Kidnapped: Guilty or Not Guilty?

By Bexley Grange

This is the extraordinary account of eight strangers who find themselves on trial for charges ranging from kidnapping to firearms offences.

A poetic, insightful, sometimes hilarious and often heartbreaking book, Kidnapped: Guilty or not Guilty? Exposes the incredible truth of these events.

The accused enlist the support of 16 top barristers, plan strategically and consider every angle and eventuality in an effort to create a case so compelling and inspirational that they might regain their lives and liberty.

Can they prove their innocence?
What happened on the trial?

Kidnapped: Guilty or not Guilty?
Based on a true story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bexley Grange
• Release date: Dec 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781838271718

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, praise be to God whom without, nothing is possible.

For the creation of this book, I want to thank my friend Adil and Ahmed Ali for their unrestricted help and wise words. Richie Rich for his great support. My close companion Jeffery aka Bully, Mahlechi who keeps me uplifted when down. Last of all Marvin Bafana aka Marvellous with his constant words igniting hopefulness.

My dearest and loving family members; my father, my mother, my four older brothers and my younger sister. Most importantly my two beloved children whom without I would lack meaning and hope. Those who I live for and could not imagine to breathe without. My children are my heartbeat and my shining light whom rise my spirit in the darkest moments with their bright smiles. Also, my nephews and nieces whom I could never forget.

These three ladies, Sharon, Bex and Nicky for your constant laughter, kindness and words of support you gave me belief to continue writing this book.

My gratefulness to the darkest place that assisted with this piece of work; prison. In this book we have collectively imprinted the harsh impartiality of the supposed British justice court system.

FOREWORD

Justice is the first virtue of a decent and harmonious society. Great Britain is a country that prides itself on its liberal values, such values that hold everyone in society regardless of their ethnicity or background should be treated equally. As one of the leading countries of the ‘free’ world, one would expect that our criminal justice system would act as an example of fairness and independence for developing countries. However, there have been long tensions surrounding policing, courts and the prison system. This book will discuss what has come to be recognised as the criminal justice system’s institutional discrimination of those who find themselves trapped in its web.

During the course of this book we will highlight the disparity between the CPS and policing system, particularly legal aid and private barristers whom are hired. We will also illuminate the unfairness of the justice system when it concerns individuals of the inner cities (i.e. The Hood). Individuals from these areas are stereotyped and usually presumed guilty of the offence that they are accused of.

INTRODUCTION

This book reveals and highlights many aspects of the judiciary system and criminal world. The HM courts are supposed to be a place of justice, yet many so-called convicts appeal their sentences and have their term overturned. So, how are such people being allowed to be convicted in the first place. This scenario itself is a form of injustice.

Your liberty possibly snatched from you for something that you have been accused of that has not even happened. Your freedom being jeopardised on the basis of ‘facts’ from a lying victim. Whatever happened to justice? No doubt, the court system and law is a prerequisite to uphold society with law and order, but so is mutual treatment required for the victim and the accused for a ‘fair’ trial – whatever that means.

This façade of prosecutors asking bold questions is merely a way of the CPS indirectly insinuating that the accused is guilty before any real evidence has been displayed to the jury members. Seeds are planted into the ripe brains of the jury as if to say well he is the one who has been arrested, so he must be guilty as charged. This manifesto which prosecutors possess is full of sarcasm, yet taken seriously by jurors whose minds are swayed towards a conviction of the accused.

I am not heavily criticising the systems of court but merely illuminating the injustices within the court system. The fact that many people have been arrested and remanded for months, possibly even years, due to re-trial and then found to be ‘not guilty’ evidently means there is something wrong within the courts of the UK. Or that the CPS and police are not doing a well enough job of providing evidence which is beyond reasonable doubt to secure valid convictions. Throughout the course of this book we will reveal and entail the journey through being arrested, remanded in prison and placed on trial to fight for your freedom with the awaiting life changing words; guilty or not guilty.

CHAPTER ONE

Is this really the end?

Knock! Knock! Knock! All rise! The judge enters the courtroom with his slow hunched walk wearing his wig and black gown. First, he fixes his chair to be seated, then re-arranges his glasses whilst looking over the courtroom directly at Dee as he is behind the secured glass – as a gesture almost as he insinuates ‘I see you clearly’.

Dee was as still as a statue, making direct eye contact with the judge. It was as if his entire life was on pause, awaiting the biggest decision of his life. Dee had no emotion on his face almost as if he was in a trance, although his body posture looked nervous – Dee had not felt this nervous even when his beautiful son and daughter were born.

Even as he began to describe the feeling or predicament he faced, it is indescribable. His beautiful children, his mental liberty, his physical freedom could all be given back to him – but first Dee must hear the prosperous words ‘not guilty’. Whereas monotonous prison, halal meals, prison guards and the same faces every day could possibly be his reality by hearing the unwanted word ‘guilty’. Such a puzzling predicament.

As Dee stood at the back of the courtroom behind the secured glass, his heart was racing as if he had just completed a cardio session. To his right, the public gallery – the people Dee love most in the whole world; his family.