This time she knows who’s inside.
* * *
Interview with Adam Fawley, conducted at Thames Valley Police Station, Mill Lane, Newbury
11 July 2018, 12.30 p.m.
In attendance, DI R. Gallagher, DS D. King, Mrs P. McHugh (solicitor)
RG: Interview commenced at 12.30. Those present are DI Ruth Gallagher, DS David King, DI Adam Fawley. DI Fawley has been cautioned and is now accompanied by his solicitor, Mrs Penelope McHugh. Perhaps we could begin by having your account of the events of Monday night, 9th July 2018. You have previously admitted that you went to Emma Smith’s flat – what time was that?
AF: Around 9 p.m.
RG: And I believe that immediately before that you had been at your gym?
AF: At Headington Health and Leisure, yes. I would have left at about 8.45. I’m sure you’ll be able to confirm that.
RG: Did you change at the gym before you left?
AF: No, I was running a bit late so I went straight to Ms Smith’s.
RG: So you were wearing –?
AF: A T-shirt and shorts. Trainers.
RG: What colour T-shirt?
AF: A white one.
RG: I see. And you still maintain that you went to Shrivenham Close at Ms Smith’s request?
AF: I don’t ‘maintain’ it – it’s what happened. I saw her in St Aldate’s earlier that day and she asked me to go round.
PM: Given the location, I imagine there will be CCTV corroborating this.
RG: We will, of course, look into that. And was this meeting in St Aldate’s accidental? She just happened to be there?
AF: No, she’d made a special trip up from the Iffley Road in her lunch hour. She wanted my advice. She said that it wouldn’t take very long, so I offered to drop in on my way back home.
DK: Did she tell you what she wanted to talk about?
AF: No. As I explained before, I only saw Ms Smith for a few moments then. I didn’t find out what the problem was until that night, when I went to the flat.
RG: So you arrived at about 9.00 p.m. How long did you stay?
AF: About half an hour.
DK: And what happened during those thirty minutes?
AF: Again, as I’ve said before, we talked about the stalker –
DK: Nothing else?
AF: No –
DK: No small talk at all? Not even about your wife? They were friends, weren’t they?
AF: Ms Smith asked after my wife, very briefly, when I arrived. But that wasn’t why I was there.
RG: So what course did the conversation take?
AF: She talked me through what had been happening – specific incidents – dates and times –
DK: She’d kept a record?
AF: Informally, yes. But it was more like a diary. It wasn’t something she was happy to hand over.
RG: For the record, no such diary has been retrieved from Ms Smith’s flat.
AF: Well, it was there that night – it was on the coffee table.
DK: When she went through these dates – did you make notes?
AF: No. When I got out my notebook she got nervous and asked me not to write anything down. She wasn’t ready to make an official complaint.
DK: So we only have your word for it.
AF: As I said, she didn’t want to escalate things –
DK: So as I said, we only have your word for it. Because no one else seems to know anything about this ‘alleged’ stalker of yours.
AF: I can’t speak to that. I only know what she said to me. And as we’ve since discovered, a man called Hugh Cleland had recently had an altercation with her, and could well have taken it further.
RG: Again, for the record, Hugh Cleland’s fingerprints have not been found anywhere in Ms Smith’s flat.
PM: What about his DNA?
RG: Samples have been taken from him. We await the results.
PM: Does he have an alibi for the night in question?
RG: Enquiries are ongoing, that’s all I can say at this stage.
DK: [to Fawley]
So, if Smith thought Cleland might be stalking her, why didn’t she tell her boss? Her colleagues?
AF: She told me she’d never seen the man’s face. She may have been wary of accusing Cleland until she had proof it was definitely him.
DK: What about her family and friends? She could have talked to them.
AF: My impression was that she was a very private person –
DK: Private or not, I find it odd. Very odd. Especially since, according to her parents, Ms Smith had already had a similar experience some years before.
AF: She said nothing about that to me.
DK: Someone who’d had an experience like that, surely they’d be very unlikely to keep it to themselves if they thought it was happening again.
AF: As I’ve already explained, I’m not in a position to speculate about Ms Smith’s behaviour. She was my wife’s friend. I barely knew her.
DK: You knew her well enough to have a drink with her.
AF: She offered me a glass of wine. It seemed churlish to refuse.
DK: How much did she drink?
AF: In my presence, just over a glass.
DK: The PM suggested she’d had rather more than that.
PM: There’s no way of ascertaining precisely when Ms Smith consumed the alcohol identified at the autopsy. DI Fawley can only comment on what happened in his presence.
DK: So she’d had a bit to drink, she’s upset, so, what? You put an arm round her?
AF: No.
DK: Give her some comfort?
AF: No.
DK: After all, she’s been through a break-up, she’s vulnerable –
AF: No.
DK: She’s an attractive woman, your wife is pregnant, it’s easy to see how one thing could have led to another –
AF: It didn’t happen. And I deeply resent your reference to my wife –
DK: Perhaps Smith went along with it to start with – perhaps that’s why you thought she was OK with it. Perhaps she was the one who initiated it – maybe she’d fancied you for years, who knows. Only then suddenly she’s changing her mind – trying to push you off –
AF: [shaking his head]
DK: And now she’s struggling, starting to scream the place down –
AF: No. No no no –
DK: You get your hand over her mouth – anything to shut her up –
AF: I did not touch her at any point and she was alive and well when I left.
DK: You didn’t kill her –
AF: No.
DK: You didn’t rape her –
AF: No.
DK: You didn’t even have consensual sex with her –
AF: No. Absolutely not.
RG: [slides across a sheet of paper]
This is a copy of the forensics report which we received earlier this morning. The lab has isolated a quantity of male DNA in relation to the Smith case. And it’s not Hugh Cleland’s.
PM: But I thought you said you were still waiting for his DNA results?
RG: We’re awaiting his results, yes. But this isn’t his. We know that for a fact because it’s a perfect match for someone else. Specifically, to a sample stored for elimination purposes in the police national database.
AF: I was at the flat. Of course my DNA is there.
RG: I’m not talking about what they found at the flat. I’m talking about what they found on the body.
AF: What?
RG: It’s very simple. Your DNA was found on Emma Smith’s body. Perhaps you could explain that for us.
AF: It must be a mistake.
[pause]
The only thing I can think of is that there was some sort of accidental contact – perhaps our hands touched when she gave me the wine.