We'll get into your true crime show in just a moment. Here's what's new from the Always True Crime Network. On the True Crime Enthusiast, we head to Leicester, where an explosion in 2017 claimed five lives and uncovered a chilling plot linked to an insurance scam. British Murders examines the disturbing case of Phoenix Nets, whose body was discovered concealed in two suitcases in the Forest of Dean. And in our newest series, Codename Badger, The Mystery Deepens. In the latest episode, we find out what happens next for Josephine and her family after a stranger arrived on their doorstep and changed their lives forever with a shocking revelation. If you're looking for your next true crime listen, we've got you covered. Line it up to play straight after this one. This series contains themes of domestic abuse and coercive control. For more information or support, please visit our show notes. It's a rainy grey day in July 2024, and court reporter Jay Anarain is at the Crown Court in Hove. He's been working as a court reporter for nearly 30 years, and has been here many times before. I was actually given a tip from a crime reporter on The National who had heard about the magistrate court case and then asked me to go and interview the family and speak to them prior to the case going to the Crown Court. Hove Crown Court is about 50 miles down the coast from Rye. It's a long and low building dating back to the 1960s, all concrete and windows, with a set of wide, shallow stairs leading up to the main entrance. Above the doors looms the royal coat of arms, representing the monarch. Inside the courtroom, Moira Lane is sitting in the dock, flanked by her barrister, Teo Adebayo. She's quite a striking figure. She is raven-haired, wears very pale white makeup and wears head-to-toe black. She was wearing a long dress with a long coat over the top of it and black, I think, suede shoes. She looks quite striking. She has big black glasses on. To all intents and purposes, she had been nicknamed by residents in Rye a white witch and she presented as somebody who would be donning the mantle or the outfit of somebody who was interested in the occult. Aside from the defendant's striking appearance, It's just another day at the office for Jaya. That is, until the judge enters the courtroom and Moira stands. It was listed in Crown Court as a sentencing hearing. I'd sort of turned up for a sentencing hearing. I was expecting the sentencing hearing to go ahead. But the sentencing hearing isn't going to go ahead. And when she's asked to, Moira addresses the court. It was immediately clear that she was unhappy with the pleas that she had entered on the original charges and that she wanted them, as she said, scrubbed off, vacated. It was the legal terminology for it, but she wanted them vacated. And that isn't all. She said to her barrister and then to the judge that she'd been coerced and bullied into making the guilty pleas when she didn't admit the basis for those charges. Moira says she's been coerced and bullied into making a guilty plea by her own barrister, the man standing next to her. She essentially said that she was a trained lawyer herself, having qualified in Dublin, and that she wanted to represent herself now. And then she just said that she wanted a hearing, whereby she may be able to vacate the pleas that she'd made. The court is silent. What will Moira do next? I'm Hannah George. And I'm Taylor Glenn. This is Toil and Trouble, Episode 6. Witch Trial. If you've made guilty pleas, to get leave to have them vacated is quite an unusual thing. Normally judges don't allow that, but she was making quite a lot of allegations about intimidation and bullying. and said I think the judge wanted to give her the opportunity to have that hearing and that evidence that she may have been bullied or intimidated explored. He set a date in November for that to go ahead. But for Jaya, who's been working as a court reporter for 30 years, this was unprecedented. It's very unusual for someone to sack their barrister, first of all, in a court case, but then also to accuse them of bullying and for that to go to a hearing, which is heard in court, and for a barrister, a defending barrister, to then be called to give evidence with claims made against his professionalism and truthfulness made in open court. So it quite unusual in all my experience of reporting courts I never come across that before And so in November of 2024 Moira was in court again but this time she was representing herself All of that training, hours at Alfred's kitchen table, with him playing the role of the judge, had led to this. She claimed her barrister, Mr Adebayo, was a bully who had forced her to plead guilty to two charges, one of criminal damage, one of harassment. She said that he'd warned her that if she went to trial and was found guilty, she could face 10 years in prison. And he said that she'd been intimidated, that he'd tried to scare her, that he said that the judge would get his revenge if she tried to take it to trial. Jail was surprised to see Moira had taken this route, because from where he was sitting at least, it was a real risk. If you were charged with three counts of assault by beating, a charge of stalking, causing harassment, and two charges of criminal damage, but then the CPS, the crime prosecution, say that they'll accept one charge of harassment with the stalking element dropped and one charge of criminal damage. That's a huge victory for you as the defendant because they are dropping the more serious charges of beating and stalking. and undoubtedly would not have led to a custodial sentence, whereas the other ones would have. Moira had made some serious allegations against her barrister, and so Mr. Adebayo was given the opportunity to defend himself. Incidentally, we did get in touch with Mr. Adebayo. He did not respond to our request for a comment, but Jaya was there to see it all unfold. Mr Adebayo actually gave evidence himself in court denying that he'd said anything of the sort and claiming that Lane had willingly agreed to plead to the lesser counts saying that he'd been in discussion with the Crown Prosecution Service to try and get a good deal for her and basically come to a plea bargain that he'd advised her, she'd ruminated on it he said there'd been no pushback from her at any stage on any of the charges and that she seemed quite happy at the early stage to change her plea. And I think he felt he'd done a good job, but he also tellingly produced a piece of paper. A piece of paper that would prove pivotal in Moira's bid to vacate her plea. It's called a change of plea endorsement was produced at the court, which showed that Lane said that she was in agreement with all that he'd advised her, that she'd done so completely off her own free will and volition, and that she'd not been forced or coerced in any way to change a plea. Now, I didn't know about this technical legal document that they get people to sign, but it's obviously to avoid situations exactly as they found themselves in here. And she had signed and endorsed it. But despite the piece of paper, Moira had a counter-argument. She said that it didn't matter, she felt under pressure to sign it, that the pen had always been thrust at her to sign. And she felt that the coercion had existed even at that stage, despite the fact her signature was on it and she'd signed. Her innocence, in her mind, was complete. She was a victim of the situation as much as Alfred was almost. And she wouldn't accept that she was guilty of anything, essentially. On top of her striking appearance, Jaya had noticed something else about Moira during her time in court. She was also extremely nervous. She was quite shaken throughout. She wasn't confident. She was, I'd say, close to tears on several occasions. Also ferociously angry. Interrupted the judge. Interrupted the prosecuting barrister. Interrupted all court staff. Whenever anything was presented that she disagreed with, ended up being told to be quiet by the judge on more than one occasion and told that she would have a chance to say what she wanted to say. She disagreed with almost everything that was said about the actual offences and would try and rebut them as they were made in court. Despite her protestations, the judge had made a decision. Based on Mr Adebayo's evidence and that all-important piece of paper, Moira's application was denied. She was going to be sentenced for harassment and criminal damage. And, at this stage, there was nothing more she could do about it. I remember her being absolutely furious. I remember at one stage breaking down in tears and walking out, and I tried to approach her to ask her what her views were, and she would not speak to me. But it wouldn't be Moira's last day in court. When Moira's sentencing hearing finally rolled around, it was the 31st of January 2025, two and a half years after the coronation incident, and nearly six years since she swept into Alfred's life. Hall and Anna were keen for resolution, but even after all this time, they were reluctant to see Moira face to face. Every time there's a hearing, we're told what court it is by this witness person, by which point we'd realised that the media were going to these hearings. There was absolutely no way that we felt we could go to a hearing without ending up standing on the steps of a court with Moira. So we felt really we couldn't go. But Jaya was there, at the same court as before. this time in the bright afternoon sun. Moira arrived wearing a long black woolen coat tied at the waist a dark blue scarf wrapped around her neck a black bowler hat perched on top of her dark hair and a pair of thin dark sunglasses She had a leather satchel slung across her shoulder and was accompanied by a friend as they ascended the steps into the court. Moira was representing herself once again and stood before the court. The judge asked if she had anything else to say. She made some mitigation where she said that things hadn't happened that way. I remember that as the case was being spelled out, shaking her head and going, tutting, which caused the sort of judge to lift his head and look at her. I don't think she countered with any sort of like robust mitigation on her behalf. After all this time in court with Moira, Jaya might have expected to see evidence of her legal training. But it was quite the opposite. I didn't see her bring up any of her legal knowledge to bear on the case. She sort of had an idea about where she could complain to and things like that. She knew that she could push back on certain elements, but she didn't bring sort of like legal argument to bear, start citing case law or previous example or precedence. She didn't do any of that. For Paul and Anna, they never really felt like they understood why Moira behaved in the way that she did. It'd be interesting to hear her side of the story. We'd be interested, you know, obviously we don't want to meet her face to face, but it would be interesting to us to hear what her version of it was and whether she felt in some way that things had happened or that she wasn't treated fairly. But I still don't think whatever happened, that it was necessary to be violent. And I think that you can't really come back from that. Yeah. Although Moira did not respond to our request for an interview, or provide a comment for the series, we have been able to obtain the transcript from the sentencing hearing. It reveals some of what she feels about the situation. These are Moira's words, voiced by an actor. First of all, I'd like to say that there are certain issues missing from the pre-sentencing report. She makes a certain comment saying that I showed no remorse. She doesn't mention how myself and Mr Douglas met. We met through an occult correspondence course. She doesn't mention the fact or emphasise the fact that I was an unpaid carer, but I would like to put it forward that I was the unpaid carer for Mr. Douglas, but I couldn't cope. I'm probably fairly obvious that I suffer with an anxiety disorder. We constantly keep coming back to, does she have a mental health issue? But I don't know that there is such a mental health issue. I don't, I don't. We are just not qualified to make that judgment. During the sentencing hearing, Moira made it clear to the judge the impact the last few years had had on her. I had been working in the civil service. I have lost my job and I have lost my income. I am sofa surfing, of course, and I'm trying to fix and manage things in such a way that I could try and obtain employment. It's difficult, though, with this unfair reporting that has been instigated by Paul Wilson-Paterson and Anna Wilson-Paterson, whose only motivation, really, is to gain inheritance. The judge eventually sentenced her to four months in prison, which she then suspended for 18 months. So she didn't get a custodial sentence. Here's court reporter Jaya again. And she was ordered to pay more than £2,500 in compensation to Alfred Douglas. She was also ordered to attend 20 rehabilitation days and to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. She was also handed a restraining order forbidding her from contacting Mr. Douglas for five years. The charges of assault against Paul, Anna and Alfred were left to lie on file, which means they could, in theory, be reinstated at a future date, but only at the request of the judge or court of appeal. From his position in court, Jaya could see Moira's reaction. She looked stressed out and she was continuing to shake her head. There was no outbursts. I don't remember her shouting anything or anything like that. It sometimes happens when people are hugely upset about things, but she didn't, I don't think. Moira was told to leave the dock. Outside the court, her attitude towards the waiting press was unchanged. Throughout the case, Lane had covered her face, used signs in front of her face to try and stop herself being photographed, refused to speak to the media in any shape, way or form, despite approaches, had just rebutted all sort of chance to put her side of things to the press. Moira has avoided all press since the start. But Paul and Anna feel differently. They wanted to shine a light on this unusual case and the impact it had on their family. It's been an edifying episode in our lives, and we'd rather not be in the Daily Mail, if at all possible. but I think at the same time you feel like if there are there more people out there that do things like this is this a thing that happens quite often and that actually no one talks about it because you feel a bit ridiculous that somehow we didn't manage to deal with it we didn't solve it we didn't resolve it and it ended up using up a huge amount of police resource. We asked Paul and Anna whether they felt there was a risk this series could reignite the disquiet in Alfred's life. Alfred suggested that it would rattle her and I suppose he thinks that she might return to what she was and at the moment she's not intruding on his life too much so she might come flying back at him but for us no we haven given it any thought at all No people need to hear about her so that this doesn happen again At first glance, this story appeared to be about magic and the occult. But at its heart, it's really a story about relationships and all the messy things that come with them. Trust, vulnerability, and control. Maybe it's a cautionary tale for other people, other families. And maybe it's good if you've got elderly relatives, if they're inviting people into their homes, that actually you at least get the passport number of the person or some full name or their birth certificate or next of kin. And that you don't actually just go, oh, yeah, that's OK, because you've made that decision that you actually kind of say, I think we need to know a bit more about this person. But it was sort of done out of respect for him. So I guess we just have to say, well, that was our choice. And like it or not, relationships, trust and vulnerability have been core elements of Alfred's working life. Today, I think some of the greatest teachings and the greatest teachers within the occult can only really be accessed by direct contact, putting yourself in an arguably dangerous or vulnerable position. For Dr Kate Sherrill, writer and paranormal historian, the intensity of this kind of working relationship will always pose some risk. As much as you can learn things from books in the occult, the most important things and the lessons and the teachings that do transform your life and do become the basis of personal magic and occult systems can only really be appreciated and be learned face to face or with that very direct contact and the trust that's necessary between that. So while it seems quite odd and quite intense, the way that Madeleine worked with some of her students, that tradition still continues today in so many esoteric fields. But this is also the story about the ripple effects. It's now close to a year since Moira's sentencing hearing, but Anna and Paul are still seeking any kind of justice they can get, even as Alfred tries to move on. I said from the very beginning when we realized we had to contend with her that we were doing it because we loved him and we don't want to see him hurt anymore. Of course, there's some self-preservation aspect of that, But no, it was very clearly stated to him. So he knew where we were coming from, to use a common phrase. Yes, so our speaking out is our tough love for him. In the time since Moira left Alfred's house, he has begun to put his life back together, physically and mentally. But it's taken years. He looks physically much better. He's worried about his memory. and he's worried about, you know, all the tech stuff, all the bank stuff. Everything is quite complicated, isn't it, when you get older and the computers. But I think he is back to being quite funny and he does have a very funny sense of humour. Anna and Paul's relationship with Alfred is still strong and he's been very clear he wants to put this all behind him. But it's not been as simple as that. So we thought, oh, OK, right, so that's it. That's the end of it. And now she's appealing her sentence. Not only is Moira appealing her sentence, but she's also appealing her convictions. So at every stage, she's created a scenario where it becomes something else. So something else unexpected happens. Alfred is still living amongst boxes of Moira's possessions, even after all this time, unable to return them, but unable to throw them away. Even as time moves on, and that period of his life seems more distant, Moira still holds some power. She remains rooted in his home. We thought Alfred would get his money, the goods that she's left in his house for nearly two years would be collected, and that would be the end. But it's never the end. We put all allegations included in this episode to Moira. At the time of recording, she had not responded. This has been an Audio Always production presented by me, Hannah George. And me, Taylor Glenn. Toil and Trouble is produced by Louisa Adams. Our assistant producer is Mansi Vithlani. And our executive producer is Elsa Rochester. Sound design is by Craig Edmondson. If you've enjoyed Toil and Trouble, you might like some of our other brilliant Always True Crime series. You can listen to box sets like The Pitcairn Trials, Head No. 7, and Carrie Jade Does Not Exist right now. Just search Always True Crime wherever you get your podcasts.
