mine’.
Rebecca consulted her notes before continuing. ‘It was about eight on the evening of 28 August last. You instructed your son Leroy to pick up Chaplin and Clayton and make them believe they were going on a normal raid to deal with someone who wouldn’t behave themselves. When they picked you up on the way the boys didn’t even question why you were going with them. You drove them to a piece of waste ground on the other side of Salford where several other members of the Gorton boys were waiting. It was dark. The nearest houses were too far away to be able to see what was happening but when Chaplin and Clayton realised they were the targets of that evening’s operation they tried to escape. They were stopped and you instructed your son Leroy and one of the other boys to break their legs so they couldn’t try and run again. They were in agony but you then gave the order for a car tyre to be placed round each of their necks. You accused them of talking to the police about your activities. They were screaming as they protested their innocence. But you were having none of it. So you gave the nod and the tyres were doused in petrol and set alight. You watched them die, Melanie. Two young boys who were barely out of school. You gave the order for them to be murdered and you watched as their bodies burned’.
‘Prove it’.
‘Then there’s the question of the thousands of pounds you hold in an offshore account’ said Ollie. ‘More money than I or my colleague have ever seen in our lives. You have an accountant, someone with a somewhat questionable list of clients, who has made sure that you don’t pay any tax on your immoral earnings’.
‘And where do you think an ordinary woman like me has got that kind of money from?’
‘There’s nothing ordinary about you, Mrs. Patterson’ Ollie went on. ‘Not unless you somehow count forcing drug addicts to prostitute themselves so you make even more money out of them as something an ordinary woman like you would do’.
‘Have you found my son’s killer yet?’
‘That is an ongoing investigation, Mrs. Patterson’.
‘Liar’.
‘Excuse me?’
‘You have no intention of finding my Leroy’s killer’.
‘I can assure you we are making every effort to do so, Mrs. Patterson’.
‘Classic tactics of the white run police force to try and turn the tables on a grief stricken black woman’ said Melanie, bitterly. ‘But you won’t win. The odd battle here and there to play to the white gallery but the war will be won by us eventually because we have justice on our side’.
‘You can try and talk round it all you like, Mrs. Patterson’ said Rebecca. ‘But we have dates, places, names. We also now have statements from other members of the Gorton boys who’ve been talking to us. They confirm all the information we already have and indeed, they go further. It’s funny how people start talking if they think it can help them get out of trouble’.
Melanie leaned forward purposefully across the desk. ‘They wouldn’t betray me!’
‘Oh but they would and they have’ said Rebecca who couldn’t help a smirk. ‘Like I said, they thought they could help themselves by dropping you right in it’.
‘I’ll deal with them’.
‘And how will you do that? With necklaces? Just like Chaplin and Clayton?’
‘Nice try but you’ll never get any confession out of me’.
‘I don’t think we’ll need one’ said Rebecca. ‘We have enough in the way of evidence, statements and witnesses to events. It’s over, Mrs. Patterson. Your reign of terror in which you used the Gorton boys to carry out your unlawful deeds is over. Once you’re behind bars then the people on the Gorton estate will be able to sleep easy for the first time in years. You’ve tried to pull the wool over our eyes. You tried to make out to detective superintendent Jeff Barton that you were a respectable woman grieving over the loss of her son and blaming the police for not having
Rebecca consulted her notes before continuing. ‘It was about eight on the evening of 28 August last. You instructed your son Leroy to pick up Chaplin and Clayton and make them believe they were going on a normal raid to deal with someone who wouldn’t behave themselves. When they picked you up on the way the boys didn’t even question why you were going with them. You drove them to a piece of waste ground on the other side of Salford where several other members of the Gorton boys were waiting. It was dark. The nearest houses were too far away to be able to see what was happening but when Chaplin and Clayton realised they were the targets of that evening’s operation they tried to escape. They were stopped and you instructed your son Leroy and one of the other boys to break their legs so they couldn’t try and run again. They were in agony but you then gave the order for a car tyre to be placed round each of their necks. You accused them of talking to the police about your activities. They were screaming as they protested their innocence. But you were having none of it. So you gave the nod and the tyres were doused in petrol and set alight. You watched them die, Melanie. Two young boys who were barely out of school. You gave the order for them to be murdered and you watched as their bodies burned’.
‘Prove it’.
‘Then there’s the question of the thousands of pounds you hold in an offshore account’ said Ollie. ‘More money than I or my colleague have ever seen in our lives. You have an accountant, someone with a somewhat questionable list of clients, who has made sure that you don’t pay any tax on your immoral earnings’.
‘And where do you think an ordinary woman like me has got that kind of money from?’
‘There’s nothing ordinary about you, Mrs. Patterson’ Ollie went on. ‘Not unless you somehow count forcing drug addicts to prostitute themselves so you make even more money out of them as something an ordinary woman like you would do’.
‘Have you found my son’s killer yet?’
‘That is an ongoing investigation, Mrs. Patterson’.
‘Liar’.
‘Excuse me?’
‘You have no intention of finding my Leroy’s killer’.
‘I can assure you we are making every effort to do so, Mrs. Patterson’.
‘Classic tactics of the white run police force to try and turn the tables on a grief stricken black woman’ said Melanie, bitterly. ‘But you won’t win. The odd battle here and there to play to the white gallery but the war will be won by us eventually because we have justice on our side’.
‘You can try and talk round it all you like, Mrs. Patterson’ said Rebecca. ‘But we have dates, places, names. We also now have statements from other members of the Gorton boys who’ve been talking to us. They confirm all the information we already have and indeed, they go further. It’s funny how people start talking if they think it can help them get out of trouble’.
Melanie leaned forward purposefully across the desk. ‘They wouldn’t betray me!’
‘Oh but they would and they have’ said Rebecca who couldn’t help a smirk. ‘Like I said, they thought they could help themselves by dropping you right in it’.
‘I’ll deal with them’.
‘And how will you do that? With necklaces? Just like Chaplin and Clayton?’
‘Nice try but you’ll never get any confession out of me’.
‘I don’t think we’ll need one’ said Rebecca. ‘We have enough in the way of evidence, statements and witnesses to events. It’s over, Mrs. Patterson. Your reign of terror in which you used the Gorton boys to carry out your unlawful deeds is over. Once you’re behind bars then the people on the Gorton estate will be able to sleep easy for the first time in years. You’ve tried to pull the wool over our eyes. You tried to make out to detective superintendent Jeff Barton that you were a respectable woman grieving over the loss of her son and blaming the police for not having
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