Trial And Error

Ken and Harry are involved in a court case, giving evidence against a landlord, Michael Roach who is accused of terrorising his tenants into leaving his houses.

Some time ago, Ken had been employed by George and May Jenkins, and Aziz Hussain, Roach’s tenants who live on a run-down estate. Jimmy Craven, one of Roach’s thugs, had forced his way into the Jenkins’ flat and vandalised the furniture, with the George and Mabel looking on in horror. When their neighbour, Aziz Hussain, had tried to intervene, he was beaten up. Roach was clearly behind the attacks: he wanted to redevelop the land on which the flats stood and had resorted to violent tactics after the more subtle approach (eg refusing to carry out repairs) had failed to work. The Jenkins and Hussains wanted Ken to gather evidence that Roach was paying Jimmy Craven.

Ken and Rocky waited outside a pub that Craven was known to frequent, and photographed Roach handing over a large envelope of cash. But they were spotted and Craven and his mates gave chase and smashed Rocky’s camera. Tempers flared when Ken blamed Rocky for this fiasco.

Ken visited Roach at his large mansion, as a pretext to try and gather some incriminating evidence. Roach appeared to be model landlord and denied that he was involved in the vandalism or wanted to evict his tenants. But while Ken was alone in Roach’s sitting room, he saw a letter from Roach to a property development company, Emerald Life. Later that night he went to retrieve the letter from Roach’s dustbin but was caught by Roach’s assistant, a giant of a man called Eric Wetherby. Roach denied that he had handed over the money that Rocky had photographed and demanded, via a solicitor’s letter, that Ken stop harassing him – which made Ken very unpopular with Harry.

Working on his own, Rocky followed Roach to a studio called Rock City where a photographer, Simon Perfect, was taking pictures of a local band. While he was there, he saw Jimmy Craven and Eric Wetherby together, and later saw Jimmy talking to an unknown woman. But Wetherby attacked Rocky before he could investigate further.

Then it looked as if Ken’s luck had changed, when (of all people) Roach’s wife, Kathleen, contacted him and offered to help. In strictest confidence, and with the stipulation that Ken must not take notes or even tell Harry, she tipped Ken off that Roach was in the middle of a deal and was about to sign some papers. Rocky posed as a courier to collect the papers from Emerald Life, and Ken photocopied them before Rocky delivered them to Roach. The documents showed that Roach did indeed plan to redevelop the site, as Aziz Hussain had suspected. Kathleen Roach also told Ken that her husband was due to have a “business meeting” early the following morning. This time Ken managed to take incriminating photographs of Roach handing over wads of cash to Craven.

But all that was in the past. Now in court, Diane Fawley, Roach’s barrister, rips Ken’s evidence to shreds. When Ken describes the logo on the document that he had intercepted, she proves that this was Roach’s new logo which was first used after the date on the documents. She therefore alleges that they are forgeries. She also casts doubt on the techniques that Ken has used to gather his evidence. Roach has a perfectly innocent explanation for giving money to Craven.

Things look very black, both for the Jenkins and the Hussains, and for Ken’s professional reputation. It looks as if Ken has been set up by Kathleen Roach and that she is not on his side as she had claimed. Aziz feels that Ken has let him down by making “one cockup after another”.

Then Rocky sees Mrs Roach in court and recognises her bracelet and shoes as the ones worn by the mystery woman at Rock City, at a time when Roach claims that he was at home with her. Roach denies that his wife has ever even met Jimmy Craven. Rocky races from court, tracks down the photographer, Simon Perfect, and eventually finds a photograph which shows her and Craven in the background. He makes a dramatic entry into court, brandishing his new evidence. Suddenly Ken’s story is believed and Roach is branded a liar. The case against Roach is proved and he is sent to jail.

Notes and episode list © Martin Underwood, 1998

Page last modified: 13 May 2009, 20:15