The best
deal Electron's lawyers had been able to arrange in exchange for
turning Crown witness was for the DPP to remain silent on the issue of
prison. The judge would make up his mind without input from the DPP.
Electron fiddled nervously with his father's wedding ring, which he
wore on his right hand. After his father's death, Electron's sister
had begun taking things from the family home. Electron didn't care
much because there were only two things he really wanted: that ring
and some of his father's paintings.
Kayser called a handful of witnesses to support the case for a light
sentence. Electron's grandmother from Queensland. The family friend
who had driven Electron to the hospital the day his father died.
Electron's psychiatrist, the eminent Lester Walton. Walton in
particular highlighted the difference between the two possible paths
forward: prison, which would certainly traumatise an already mentally
unstable young man, or freedom, which offered Electron a good chance
of eventually establishing a normal life.
When Kayser began summarising the case for a non-custodial sentence,
Electron could hear the pack of journalists off to his side
frantically scribbling notes.
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