Streetwalker's TV torment led to triple murder horror (Pub-friendly) [The Rockall Times]

On day four of the Queen versus Rawbottom at Teesside Crown Court the jury heard evidence from the defendant's mother Doreen, the 45-year-old Middlesbrough prostitute whose brief flirtation with cutting-edge broadcasting ended in tragedy, leaving three dead and her son Barry, 27, charged with murder. In over three hours of cross-examination the full background to the case and its dramatic dénouement emerged.

Strapped for cash after falling victim to the nasty disease of ageism picked up from the new economy and now spreading into the oldest professions (apart from in Liverpool), the plucky grandmother of six got herself a place on the second series of the notorious Tyne Tees reality show Big Fuc*kin' 'Ard Cun*t of a Brother and a shot at the kitty of £1,950 that would take care of her crippling backlog of fines and missed birthdays.

In the show with the edgy twist of no early release for bad behaviour the old-fashioned hooker from South Teesside was hampered by a poor education that had left her unequipped with the skills to either "bond" or "chill out", let alone to fathom the mysterious purpose of the group tasks, and she was singled out daily by Big Fuc*kin' 'Ard Cun*t of a Brother for horsewhipping.

It was during preparations for tea on the fateful evening, amid loose talk of what was for afters, that the imminent appearance of an even more fearsome bogeyman "the Gender Bender" was mentioned, at which the traumatised down-to-earth pro announced "I'm not stopping here!" and fled into the off-limits corridor, with a gruff disembodied voice bellowing from behind: "Eeh, get thee back 'ere lass or it's more floggin' as yer got comin' to yer!"

Determined to escape, the doughty mother of five stumbled on a likely accomplice in handy household effects wizard Gary Cotter, 19, enlisting his support with a knee-trembler in the cupboard under the stairs. After wiping off, Cotter got an owl out with a message to the sterling sex worker's loyal son Barry to duck out of the next round at the Slag and Chunder and be alongside the perimeter wall at 8 o'clock sharp with the engine running. No sooner had the desperate fugitives tumbled panting and dishevelled into the back seat than sirens wailed out across the neighbourhood and the bid for freedom turned into a high-speed chase through the industrial hinterland with a fleet of white vans in hot pursuit, lights flashing and cameras rolling.

Mrs Rawbottom was contrite as she recalled her behaviour in the back seat with Cotter — both of them raving at her son to put his foot down and give it more welly to shake off their pursuers. The plan seemed to be working as they hurtled at 120 mph through the tunnel into the Riverside regeneration area, but moments later tragedy struck as the car mounted the pavement and mowed down three pedestrians before swerving back into the road.

Inevitably at that hour in the buzzing pleasure capital of the North the victims were young competitors of Mrs Rawbottom. Local business and union leaders alike have condemned the killings as highly inconvenient.

Judicial expert Tristram O'Specious has been attending the trial and gives us this insight into the legal issues involved: "There are obvious mitigating circumstances that would normally be taken into account," he notes, "principally, that the deaths were occasioned by impact with a fuel-propelled vehicle operated by a motorist in the general vicinity of a thoroughfare. But the current case is exceptional, since the prosecution alleges that the accused executed the manoeuvre accidentally on purpose, seizing an opportunity to gain an unfair competitive advantage for his mother's business."

The effect has been quite the reverse, turning the once popular public servant into a pariah with little prospect of working again in the community, while a life sentence hangs over her wretched son. In the feverish atmosphere of civic outrage that grips the gritty conurbation the Crown is confident of a conviction.

Late in the afternoon the defendant himself was called to the witness box to begin his cross-examination. He swore blind that he never did it accidentally on purpose, but confessed to causing death by dangerous driving and being under the limit. Wracked with remorse, he made an emotional appeal to the court: "If I'd been tanked up good and proper this wouldn't never have happened," he assured the jury. "We'd have crashed in the tunnel and all got killed, and me mam gone down in glory as the people's prossie."

The trial resumes at 10.00 am tomorrow.

Streetwalker's TV torment led to triple murder horror

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