All rise.
JOHN: In reviewing whether the decision
to withdraw legal aid funding from Sergeant Brian Meam was reasonable,
Mr Justice Niven concluded that it was.
Subsequently, the suitability for Mr Justice Niven to sit in this case
was called into question.
So we are here to examine whether his ruling should be set aside
for bias or... apparent bias.
Is the Legal Services Commission not represented by counsel?
Sir Peter Dulford and his junior have been delayed.
Sir Peter knew that he was required to stand by for this hearing.
It was unavoidable, sir.
Well, then, it looks like this review will be heard without his contribution.
My Lord, might I request an adjournment?
And you are?
Henry Door, solicitor to the Legal Services Commission.
Do you have any right of audience here, Mr Door?
No, I don't, sir.
Then please sit down. Mrs Mills?
Five years ago, two years after he was diagnosed with neural deficit,
Sergeant and Mrs Meam were awarded a funding certificate
from the then Legal Aid Board.
This money was for research
into the nature of his persistent and worsening illness and the likely cause.
It was also unbearably stressful for both of them
and their son David, who became severely depressed.
Two weeks ago, Sergeant Meam had become so desperate
he took his own life and that of his child
by driving the family car into a river whilst they were both strapped in.
Mrs Mills, we cannot accept your assertion of the cause of death.
That must be left to the coroner to determine.
Yes, of course, My Lord.
Over this period, the Legal Aid Board,
which became the Legal Services Commission,
wavered several times in their support,
demanding more and more evidence, twice suspending funding.
Then in August, they withdrew funding completely
as this test case was about to go to the High Court.
- Was a reason given for this? - Lack of evidence.
The claim, in their view, hadn't a better than 50$% chance of succeeding.
But then we acquired evidence
that the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries
was putting pressure on the Government to stop this trial from going forward.
Was there a reason given?
The basis was that the drugs involved brought too much benefit as a whole.
- Was this put to the LSC? - They said it was inconclusive,
and referred us to the earlier review by Mr Justice Niven.
Was Mr Justice Niven aware of the new evidence?
We didn't have it at that time.
We're here to examine evidence of bias...
and I'm going to do that
in the context of the original arguments of the merits of the case.
My Lord, this is opening the way to a full-scale review.
Mr Door, you don't have right of audience here.
Any decision will be overturned on appeal, Henry.
Sir Michael Niven would prefer not to risk it, Sir Peter.
Then we'd better start running to put out the fire.
A civil servant at the Department of Health
contacted the solicitors acting for Mrs Meam
following the death of her husband and son.
He said that a meeting was held
between Sir Percy Thrower, the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office,
his opposite number at the Department of Health,
and Samuel Butler, the CEO of Caversham,
the manufacturers of the drugs given to soldiers.
Are you calling this whistleblower?
To do so would cost him his job.
Ah, Sir Peter.
My apologies, My Lord.
The case we're in ran on, and this case was listed at such short notice.
You have argument for the court in this review?
We do indeed, My Lord.
Good. Mrs Mills, do you want to ow turn to your opening address?
My Lord, with the utmost respect, this application is about bias.
The court cannot be concerned with the substantive issues
in the case judged by Mr Justice Niven.
Without proper understanding of the issues in the original case,
we can't assess the impact of the bias alleged in the review.
No, My Lord, that's exactly what you cannot do.
I certainly can, Sir Peter.
Mrs Mills.
The Army has gone to great lengths to reassure soldiers
that no possible harm can come to them by taking the drugs given to them
to protect them from attacks by bio-terrorists.
Despite an increasing number becoming sick,
they are given no choice in the matter.
And those falling ill are not small in number.
A small number relative to those receiving the drugs, perhaps,
but when a hitherto fit and healthy soldier
becomes a screaming, head-banging depressive
after receiving them, questions need to be asked.
It is our contention
that neither the Government, the Army or the pharmaceutical companies
want those questions asked
in case the answer is, yes, those drugs do damage some soldiers.
This entire avoidance of debate
seems to hide the decision by the Army, Government and drug companies
to allow some soldiers to be catastrophically damaged
in favour of the common good.
A recurring dilemma for all governments.
Brought sharply into focus by the some becoming many.
The incidence of neural deficit in the armed forces is now at an all-time high.
For Mrs Meam, whose husband may have been fatally damaged by those drugs,
there is no common good.
It's late, Mrs Mills, but your client's come a long way.
Would you like to get started with her now?
Mrs Meam, can you tell the court what happened to your husband?
It's like I died that day.
He drove them...
He drove...
He couldn't take it any more.
Can you tell us what led to this?
At first, he was...
At first... after the drugs,
when he came home on leave...
he had sort of flu symptoms.
He complained that he ached all over.
He got a fever, and quickly went downhill.
So fast I thought he was going to die.
He started banging his head on the wall with the pain.
All the while going down and down...
He didn't ever come back up.
Do you know what drugs he had?
No. Well, not really.
Brian had said how they were all lined up in his regiment and given them.
Five or six vaccinations together.
It was all hush-hush.
- What happened afterwards? - After the flu-like symptoms...
he came up in purple blotches...
...then began to vomit. He couldn't seem to keep anything down.
He started screaming,
a really high-pitched scream, like he was in intense pain.
Finally, when he lost consciousness, he had to go into hospital.
He was just different after that.
He began to lose language.
He never made eye contact.
Sometimes he didn't even recognise us.
Did anyone say it might be as a result of the drugs?
No.
They kept saying it wasn't the drugs.
But when we asked more questions,
they couldn't seem to prove it wasn't any more than we could prove it was.
Dr Moon.
Excuse me, Dr Moon.
- I'm Mr Justice Deed's clerk. - Yes, I saw you on the bench.
Well, the judge would like a word.
I can't see how that would benefit either one of us.
Judge.
There are no prints on the cigarette packet.
- Not according to my friend in CID. - How is that possible?
He thinks it's been wiped. It's the only way it could be so clean.
Well, there were prints on it when Superintendent Gaghan checked it.
She said they were smudged.
Inside the packet, on the foil, he did find a partial print.
Good enough for identification?
They managed to get a lift off three ridges of the right thumb.
They matched a Major Richard Colby.
JOHN: Oh, well done, Stephen.
He's ex-SAS. Works for a security outfit called Commercial Index.
What sort of work that I couldn't get his file?
They're an investigative outfit.
They work mostly for the Association of British Pharmaceuticals,
chasing down false claims.
We'd better ask some more questions, Stephen.
IAN: Joe!
I urge you - no, I beg you - to withdraw from this case.
It would save the Government a lot of embarrassment. Deed as well.
Justitia is traditionally portrayed as blindfolded.
The idea is that judges must not be influenced by any irrelevancy,
such as the personal embarrassment of anybody, least of all the Government.
We have put up with the eccentric behaviour of your ex-son-in-law
for too long.
This is something the Government will not tolerate, Joe.
Too much is at stake.
Meaning?
I can say no more.
- I'll have a word with him. - Thank you, Joe.
Thank you for your support, Joe.
- It's still not a meeting of minds. - Hopefully you'll change.
I don't like to be bounced, either by you or Rochester.
He gave some pretty cryptic warnings about this case.
The stakes are too high for the Government to let it go.
- Does he have a plan to stop it? - I don't know.
Constitutionally, you're on thin ice.
Be very, very careful.
- Jo, he's gone. - Who?
Dr Hiaasen.
What do you mean, gone? Where?
I-I went to the hospital to check his statement, and no doctor.
Did they say when he'll be back, where he's gone?
- No-one seemed to know. - He's our one solid witness.
- Did you try his home? - I've tried all his numbers.
No, no, no, Peter! You have to go to his home.
Without him, we're lost before we've even started. I'll try Liffe.
He might just know. He put us onto him. Peter, go!
Dr Liffe? It's Jo Mills.
Oh, Mrs Mills. I can't talk.
- We can't seem to contact Dr Hiaasen. - Sorry. I'm busy.
(LINE GOES DEAD)
- Dr Liffe, we have to talk. - Get away from me, Mrs Mills.
- Just get away. - Why? What has happened?
Don't you live in the real world? It's all over the news.
- Dr Hiaasen has killed himself. - What?
I only talked with him yesterday.
He was furious that people who matter knew he was giving evidence in your case.
How? What people?
He tied a cord around a tree and around his neck and then drove away.
I can't help you any more. Go away.
That's the same as Dr Dayvis.
You should watch what you say on the phone, Mrs Mills.
- Hey. - Hey.
Thank you.
Are you taking your work home?
Taking it to my dad to ask him for some help!
- Have you got something? - Mmm, a job.
- Prosecuting a big DWP fraud in Bristol. - Wow.
- Who's your leader? - No-one. It's my own case.
The CPS approached you?
It can happen, Dad.
Yes. Yeah, sure.
(PHONE RINGS)
Hi.
- Do you know who this is? - Has my luck changed?
Can we meet?
I thought you said that was too risky.
More so now. This is urgent. Meet you in the usual place.
Is something wrong, Dad?
No.
- Proof? - Come on, John!
He was about to give evidence.
Without him, you haven't got much of a case, have you?
Summons Dr Liffe. Question him on Hiaasen's statement.
You've got to get somebody to testify
that the drugs given to Brian Meam could have harmed him.
Otherwise the decision to withdraw funding looks reasonable.
Liffe won't talk. He's too spooked.
You know that those two scientists didn't commit suicide, and so do I.
- Yes. - Yes.
I'll get the police report on Hiaasen's death.
- Sir Ian Rochester, Judge. - Thanks, Coop.
We understand Mrs Mills's principal witness has killed himself
and that you've asked for the police report.
Don't you find Dr Hiaasen's death just a little bit odd?
He was under enormous stress.
- Sorry. - No, no, no.
Oh, no doubt the lunatic fringe, led by Mrs Mills and her cohorts,
will see a conspiracy.
It was exactly the same method as Dr Dayvis's death.
Doesn't that bear investigation?
You can't believe the Government or the pharmaceutical industry
had anything to do with Dr Hiaasen's death?
I can believe the Government has done a secret deal to relax regulations
in exchange for co-operative work on bio-terrorism vaccines.
I can believe that they would go to extraordinary lengths to keep that secret.
- That sounds rather far-fetched. - Does it?
Be that as it may, there is no question
that Michael Niven's decision can be invalidated for reasons of apparent bias.
Oh, I thought I was the judge.
My Lord.
As you're so well informed, Ian, you must know
that I've summoned the head of the Legal Services Commission in Bristol
to enquire on what basis it withdrew funding.
If I don't get a satisfactory answer,
I will summon the head of the Department of Health,
of Defence, of the Home Office and all their ministers,
right up to the Prime Minister himself, but I will get the truth.
You could create such a crisis
that credibility in the courts could become precarious.
Your motives will simply not be understood.
Yes, and in the meanwhile, I will have the police and medical reports
on Dr Hiaasen's death.
I ask you again, on what basis did you withdraw funding?
Insufficient evidence that the case was winnable.
Prior to that decision, you had been funding the action?
- Yes, sir. Since the late '90s. - Believing the case to be winnable?
Well, not after the death of Dr Rupert Dayvis.
He was the leading researcher.
In the absence of anyone of his calibre,
all we had to rely on was the opinion of the independent bar.
As you know, sir, barristers often get the job once they've advised us.
Was Mrs Mills less than honest in her assessment?
No, sir. She was very frank.
Then what led you to reassess the case, Mr Cherry?
We do from time to time, sir.
Something specifically prompted this.
Mr Door, are you instructing this witness?
My Lord, this is most irregular.
Yes, please forgive me, Sir Peter. It's the influence of the Hague.
I'm allowed to conduct things differently there. Mr Door?
No, I'm not instructing the witness.
Good. Mr Cherry?
The answer's not over there.
CHERRY: Well, sir, there was a request.
Ah.
From whom?
- A Government department. - Well, don't tell me.
Let me guess. The Home Office?
You don't have to answer this witness summons, Percy.
If I don't, Rochester thinks Deed will put me in jail for contempt.
Now, there's a wonderful irony.
The head of the Home Office Civil Service in one of our own jails!
Not an edifying prospect.
Pity our Civil Contingencies amendment bill isn't done and dusted.
It wouldn't matter then what Deed learns.
Should I go, Home Secretary?
Ah, it's either that or Australia, Percy.
Not transportation.
A fact-finding trip to... Tasmania, perhaps?
I think I'd rather take my chances with Deed.
Stall him, Percy.
I'll speak to the Leader of the House, see if we can get a rush on our bill.
- You. - Dr Moon, I really need to talk to you.
I don't have to. Don't you know what's happened again?
Can I come in, please?
(WHISPERS) I don't want to talk inside.
Has anyone threatened you?
No-one needs to threaten me.
I'm forever looking over my shoulder,
wondering about the woman buying a newspaper, the man sitting in the car...
I guard my phone conversations in case anyone is listening.
Is that why you wanted to walk?
Sometimes I just can't bear being enclosed.
Whatever it is you want, I can't help you!
I think you can.
I think that's why you came to my court.
How many deaths will it take to stop you?
I've seen the police report to the coroner on Dr Hiaasen's death.
It clearly suggests suicide.
He was heavily in debt from gambling.
Well, I won't believe that.
Peter Hiaasen was too careful ever to gamble.
And Dr Dayvis?
How well did you know him?
We saw each other every day.
Do you have access to...?
No, I can't help you. I can't!
You have the information.
- That's why you came to court. - No, you...
You people, you don't care.
Look, I can't help you.
All right. I'll find another way.
Sir Percy, do you know why you were summoned?
I understand to answer questions
about the Home Office's planned response to bio-terrorism.
Have you been intimately involved in planning that?
As head of the Home Office Civil Service,
it's part of my overall responsibility, yes.
It's a bit more than that, Sir Percy. You were instrumental
in drafting the Home Office's Civil Contingencies Act.
I had a hand in it.
- Dealing with pharmaceutical companies. - I didn't write the amendment bill.
But you did call the Bristol Legal Services Commission,
suggesting they withdraw the funding for Brian Meam to sue the drugs company?
No. I do not believe I did.
According to the manager there, someone in the Home Office did.
PERCY: It's a large department.
For which you have overall responsibility.
But I don't task every action.
Then who did, and on whose authority?
Well, Sir Percy?
I don't recall that detail.
Fine. Then I'll give you time to think about it.
Meanwhile, Mrs Mills and Sir Peter will examine you. Mrs Mills?
What is the Home Office's provisional budget to counter bio-terrorism?
I don't have the figures to hand.
Roughly?
In the region of 4 billion.
- To vaccinate everyone in the country? - No.
The money is given to the Health Protection Agency
to work with pharmaceutical companies.
Bio-warfare vaccines are part of our overall policy plan.
That must make you an awfully good friend to the big pharmaceutical companies.
My Lord, although Sir Percy is not my witness,
I do in fairness protest on his behalf.
My learned friend is implying a venal relationship. I'm sure none exists.
Mrs Mills,
you are allowing your enthusiasm to carry you beyond the boundaries of this case.
I have no further questions.
Sir Peter.
Sir Percy, what is the annual budget of the Home Office?
- About 14 billion. - Which you spend personally?
(LAUGHTER)
Let's get these astronomical sums in context.
How much do you spend annually on prisons, to protect the public from offenders?
2.6 billion.
So then 4 billion to be spent
protecting the whole of the nation against bio-warfare
doesn't seem so much.
- No, that's jolly good value. - Thank you, Sir Percy.
Memory improved?
We have 15,000 employees at the Home Office.
For whom you have responsibility.
Including the cleaners. I don't remember all their names either.
Only a handful of people could have instructed Mr Cherry.
Probably a member of your committee?
No one candidate comes to mind?
- I'm afraid not. - Then step down. We'll recall Mr Cherry.
- Remain in court. - I do have a department to run.
You'll leave when we get satisfactory answers.
Mr Cherry, please return to the witness box.
Remember, you are still under oath.
Who at the Home Office called you
to suggest you withdraw legal aid from Brian Meam?
Well, I don't recall, sir.
Mr Cherry, you are coming perilously close to prison.
No, sir, I'm not sure he identified himself.
What, you took instruction from an unidentified caller?
Can you really be such a ninny?
His name is Lex Wetcote.
Ah. Not a name easily forgotten.
Sir Percy, do you know this person?
He's an undersecretary with the directorate.
And what is that, in plain English?
- He runs a few committees. - On what?
Health policy, civil defence.
Certain aspects of bio-terrorism.
Then we'll get Mr Wetcote here, question him.
And if I find he's been sent to New Zealand or some such place,
there'll be trouble.
Might I be permitted to leave now?
No. We will rise and await Mr Wetcote's arrival.
All rise.
Oh, Judge, I thought you were going to throw them in jail!
I came close, Coop.
Thank you.
They do serve excellent tea here.
You seem remarkably relaxed.
I'm confident that you can deal with things, Neil.
Deed is insisting on me.
Maybe we should wait till he drags you off in irons. If he dares.
Can you put your Civil Contingencies amendment bill to bed?
It's back to the Commons on Thursday.
- That's the earliest we could fit it in. - Will it go through unimpeded?
No-one's raised any objections to any of the sections.
MPs are spooked by terrorist threats.
It's a formality, Samuel.
After that, Deed's efforts are meaningless.
Ah, Deed, yes.
Well, my researchers assure me that we have nothing to fear from Deed.
He had sex with the claimant's barrister.
That's happened many times.
But it's not allowed, is it?
We've been there before, Samuel.
- It didn't dent him. - No.
You've been there before without evidence.
Ten days ago, in Mills's apartment.
They talked about Justice Niven's handling of the case,
how compelling her evidence had to be.
And then the Beast of The Strand got his reward.
Mr Wetcote, why is a Home Office undersecretary
concerning himself with funding in a civil action?
It's joined-up government, My Lord.
Our experience in criminal justice makes us realise that courts of law
are not good places to settle highly contentious, big-money cases.
You felt it your duty to withdraw funding that had been running for years
with the case almost to court?
The withdrawal of funding wasn't my decision.
I saw a potential saving and invited consideration of my suggestions.
Without consulting anyone in your department?
It was my initiative.
Do you know, Mr Wetcote, I don't think I believe you.
Mrs Mills, would you like to examine this witness?
JO: My Lord.
The pharmaceutical companies that are developing
the 4 billion bio-terrorist vaccines,
are they also making the drugs that the Army is giving to its combat personnel?
The Government has a well-developed policy for drug procurement.
Inevitably, Caversham are involved in both elements.
Did you have a conversation with someone about preventing Caversham being sued?
I don't remember talking to anyone specifically about that.
Unless I did it in my sleep.
Are you in the habit of talking in your sleep, Mr Wetcote?
No. Nor of sleeping with people I have an ethical duty not to sleep with.
Mr Wetcote...
I would like you to bring to court all the papers and e-mails
that have passed between you and the pharmaceutical companies.
And I mean all of them.
- That's a mountain of paper. - Yes.
Then let's hope the Home Office spends wisely on its haulage firm.
My Lord, I know the hour is late, but might I examine this witness?
There will be ample time for all of us tomorrow.
All rise.
This is madness, Percy.
We can't show some of those memos.
Of course we can.
Mrs Mills, Sir Peter, the judge wonders if you can join him.
I certainly can't. Apologies. I'm frightfully late as it is.
Sir Peter regrets, Judge.
He's late for another meeting.
Ah.
In that case you'd best stay, Coop, ave some tea.
Thank you.
I don't know how much longer we can let this continue, Jo.
That was to have been the nature of my conversation with you and Peter Dulford.
You can guess where he's gone.
Yeah. To take instructions.
To make sure the Home Office resists bringing any papers into the court.
Especially those suggesting complicity.
You know there is. Just as you know that man's death wasn't coincidental.
Not unless you could show it. Peter Dulford will argue that first thing.
I feel like I'm choking on the injustice of it.
What about Liffe? Won't he help? We can offer him protection.
I don't think that will convince him.
What I need are Dr Dayvis's papers.
I can only pray that they turn up with the Home Office papers.
Unless I know they have a copy, I can't ask for them.
Well, perhaps Sir Percy Thrower will let something slip.
Like the Civil Contingencies amendment bill that he didn't write.
- What amendment? - Don't ask me.
I'm struggling to keep up with the criminal justice legislation
spilling out of the Home Office.
As I have to say are most barristers. 600 new crimes in ten years!
Check the website, Coop, please.
We were briefed on the original act.
It imposes duties on local authorities
in the event of a breakdown in public order
following an event like bio-terrorism.
What is the add-on plan? Put everybody in prison?
It's 38 pages, Judge.
- We just need the amendment. - Yeah.
- 54 sections and loads of schedules. - Oh, great(!)
Thanks, Coop.
JOHN: Section 27 -
Schedule 3. Extension of Crown immunity.
Any organisation, private or public,
designated by the minister as within the terms of Section 42.1.
Pharmaceutical production and development? Why are they protected?
They make bio-terrorism vaccines.
You know what this means, don't you?
They can't be sued if the vaccines go wrong.
No. More than that.
If it goes through like this, it will have retrospective action.
You won't ever be able to sue Caversham or any other pharmaceutical company.
But then why has no-one ever protested?
Because it's hidden away, seemingly innocuous. This is momentous.
If this bill goes through like this on Thursday, you're dead in the water.
The Lords will hold it up.
It's already been through its committee stages there, Mrs Mills.
- John, they can't get away with this. - Well, they did in America.
They slipped just such a clause into the Homeland Securities Bill.
Find a witness, prove your case.
I'll try to hold up the passage of the bill from the court.
No, no. It can't be done.
A step too far.
We'd be thwarting the will of Parliament.
That would cause a constitutional crisis the like of which has not been seen
since... since the Reformation!
That's how important this is. The loss of the right of one individual
to seek redress through the courts with thousands of possible cases pending.
Protection against a corporately arrogant executive is that important.
Yes, well...
The case has to be solid.
Help me with this one, Joe.
There's still plenty of good law to stop a development like this.
We must check the evidence.
Got to go.
(LAUGHTER)
Neil. What are you doing? I thought you were coming up.
I'm listening to your ex dig his own grave, judicially speaking.
What?
Let me hear.
Wait... There.
Is it real?
I don't believe it.
Oh, George, it's real, as real and happening as can be!
What are you going to do with it?
The most harm possible.
(PHONE RINGS)
How's your case?
Big and getting bigger.
I got your message. Why so secret?
- I don't want to risk the phone. - What, it's bugged?
Paranoid!
Talk to your grandad, Chas. I want you to give him some help on this case.
- I'm up to my eyes, Dad. - If we don't stop what's happening...
- Oh, but Dad...! - Do it, Chas.
I've got to go.
(RINGS DOORBELL)
Can I come in?
Why did you come back? I have nothing to say.
You may be the last chance these soldiers and their families have.
I'm sorry, Mr Deed.
I haven't got anywhere else to go.
I'm scared of what will happen if I help you get Dr Dayvis's papers.
The court can protect you.
It's the only way.
There's a bill about to complete its passage through Parliament.
It will stop anyone ever suing the pharmaceutical companies.
- You can't stop these people. - We might, if we expose this.
They will kill me.
Not once the information's out.
- I don't have it! - Does it exist?
Did Dr Dayvis have the facts?
Security people from Caversham... took all his papers and computer.
There must have been a copy.
He made copies of everything.
Well, did Caversham take everything?
He did have a back-up hard drive.
Well, have you got it?
Is it here?
Well, that's the good news.
He's getting the hard drive.
We'd better give Mr Butler the bad news
about Deed trying to stop the amendment bill.
- CHARLIE: Hello. - Charlie, it's me.
I thought we might go for dinner.
I have to finish this. Dad needs it urgently.
Have you seen him lately?
I'm flat out with this case in Bristol.
Is he still seeing Jo Mills?
I doubt it.
She's before him in a case. He'd be in real trouble.
I think he is in real trouble.
Nothing unusual there, then.
This time might be a little more serious.
Neil has a recording of the Deed and Jo Mills having sex in her apartment.
How?
Normally, Charlie, he does it with a lot of charm.
This time he was a little less charming.
How did they get the recording?
Neil wouldn't say.
But they talk about the case starting.
Is it real? This could ruin Dad.
From the way Neil's feeling, I'd say it was real.
He's so stupid!
I have to go and warn him.
I thought you might.
Someone's bugged your apartment.
I feel sick.
Neil Haughton hates Dad. He's going to release that recording.
Did you warn John?
His phone's switched off.
I didn't want to leave a message in case that was bugged too.
What a mess.
Goodness, didn't you go to bed?
No.
Mrs Mills is trying to get hold of you.
She didn't call. She thinks her phone's being bugged.
Um...
Right. Get her to meet me in the car park.
They can't have bugged that yet!
I'm sorry I got you into this.
Are we any further with Dayvis?
Yes. I got hold of his hard drive.
I'm no scientist, Jo, but it looks like the drugs are safe.
He couldn't repeat his earlier findings.
Is this authentic?
As a two-pound coin.
You'll have to report it, Peter.
Sir Peter Dulford would like to see you and Sir Joseph. Alone.
Oh!
Tell him to wait.
I'll talk to you later.
Are the parties in the internet case here?
- Only Ian McCartney. - Oh. Oh, well...
No, no!
Ask Ian McCartney to come in here, would you?
How did that happen?
In a car crash when I was ten.
My parents were killed.
That's a lot for a ten-year-old to overcome.
Yeah.
There were times where I felt like... giving up.
You know, people think it's just
losing your parents or not being able to walk,
but... actually, you can overcome that.
It's the loss of hope that really brings you down.
Then I learned I was good with computers
and the world opened up to me there. Changed everything.
Internet Raiders have offered me 5 million.
I'm not sure if that's enough.
It's a lot of money.
I have a good case, and time.
Did you ever dream of having? 5 million?
Off the record... no.
Anything can happen in a two-year trial.
Take the money.
Is it possible to look at a computer hard disk
and see if its contents are camouflaging something else?
What do you mean?
Two people may have died
because of what was assumed to be on this disk.
What's there now is insignificant.
Were they bumped off?
That's a possibility we're looking at.
So you want to know if a file on this as been changed in some way?
I want to know what's there that could have got two men killed.
There's got to be something else.
Have you searched the drive for hidden files?
I wouldn't know how, Mr McCartney.
Will you help us?
Yes.
Tell Coop if you find anything.
All rise.
My Lord, I would rather this matter was raised in your chambers.
We can sit here in chambers.
Clear the public gallery, please.
Sir Peter?
It'll keep, My Lord.
Then I'll have the public back.
However, there is a matter of law.
We dispute the right of the trial judges to be partial
in the choice of witnesses they call.
The common law does not admit to this being done without the parties' consent.
I refer your Lordships to Re Enoch and Zaretsky, Bock and Co in a case from 1910,
reported in the first volume of the King's Bench reports at page 327.
Yes, Sir Peter, but providing we act within the over-riding objective principle
of dealing with the case justly,
rule 32.1 means we can ask for any witness we deem relevant.
"Joined-up justice", I believe it's called.
My Lord.
We would like Samuel Butler, the CEO of Caversham Pharmaceuticals,
to answer questions.
Is this witness even available?
Well, we'll adjourn until he is.
All rise.
The longer Deed takes, the closer our amendments come to being law.
It's a risky game, Percy.
Did you find anything?
There's a hidden file.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
But it's encrypted.
Mr Butler, do you ever market drugs with adverse reactions?
Of course. Most drugs cause some adverse reactions.
This is the price we pay for the greater good.
Caversham is an ethical company.
We've never purposely obtained a licence for a drug
which we knew to have severe adverse reactions.
Yes, but isn't it a matter of record that your anti-arthritis drug...
...Kalite was shown to damage the hearts of patients in certain trials?
I wasn't with Caversham when that drug was launched.
Oh. Well, then step down.
We'll call someone with a comprehensive view of the company.
It's a simple encryption. It's just time-consuming.
- Well, how long will it take? - I'm going to break it.
It may be too late.
Whoever did this is quite smart, sir.
Perhaps too smart.
The Home Secretary, Judge.
- Neil, I've been expecting you. - Oh, you have?
Yes, you want your civil servants back.
- Not until I get the truth. - This is not about my civil servants.
Things have moved on.
There's a tape of you conspiring with Mrs Mills - among other things -
prior to the start of this.
Obtained how?
I imagine one of Mrs Mills's many enemies recorded you.
A matter of national security?
She certainly behaves like an enemy of the state.
And me?
Rather foolish, I think, is how the world will judge you.
For George's sake,
and Charlie's,
I'd rather you stepped down.
You could not release the tape.
No.
I've waited too long.
Well, thank you for your consideration, Neil.
He's done it, Judge.
I'll certainly think about what you said.
You got through the encryption?
Of course.
- Is this what you're looking for? - I certainly hope it is.
McCARTNEY: Well, only the person who wrote it would know.
Coop, run and catch Mrs Mills and Sir Peter,
and I want Dr David Liffe brought here immediately.
Yes!
Can you come to any conclusion, Dr Liffe?
What conclusion do you want?
What are Dr Dayvis's conclusions about the drugs given to soldiers by the Army?
Looking at the raw data...
what he found was that he couldn't repeat his earlier findings
produced by him and Dr Moon.
Do you recognise these as Dr Dayvis's papers?
Yes. I know his work.
It often happens that the results of an exciting discovery can't be replicated.
My Lord, in view of this incontrovertible evidence,
I ask that Mr Justice Niven's judgment ow be upheld.
No. We will rise for 30 minutes.
All rise.
John, this cannot continue!
The longer it goes on, the more foolish we appear.
I know, Joe.
You did your best. You tried.
End it!
Are you all right, Judge?
We ran headlong into that.
Well, if you ask me, Judge,
Dr Moon's working for Caversham and she put it there.
It's too late to find out.
Tomorrow the amendment bill will pass its last hurdle through Parliament and...
I'd better have the parties in the internet case back.
Yes, Judge.
Could someone have planted that information on Dr Dayvis's computer
about the drugs being harmless?
Technically? Yeah, of course, but that doesn't help the Judge.
- How could they do that? - Well, it's pretty simple, really.
You just change the file, resave it and delete all the back-ups.
Well, can't you get them back?
That wasn't what I was trying to do.
I'd need access to the hard drive again.
You're wanted back in court.
Isn't this more important?
Are we back on, Mrs Cooper?
Um, he needs the bathroom.
(PHONE RINGS)
Mr Justice Deed's chambers.
I hate to press you, Mr McCartney,
but I can't keep these barristers waiting much longer.
Sir Joseph wants to know when we're going back in.
Mr McCartney?
Is that what you need?
I retrieved it from the hard drive.
It's Dr Dayvis's back-up. Someone had deleted it.
Coop, get hold of Stephen.
Tell him... No, I'll do it myself.
Stephen! Go and get Dr Moon and bring her to court immediately.
- What if she won't come, Judge? - Arrest her.
Dr Moon, have you had time to examine the papers?
I have nothing to say. I can't help you.
Are these papers the findings you and Dr Dayvis made
regarding the cocktail of drugs soldiers were given?
- Dr Moon, has anyone threatened you? - PETER: My Lord...
Dr Moon, I advise you to answer.
No-one's threatened me.
- Are they the papers? - They appear to be.
Did you not conclude
that the drugs were causing neural deficit in some soldiers?
And didn't you repeat those findings again, and again, and again?
I told you, I have nothing to say.
Then is this paper a fabrication?
Hmm? Were you not able to replicate your findings?
Dr Moon?
Well, Dr Moon?
Yes.
Yes, we did.
Again and again.
Dr Dayvis wasn't satisfied with replicating it just once. He...
...did it again and again.
The vaccination regime the Government and the pharmaceutical company
are proposing to give the whole country in the event of a bio-terror attack
would cause neural deficit in two to three persons per 1,000.
The damage to children would be much higher.
Is this what happened to Brian Meam?
I never examined Mr Meam, but...
we did see this in...
several dozen other soldiers.
Thank you.
They knew this would happen after the very first soldiers got ill.
Caversham knew?
And the Government.
That was what Dr Dayvis's big fight with them was about.
I believe...
that was why he died.
JOHN: We may have only won the battle.
Well, if the MPs have got the information, they could stop the bill.
I wonder...
- What's happening? - He hasn't stopped all day.
- Have you sent the e-mails? - You should rest, Ian. You're exhausted.
They've gone, sir.
I alerted all the MPs and every member of the House of Lords and all the news desks.
The information was highlighted with your comments on the bill.
- Let's hope they read them. - Please, God.
Amen.
GEORGE: You know, Neil will release the recording unless you resign.
Obtaining it may have been an offence, George.
You can't rely on the law to protect you, John.
Yeah, I told him I'd think about it.
- That's all you'll do. - Well, you know me, George.
I always expect the best of everybody. Are you going my way?
I don't think so.
It might end up on someone's recording!
Find out who put the bug in Jo Mills's flat.
Well, I can try, Judge.
That amendment bill should have been a formality.
Not after Deed's e-mail.
Isn't that beyond the bounds of his duty as a judge?
Oh, it is.
Then release the tape of him having sex with Mrs Mills.
We'll put a stop to this case yet.
If we do, Home Secretary, it could come back to bite us.
You personally steered the Civil Contingencies amendment bill
to the floor of the House.
The Legal Services Commission is right in its approach
not to fund every case,
having a duty of prudence with the taxpayers' money.
In the case of Brian Meam, its exercise of discretion was contestable.
We've carefully examined the judicial review conducted by Mr Justice Niven
and find it was open to legitimate objection.
Not on the basis that there was any appearance of bias,
rather because a keystone of his judgment had, unbeknown to him, been falsified.
Our view, therefore,
is that the Legal Services Commission should look again at this matter
with a view to restoring the funding for this important case.
That's Major Colby.
With Superintendent Gaghan.
Any luck with identifying his fingerprints yet, Superintendent?
You might try asking these police officers.
They're here to interview you both about the death of Dr Hiaasen.
And get those bugs out of Jo Mills's flat or I promise you you will go to prison.
You're taking a big risk coming here.
Yes, the man in the gabardine suit really is a spy.
Do you want to come up?
Well, you never know who might be listening. We could go to a hotel.
What, now?
To have tea!
It would have to be very good tea.
Is your car bugged?
JOHN: Let's not get too paranoid.