"incredible magnitude", as
the judge put it, inside each one.
Suzanne's
picture frame had an unopened envelope in it dated 18th December 2001. It was
posted in Amsterdam and just happened to be ‘branded ’
stationery from Suzanne’s hotel. Inside was a pair of her particularly scanty
pink knickers, which, together with a few pubes, had been positively DNA tested as hers. Also inside the very same envelope was
Luke's flight itinerary sheet with some hurried and almost illegible hand
written notes on the reverse. They read "Thanks S” and, “You forgot
these."
Luke
still refuted ever going to her hotel or meeting her, or writing to her, or
having sex with her. "Where did all this shit come from?" he thought,
"Never mind the baby for a minute. It's not possible to do all this when
you’re pissed. I would have remembered something."
“And
then what’s the deal with Carmel? I don’t have a fuckin’ clue what she’s been
doing since University or where she’s been. How the hell would I be getting her
to launder money when she’s on the other side of the bloody world?”
Carmel,
as it came out in court, had finished at University with her accounting
qualifications, and, since ‘Daddy knew people, who knew people’ she managed to
land a pretty neat job as a trainee Ship’s Purser for one of the bigger cruise
lines. Most candidates for the job need a few years Front Desk experience
first, rather than the pathetic amount of ‘Job Placement’ time that Carmel had
managed to notch up during her studies. Never the less she got the job.
Over the
years she progressed well and finally got her promotion to full blown Purser.
According to the prosecution, Carmel must have been liaising with Charlie on a
regular basis.
Now,
Charlie (another one of the girls) had secured a position as an Airline
Stewardess, subsequent to doing a few years travelling and holiday repping. The
wilder, more free-spirited member of the quartet, was meant to have been
transporting ‘dirty’ currency to Carmel, who would then use her privileged
position as ‘Ship’s Foreign Exchange Officer’ to convert these notes into U.S.
dollars. The now ‘clean’ and high denomination ‘Greenbacks’ would then be
deposited into a shared international account, at any old ‘Banana Republic’
bank, whenever either of them could arrange it.
International
personnel, it seemed, definitely had their hidden talents in the
‘under-the-counter world’.
Luke
remembered the girls’ faces as each of their framed photos was brought in as
evidence. There were emotional “gurning” performances (face pulling) from all
of them, full of shock, surprise, horror and complete incredulity.
Carmel’s
Photo frame concealed an unopened envelope with a CD/DVD inside. A message
typed onto the disc sleeve read, “Thought you should have this before it gets
into the wrong hands.” The disc contained a catalogue of video evidence showing
a great number of Carmel’s sexual encounters aboard ship.
Unfortunately
for Luke the envelope had a partial impression of his handwriting and signature
on it and the disc would seem to have been burnt on one of his company’s computers,
since identifiable ‘encryption’ and ‘read me’ files had been inadvertently
copied along with the videos.
Charlie’s
version of the now infamous photo frames contained a ‘wad’ of Dutch Guilders
from many years ago. And, according to the prosecution, Guilders went out of
circulation on December 31st 2001 in favour of the newly introduced Euro. It
was impossible to hand them in for exchange after 27th January 2002.
One of
the notes had been ripped and Sellotape'd back together. The Sellotape had
Luke's fingerprints on it. The conclusion arrived at by the prosecution
suggested that Luke passed the notes on to Charlie in Amsterdam in Dec 2001,
for ‘shipment’, and she had either forgotten about them or had held them too
long, waiting for the right opportunity to meet up with Carmel,
the judge put it, inside each one.
Suzanne's
picture frame had an unopened envelope in it dated 18th December 2001. It was
posted in Amsterdam and just happened to be ‘branded ’
stationery from Suzanne’s hotel. Inside was a pair of her particularly scanty
pink knickers, which, together with a few pubes, had been positively DNA tested as hers. Also inside the very same envelope was
Luke's flight itinerary sheet with some hurried and almost illegible hand
written notes on the reverse. They read "Thanks S” and, “You forgot
these."
Luke
still refuted ever going to her hotel or meeting her, or writing to her, or
having sex with her. "Where did all this shit come from?" he thought,
"Never mind the baby for a minute. It's not possible to do all this when
you’re pissed. I would have remembered something."
“And
then what’s the deal with Carmel? I don’t have a fuckin’ clue what she’s been
doing since University or where she’s been. How the hell would I be getting her
to launder money when she’s on the other side of the bloody world?”
Carmel,
as it came out in court, had finished at University with her accounting
qualifications, and, since ‘Daddy knew people, who knew people’ she managed to
land a pretty neat job as a trainee Ship’s Purser for one of the bigger cruise
lines. Most candidates for the job need a few years Front Desk experience
first, rather than the pathetic amount of ‘Job Placement’ time that Carmel had
managed to notch up during her studies. Never the less she got the job.
Over the
years she progressed well and finally got her promotion to full blown Purser.
According to the prosecution, Carmel must have been liaising with Charlie on a
regular basis.
Now,
Charlie (another one of the girls) had secured a position as an Airline
Stewardess, subsequent to doing a few years travelling and holiday repping. The
wilder, more free-spirited member of the quartet, was meant to have been
transporting ‘dirty’ currency to Carmel, who would then use her privileged
position as ‘Ship’s Foreign Exchange Officer’ to convert these notes into U.S.
dollars. The now ‘clean’ and high denomination ‘Greenbacks’ would then be
deposited into a shared international account, at any old ‘Banana Republic’
bank, whenever either of them could arrange it.
International
personnel, it seemed, definitely had their hidden talents in the
‘under-the-counter world’.
Luke
remembered the girls’ faces as each of their framed photos was brought in as
evidence. There were emotional “gurning” performances (face pulling) from all
of them, full of shock, surprise, horror and complete incredulity.
Carmel’s
Photo frame concealed an unopened envelope with a CD/DVD inside. A message
typed onto the disc sleeve read, “Thought you should have this before it gets
into the wrong hands.” The disc contained a catalogue of video evidence showing
a great number of Carmel’s sexual encounters aboard ship.
Unfortunately
for Luke the envelope had a partial impression of his handwriting and signature
on it and the disc would seem to have been burnt on one of his company’s computers,
since identifiable ‘encryption’ and ‘read me’ files had been inadvertently
copied along with the videos.
Charlie’s
version of the now infamous photo frames contained a ‘wad’ of Dutch Guilders
from many years ago. And, according to the prosecution, Guilders went out of
circulation on December 31st 2001 in favour of the newly introduced Euro. It
was impossible to hand them in for exchange after 27th January 2002.
One of
the notes had been ripped and Sellotape'd back together. The Sellotape had
Luke's fingerprints on it. The conclusion arrived at by the prosecution
suggested that Luke passed the notes on to Charlie in Amsterdam in Dec 2001,
for ‘shipment’, and she had either forgotten about them or had held them too
long, waiting for the right opportunity to meet up with Carmel,
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