‘Let’s focus on what Ben did do and what he heard,’ Ramouter intervened gently, not wanting to show Ben that he was annoyed with his partner’s attitude. ‘What happened after half an hour, Ben?’
‘I came out of the cupboard, and I left.’
‘You didn’t check on Nathan Hall?’ Copeland asked.
Ben twisted his mouth and looked away. ‘No,’ he said.
‘Let me see if I understand this correctly. You illegally enter Nathan Hall’s house, you see him on the floor, seriously injured, but you do nothing. You then tell us that you hear voices, and you hide upstairs for thirty minutes. I understand you were hiding so you wouldn’t have called but you could have texted 999.’
‘I didn’t know that—’
‘I haven’t finished,’ Copeland snapped. ‘You then leave after thirty minutes, down the stairs, past Nathan Hall who is now hanging from the bannister—’
‘Hanging from … No. I didn’t see—’
‘You didn’t see this and this,’ Copeland said as she slapped four photographs of Nathan Hall on the table.
Ben’s face paled as he looked across at Ramouter as though pleading for help.
‘Look at the photograph, Ben,’ said Copeland. ‘Do you see all that blood? His legs, face. Look at the floor. Do you know where all that blood came from?’
Ben shook his head.
‘He was scalped. The skin peeled off his head and you walked past of all of that and did nothing.’
‘I didn’t see that. I would have called the police if I had,’ Ben said as he began to cry.
‘DC Copeland,’ Ramouter said with warning as he rubbed his right ear.
‘I don’t believe you,’ Copeland continued. ‘You keep calling yourself a reporter. You returned the following morning with a drone. Did you film Nathan Hall?’
The room descended into silence as Ben raised his face to the ceiling.
‘Don’t worry about it. We’re carrying out a Section 18 search in your mum’s flat, your studio and have seized your equipment,’ said Ramouter. ‘But what I’m interested in is why you ran from your home and hid at your boyfriend’s flat.’
‘I want protection,’ Ben blurted out.
Ramouter looked at Ben steadily. ‘They saw you, didn’t they?’ he said. ‘That’s why you’re here, because Nathan Hall’s murderers saw you.’
Ben nodded.
‘For the benefit of the tape, Mr Trezeguet nodded his head.’
‘We found your prints in the bedroom and also trainer tread marks, Nike size nine, the same size as the ones we removed from you, with traces of blood on the carpet, facing the direction of the bathroom,’ said Ramouter. ‘You weren’t just hiding in the cupboard.’
‘I thought they were gone. I’d been in there for about twenty minutes. I left the cupboard and at the same time one of them came out of the bathroom.’
‘He saw you?’
‘Yeah,’ Ben sniffed and wiped his nose.
‘You got a good look at him?’
‘Good enough. He was white, maybe six foot. Dressed all in black and he was about your size,’ Ben said, pointing at Ramouter. ‘He had brown hair, which was wet. In fact, his face was wet, and he looked … upset.’
‘Upset.’
‘Yeah, really upset. His face was wet, and he was heaving, you know, like a kid when they’re crying.’
