George Robins is a second hand car dealer and well-known ladies man. He has disappeared. Blood stains were found at his country cottage. A local car thief, Harold Barnes, is charged with his murder, but Barnes claims that Robins has not been murdered but has faked his own death so that his wife can claim a large insurance pay-out. The prosecution will try to prove that Barnes has indeed murdered Robins even though no body has ever been found.

Defendant Harold Barnes alleges that George Robins is still alive. Prosecutor Jonathan Fry QC causes a stir when he calls Robins as a witness. Barnes' wife Catherine denies the she had an affair with Robins and alibis her husband.

Fulchester's notorious Curl brothers are accused of demanding money with menaces and GBH. The court will hear that the brothers had been conducting a reign of terror over Fulchester's club and bar owners through a Chicago-style protection racket. After refusing to pay the brothers for protection, a number of club owners suffered injuries ranging from falls down stairs, feet burned with electric fires and attacks with hammers. Indeed, one of the brother's own enforcers has disappeared and is believed to have been buried under the new M16 motorway foundations. The defense insist that the brothers are legitimate businessmen.

The second day of the trial of brothers George and Arnold Curl. The pair are accused of running a Fulchester protection racket. Much of the evidence comes from Stephen Telfer, a club owner who is now in a coma following a savage beating.

Facing a second day under cross examination, George Curl claims he found religion while in Reading Gaol. However his brother Arnold gets rattled when questioned about hiring Arther McGraw to injure Stephen Telfer.

On the final day of the trial, Prison Officer Robert Ager takes the stand. in his own defence. Barrister Barry Deeley maintains that Agar was bullied and threatened, by Lanigan, into bringing illegal goods into the prison

A prison officer at Fulchester's Park Moor Prison is charged with accepting bribes to smuggle a number of prohibited items into and out of the prison by an inmate, who is also facing charges.

Detective Inspector Barber returns to the stand to give details of the arrest of Prison Officer Robert Agar. Angela Mercer evidence indicated that Agar took items inside the prison, for George Lanigan, in return for sexual favours.

The Sunday Nation newspaper, and one of its leading reporters, are being sued for libel after describing a psychotherapy group as 'harmful' and 'fraudulent'. Stephen Harvesty QC, for the defendants, will try to convince the court that the psychotherapy group is indeed nothing more than a cult which forces its members to part with large sums of money for very little in return.

During Manubhai Gupta evidence he admits to donating £35,000, to the group. At the highest level funds were raised for new Centres but were never built. Martin Heywood claims the Inner Circle should be considered a religion order.

Mrs. Peacock attempts to explain the benefit of the Open Box community and how they helped her following a nervous breakdown. Megan Watts, finally, takes the stand and denies that members, at Tute Hall, are terrified of her.

The Personnel Manager of a metal factory is accused of stealing a coat belonging to the Managing Director. The prosecution claim that this relatively trivial offence was just the latest in a long line of petty crimes against the Managing Director by the accused, which began after he was served with a redundancy notice.

Philip Samkins, the former owner of Wright-Samkins Metals Ltd is cross examined. What started as a simple theft has now spread it's net to cover malice and a work-in. Samkins is accused of fabricating a charge against Graham Erringburn.

Graham Erringburn is called to give evidence. Erringburn denies taking the coat and claims he only picked it up in error. Jonathan Fry QC counters that Philip Samkins had humiliated him and he took the £200 coat out of revenge.

A ten year old girl has accused a man of groping her as she made her way past his seat in the cinema. However, it is the girls' mother who is in the dock accused of blackmailing the man, demanding money from him in return for not reporting the incident to the police. The man denies the child's' accusation and claims that he had slapped her leg for being rude to him.

Geoffrey Hainton's agent Michael Lawford-Brown gives evidence and claims he overheard Grace Moresby demanding £100. Barrister Helen Tate calls John Bray, a witness who contacted her claiming to have vital information.

Grace Moresby claims Geoffrey Hainton offered her £100 to keep quiet about a sexual assault. The prosecution, however, claim Mrs. Moresby, desperately, needed money because she was paying off her sister's debts when she fled to America

A 13 year old boy is charged with the murder of his 12 year old pal after suffocating him with a plastic bag. Was there a real intent to harm the boy or did a game they were playing go horribly wrong? The defense will try to prove that the accused boy was not aware of his actions and agree to have the youngster placed under hypnosis in court to prove a point.

Martha Ainsworth reads disturbing entries from her son's diary. Child psychiatrist Dr. Chisolm gives details of a report he made on Philip Ainsworth. He claims he is highly intelligent but pretending to be an hapless idiot.

Philip Ainsworth's father gives an unflattering account of the child's odd behaviour. He noted the boy seemed to want to damage property in the house. Child psychiatrist Dr. De Quincey counters evidence on Philip's mental state.

School teacher Juliet Tomlin is accused of indecently assaulting one of her 15 year old pupils. She denies the charge, but it has come to light that the pupil, named in court only as Robin, recently spent two nights at the house of the teacher. Were the pair conducting an illicit affair, or did they simply become the victims of misplaced playground and staffroom gossip?

John Gilroy became suspicious of his son Robin when he saw a change in his character. He later learned he had become too friendly with teacher Juliet Tomlin. All attempts to end their friendship failed. Robin Gilroy gives his evidence.

Dr. Eva Penny cautions that some of Robin's account maybe fantasy. Teacher Juliet Tomlin takes the stand denying they had a sexual relationship. When Robin told her he loved her she felt he overstepped the bounds of their friendship.

After suspecting that irregular betting patterns had taken place at a greyhound stadium, bookmaker Ronald Charles refused to pay out on a winning betting slip worth over £200,000. A group of men have subsequently been accused of having conspired to cheat the on-track Tote betting system, and Mr Charles, out of thousands of pounds. Barry Deeley leads the prosecution in what is a confusing case for those not familiar with betting procedures.

Dog track cashier Doreen Tring explains how the accused, Bill Broad was blocking the window so nobody else could place a bet. Punter Mr. Smith tells confirms he was unable to place a bet anywhere because men had blocked the way.

Bill Broad tells the court that Oakmoor was a minor betting scam, to get even with the bookie but too many people came to help. He denies that he didn't stop people from betting nor know why twenty people turned up to help him out.

Pakistani housing landlord Muhammed Aslam is accused of demanding money with menaces from a number of illegal immigrants from Pakistan, who have found their way to Fulchester across Europe by train and boat. Mr Aslam insists that he was merely demanding his fees for arranging the immigrant's journey and for housing rent.

Fisherman Thomas Wheeler tells, the court, how Mohammed Aslam asked him to bring in eight illegal immigrants. The price was £150 but Mr. Aslam never paid. So on the boat, Agha Ali negotiated, a deal, for the journey for £40.

Mohammed Aslam is forced to explain a two year jail sentence he served in Pakistan. Marcus Golding asks why he waited three years to do anything about the debt owed by Agha Ali. He admits that any money owed to Mr. Wheeler was for damages.