, he asked you to marry him?

Mitchell Yes, he did.

Barrington Was this at a restaurant you can’t remember, or after a play you don’t recall?

Mitchell No, I remember the occasion well; it’s not something a girl is likely to forget. You see, he proposed to me on the night his wife died.

Barrington (sharply) How could you possibly have known it was the night his wife was going to die?

Mitchell Obviously I didn’t know until, the following morning. But I’ll never forget his words after we’d made love - ‘Elizabeth won’t be around for much longer, so we ought to start thinking about our future together.’

Barrington Elizabeth. Did you ever meet Mrs Sherwood?

Mitchell Only when she came to pick up her husband from the hospital.

Barrington So you never visited her at the flat?

Mitchell No, why should I do that?