The Trial Of Timothy Rustige – Part 2

Timothy Rustige Trial Part 2

Tuesday and Wednesday, 25^th and 26^th February.  We have to sit here now for two days and enjoy Aberdeen  whilst a previous case conveniently reaches denouement, a dour grey town with lots of activity surrounding the docks.  You tend to become bored with granite when it surrounds you but if you look up you can get inspired with the great masonic cupolas and clock towers.  The chisel and hammer were certainly badges of honour round here.  The two days lazing in armchairs gives, Timothy, Helen and myself a chance to get better acquainted.  Tim turns out to be a great guy, grievously harmed by this case.  Why should this woman, Angiolini, now no longer a public figure have the power to waste millions of pounds of public money on protecting her memory when everybody knows of her dubious and illegal dealings.

Tuesday passed and Wednesday was immediately livened up by Belinda McKenzie’s posting on the “Free Robert Green” website dated 25^th February, a site that she solely manages.  If you remember after lunch on 24^th after listening to the two hours of Angiolini’s testimony, she high tailed it back to London, having spent five hours in Aberdeen.  Her excuse was she thought she was about to be arrested.  The content of the blog, entitled Advantage Angiolini, said that Timothy was obviously guilty, this was followed by a comment from John Asprey saying that Timothy should change his plea to guilty and fall on the decency of the Sheriff.  For a start there is no decency up here and as Timothy said “why plead guilty when you did not commit a crime, surely that is illegal”.  The thing that annoyed me was that Belinda McKenzie holds herself up as champion of the people who are wronged.  She supports Robert Green in his quest for justice for Hollie Greig and she has her finger in many pies but it strikes me that her reversal of favour with Timothy smacks of something darker.  I commented immediately on the said blog telling them to hang on because the case is not half over and I noticed later that Ally from Prisoners of Conscience had done the same.  Injustices should not be perpetrated by so called champions of justice.  Belinda McKenzie be warned your cover could be blown.  We, who are in Aberdeen, feel absolutely let down by her actions.  Why, oh why, did she come up here on Monday, she could have written that piece in the comfort of her own home in London without going through the hardships of a 20 hour train journey.  Late on that night she rang Timothy in a nervous state and said it was all a mistake and that she would redact.  As far as I could see over the following days, she didn’t redact but in a comment she apologised.  Nowhere near good enough Belinda, I’m afraid.

It is now Thursday and Day 2 of the trial, 10.00am in Court 2 and the same personae, in the public gallery four well upholstered ladies, five local lads, victims of non-investigated child sexual abuse in the past and are courage personified, scared of nobody and myself and Helen.  On the stage because the proceedings are becoming more a  game or a play for the theatre are the same personae as Monday.  The Court Usher, who seemed to have had his humour surgically removed some years previously and who told us all not to eat, drink or take notes as he finished his mid-morning coffee and his fellow keeper of peace, the burly copper, who had remnants of his, humour that is, still available, were both present and the same legal types.  First up were more police witnesses.  It has to be understood that this case has been evolving for over 700 days by now and not once has Timothy been asked a question by the police.  This latest evidence was again about the arrest which we knew inside out.  Eventually the Chief Inspector in charge of Operation Chronicle was called.  I was just making a note of his name before he came to court when the burly policeman grabbed me by the shoulder and hustled me out into the corridor, I was barred from the Court, for the next two hours the evidence continued but it appears it was the same old, same old, the policemen not corroborating and Maggoch not pressing in cross-examination.

My disbarment, although a nuisance, was educational.  I was thrust into the main corridor at 11.00am and shortly afterwards out came one of the five local lads barred for asking one of the policemen a question after he had been excused by the Sheriff, his offence was for intimidating a witness.  The corridor was full of local humanity, all mumbling about the gross inhumanity of the legal system.  Within their midst were unconcerned legal aid jokers in wigs and gowns full of their own importance in the way they smugly sought out and addressed their appointed clients.  My mate, the witness intimidator, told me his story.  He had a daughter with a previous partner who had been abused by his partner’s father, the child’s grandfather from the age of four onwards.  He had appeared in front of Angiolini, in camera.  Both she and the local PF laughed at him, and told him the usual, “no case to answer”.  This was in 2004 and since then he has been blogging about corruption in Aberdeen.  He started talking to the assembled about Court No 2 and the big cover up of paedophilia in Scotland.

Paedophilia it seems, because it affects the majority of the population here in Aberdeen, does not go down well, especially when it is mentioned that in Court No 2 are people trying to cover up the subject and pointing at me he said we had been thrown out of the court unjustly.  I was expecting a riot, the police moved in and quelled the discontent but I was a hero for two minutes.  It seemed I had missed nothing new in evidence, Moggach had broken no new ground in cross-examination.  While waiting outside the court, a tall athletic man had gone in and came out ten minutes later having himself made notes, his book and pen in one hand.  As we left the building for lunch he was waiting with two expert photographers, judging by the quality of their cameras, they started taking photos of us, not one but many.  Three of our guerrillas ran at them and started to disrupt their actions, it all became quite surreal.

After lunch the burly plod allowed me back whilst Moggach started to cross-examine the police computer expert, very lightly as was his norm, he probably knew less about computers than I did.  It is now Timothy’s turn, he expressed his innocence and said although the IP address which churned out some of the e-mails was his, because he paid the telephone bill, there was two Timothy Rustiges and there were four Rustys, he has three sons, besides all the Prisoners Of Conscience members, who used to meet at his flat.  The authors could have been anybody.  He explained the role of Prisoners of Conscience, supporting prisoners of principle round the world who have been unjustly imprisoned.  Again Moggach said nothing preferring to listen instead of leading his client.  The Procurator Fiscal stood up in his role of prosecutor and launched into Tim.  He had shown no talent until now but he was very fierce with Timothy, trying to rubbish everything he had said, however Timothy stood his ground and remained calm.  I looked at the court clock after noticing proceedings taking on a sudden urgency, it was 3.55pm.  The PF finished his cross-examination quickly, turned to the Sheriff and said what more can I say my lord and that was his closing speech.  Moggach stood up spluttered two sentences about Angiolini who should have not have been too worried and that was his final effort, no mention of the considerable doubt about who actually wrote the e-mails.  Timothy stood up and asked if he could speak, to say that he had paperwork to prove he was in Wales mending a boat engine in Holyhead from 26th February to 3rd March of the period in review and when Angiolini received a lot of these e-mails. Moggach although knowing this, had not brought it out in examination and Timothy wanted it known.  The Sheriff silenced Timothy and turned to him and said guilty as charged.  The whole thing was over in two minutes.  There was just enough time for the Clerk of the Court to tell Timothy to return for sentencing on 27^th March 2014 at 10.00am, once the court had received a Social Services report from Manchester.  One final word from the sheriff was that prison was an option he was considering.  All over in a flash, we looked at each other not believing the speed of the coup de grace.  The four well up holstered ladies gloated, their warped minds thinking they had won the day.  Alas ladies this campaign will haunt you for some years yet.

Timothy still does not know for what offences he was charged or for that matter for what offences he was found guilty of.  He has asked but not been told, legal aid is a ridiculous uncaring, low-empathy department, solely there for the pockets of the lawyers.  Perhaps even the Sheriff does not know the offences for which he has given his verdict.  My advice having seen Scottish Law in action would be to not recognise the jurisdiction of the court or fight the case yourself.  You will certainly save time and energy, even if you do end up with the same result.  Legal aid seems to me to be a travesty of justice.  People put in place to fill a hole in the game, not even young bloods learning the art of advocacy were apparent, these men were in their 50s having learnt all they could know of the law, yet failing to grasp they were representing mankind and all its responsibilities and repercussions and only interested in the large income gained for being a stooge to the PF.

I asked Timothy if he had grounds for appeal and he named five points all of which are mentioned in this blog, I said go for it, the five points are very important.  He said I have been told that if I appeal I lose my legal aid.  A disheartened but not defeated Timothy flew back to Manchester on Friday in the arms of a cleft stick.  We have another day to wait before we can leave this accursed place.

Writing this in reflection on the week, the morning after the verdict, with a PF sent up from Edinburgh and a Sheriff brought in from elsewhere it was obvious the prosecution expected to win, ally this to an inept but skilfully inept performance from a legal aid team in Timothy’s defence and he was bound to be found guilty.  Angiolini could not be seen to lose.  This morning she will be feeling good, but one more cloak of ignorance of Hollie Greig has been torn from her shoulders.  We will get to the final cloak shortly.

Meanwhile Robert Green is still incarcerated in Perth Prison awaiting indictment on matters unknown.  The information we were able to glean from the court officials yesterday was that the court has 110 days to serve the indictment from date of arrest.  Usually this procedure takes on average 70 to 90 days.  Robert has been there now for 16 days, so it could be another 64 days before we find out why he has been arrested.  At some stage somebody will think up a story.  I am sure that the Sheriffs and PFs who are members of that famous Violate Club, whose names are now known to many, are shaking in their fur lined boots as they await the outcome of proceedings.  What kind of God-awful society do we exist in, when the likes of Heggarty, the head of the Legal Aid department, who was caught shagging an under-age boy in a public toilet in Glasgow and McFarlane from the Procurator Fiscal’s office in Edinburgh, who was shagging a whore down a back entry in broad daylight when surprised by two plods and who attacked them, injuring both.  When his computer was searched an untold number of child sexual abuse photographs were found.  Angiolini said neither case was in the public interest and their antics were dismissed, both men remained Scot free.

I indict the Crown Service of Scotland for Angiolini’s behaviour.  Time and again it has been found out that in her time as PF, she failed to employ the law in a just and humane manner.

People have asked me was our trip worth it.  Well this week has cost me over £2000 just to watch Timothy get carved up and I have to say that I would spend every penny I have, to experience the evil I have been exposed to this week.  People need to face evil to understand what mankind is up against and if my blog can be read by a few thousand people who absorb its content that £2000 is cheap for its ability to teach