Trial & Retribution

It is a mother's worst nightmare. A little girl is missing, and then herbody is found. This gripping two-part serial breaks new ground for crime drama by following the story, in both legal and human terms, from the tense search for the killer to the trial and final verdict. The police have a suspect, but with time against them, can they find the evidence to charge him?

The trial is about to begin, but the prosecution's evidence is falling apart at the seams and 'hot shot' defence barrister Robert Rylands QC is confident of an acquittal. Have the police got the right man? And, with the viewer as witness, judge and jury, will justice be done for Julie Anne Harris?

When Susan Harrow (Sian Martin) fails to return home from work, her mother Bibi (Mona Hammond) reports her missing. Six days later her body is discovered on a waste ground at the back of a nightclub. She has been mutilated and sexually assaulted with an arrow-head weapon. A murder case is launched and an AMIP squad, headed by Detective Superintendent Walker (David Hayman) is called in to investigate. The only lead they have is a witness, Shiree Moyer (Nicola Hughes), who saw Susan on the night she went missing talking to a man in a white van.

As the police begin their enquiry, Marilyn Spark (Linda Henry), a prostitute, is found half dead in an alleyway in Kings Cross. She has been badly beaten, sexually assaulted and one of her breasts has been slashed. Her injuries are almost identical to Susan Harrow's. Marilyn is unable to speak but manages to communicate to the police that she was attacked by one man. She gives a description of him including the fact that he was wearing a red, blue and greed hooded sweater. She also describes a white van with distinctive markings across the rear doors.

Teenager Cassie Booth disappears whilst on her paper round and her clothes are found in a boat house belonging to Karl Wilding, a business with an alcoholic wife Rebecca. Wilding is the prime suspect but then seemingly helpful Stephen Warrington, a wine merchant who has initially brought a complaint about a house being used as a brothel, demonstrates too much interest in both the case and in Pat North, now living with Walker as his partner. Warrington is a man with bipolar disease who suffers from frightening mood swings - as Pat will discover.

With all niceties gone now and Walker too self-absorbed to realise the peril that his girlfriend is in, Pat North is abducted by Warrington and forced to discover Cassie North's corpse. He is eventually brought to trial in what should be a very simple matter but it is apparent that Karl Wilding also had a part to play in Cassie's murder.