“‘But since I can’t do that, all I can say is that I am sorry—from the bottom of my heart, I am sorry that this has happened, and for my part in it. If I could somehow go back in time to change things, I would. But I can’t.
“‘I cannot imagine how scared Kate must be at the moment, or how helpless she feels. And to the people who don’t know me, who are criticizing me and calling me a terrible parent, I want to say that I never claimed to be Mother of the Year, nor do I want to.
“‘Most of us parents are just trying to do the best we can, one day at a time. I will try to do better in the future, but, for what it’s worth, I’m truly, deeply sorry for any harm my actions might have caused.’”
At those words, a loud hush enveloped the courtroom and, having said her piece, Alison sat down.
“Quite the apology, for someone who says they don’t believe they are at fault,” Nevin commented, a quizzical expression on his face.
Declan felt elated. It was fairly categorical; in her own words, Madeleine Cooper outright admitted she was to blame for what had happened.
“When you wrote this piece, what were you sorry for, Mrs. Cooper?” pressed Nevin. “What did you mean when apologizing ‘for my part in it’?”
“That post was written in the heat of the moment,” she replied shortly, and Declan was pleased to note that finally she seemed to be losing her cool.
There it is: the chink in her armor. Her profile.
Nevin didn’t say anything; he was waiting for a continued explanation. “Mrs. Cooper?”
“Look,” she went on, a noticeable quiver now in her voice, “at the time I wrote that piece, I was receiving a lot of flack. People were sending me hate emails and posting insulting things online, telling me what a bad mother I was. Complete strangers were lambasting my parenting skills and calling me names. One journalist in particular was buzzing around, asking questions and stirring things up—all because of some personal beef she had against me. There was so much anger and pushback about the vaccination thing from people I don’t even know. And it just kept on coming and getting worse. I did feel sorry for Rosie and bad for Kate—I still do—and, of course, I felt guilty that my daughter was the one who’d emerged unscathed. I hadn’t been able to contact Kate or get through to her, and I wanted to get the word out that, yes, maybe I made some bad choices, but I wasn’t the villain people were making me out to be.”
“You mean you wanted to try and save face?”
“Objection!” shouted Michael McGuinness. “Judge, he’s badgering the witness.”
“Sustained. Mr. Nevin, please watch your tone.”
“Understood,” the barrister replied and Declan realized that it really didn’t matter if that last comment had been disallowed. They’d needed to paint Madeleine as self-serving—someone who perhaps even spoke out of both sides of her mouth—and it had worked.
“My apologies, Mrs. Cooper. Let me rephrase that question: Did you write the blog post because you felt personally responsible for Rosie O’Hara’s condition or for some other reason?”
Now they had just presented Madeleine Cooper with a complete Catch-22. If she answered yes, then it was an admission of guilt. If she said that it was for another reason, she came across as insincere—someone who would say anything in order to make herself look good.
Her truthful answer here would either win this case or at least show her true character to the judge, which might help them win it anyway. He thought for sure that McGuinness would offer a further objection—even though doing so might look like he, too, was trying to prevent an admission of guilt, which wouldn’t play well with the judge. But when the defense barrister’s silence continued, Declan knew that Madeleine was going to have to show her hand and answer the question truthfully.
“Mrs. Cooper?” Nevin pressed. “Did you hear my question? Did you write that post because you felt personally responsible for Rosie O’Hara’s condition?”
Madeleine took a deep breath. “No, I did not,” she said with resignation.
Nevin nodded and crossed his arms. “Then why did you write it?” he asked simply.
“Because I was upset by people harassing me online. And, on top of that, I’d just been offered a publishing deal for my blog, and I suppose didn’t want to mess that up,” she added defeatedly. Now she appeared resigned, as if there was no choice other than to come clean.
Pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes, the barrister continued, “Yes, I’m sure that is quite upsetting and hard to deal with.” Then, as quickly as he could, he added, “Being harassed online and potentially losing a publishing deal must be very upsetting indeed, compared to the stress, worry and fear associated with having a child seriously ill in the hospital.”
Madeleine’s face looked drawn and it was clear she was finding this line of questioning a lot more harrowing now. While this morning, she came across as reasonable and rational, now she was being painted as selfish and insincere.
Nevin was moving on. “So while you don’t accept responsibility for what has happened to Rosie directly, you do admit that by choosing not to vaccinate your daughter against serious disease, you increased the risk of her not only contracting such a disease, but passing infection on to others, do you not?”
She nodded uncertainly, but didn’t reply, clearly unsure as to what she should say.
“In which case,” Nevin continued, “it would be reasonable to assume you would be more inclined to evaluate such a risk when either of your children showed any signs of illness, would it not?”
“It’s not that simple. I had no idea measles could get that serious.”
“But it did, didn’t it? Certainly in Rosie O’Hara’s case. Honestly, Mrs. Cooper, can you not appreciate how your and your husband’s actions, or should I sayinactionin this situation—in not vaccinating your children—potentially made it far more dangerous for the general population should they fall ill? And in your blog post, by wishing you could go back and change things, you openly admit neglecting to take that fact into account when you sent your already sick daughter to school. You said it yourself this morning, Madeleine; you made a call. Turns out it was the wrong one.”
Madeleine sat forward, her expression pained as she realized the trap Nevin was laying for her. “But...I never meant foranyof this to happen, of course I didn’t!”
