After the ball was over

Transcript: Victim Interview

Sergeant Copper: For the tape, my name is Sergeant Copper. Also present are Elspeth Socialworker and  representing Miss Young-Person is her solicitor Gloria Law. [pause, shuffling of papers, scuffing of chairs]

Now, Miss Young-Person, can you tell us, in your own words, why you are here today?

Young-Person: I want to give a statement. I want to tell my story. [pause] He promised me sweets if I went with him.

SC: Sweets?

Y-P: Yes. I like sweets

SC: Did he say what kind of sweets?

Y-P: No. He just promised me that there would be sweets; whatever I wanted.

SC: Did you take the sweets?

Y-P: No, because [pause, sobbing] well, I never saw the sweets. I mean, he sounded perfectly plausible. You know... whatever type of sweet I said I liked he said I could have. If I wanted mints he said he would get me mints. If I wanted toffees, then toffees I would have, he told me. But I never saw any toffees... or mints.

SC: I see. Did he ask you to do anything in return for these sweets? Anything for him?

Y-P: I don’t know, really. I mean, he didn’t ask us to actually, you know, do anything. Not as such. I think he just wanted us to love him. He smelled funny. Like camphor, or something.

SC: Us?

Y-P: Yes. At first I thought it might just be me; maybe I was... chosen. He made me feel special, you know, like a kind old grandad. And although he seemed a little lonely, as if he really needed me, he made me think it was all about me and that the world was there just for my benefit. He told me that no matter what I wanted, he would make it happen.

Gloria Law: It is. It is your human right that whatsoever your heart desires, you shall have it. Because it is your irrevocable human right to be happy and successful.

Y-P: Yes, but I thought he meant only me. He spoke directly to me, from my smart phone... at least, I thought he did. But then, when I went to meet him, I discovered I wasn’t the only one at all. There were thousands just like me.

Sergeant Copper: And what happened, when you met the others?

Y-P: Well, they were all very nice. All like me; just like me, in fact. They all had a sort of ‘glow’ about them, as if they – we – had all been drugged, or enchanted or something. I felt like I had no option but to do what everybody else did. I didn’t feel special so much then, more like we were all the same. I wasn’t sure I liked it, but I felt I had to play along because...

SC: Because, what?

Y-P: He held us in a sort of trance. It felt like we all knew the words to the song and if we tried to sing different words... well, it didn’t feel like an option I dared to try. You know, I sort of felt that even if I didn’t agree with what he was saying, I still had to sing the correct words, or else... I don’t know. We just all sang along, whatever we were feeling inside.

SC: You had to sing?

Y-P: He made us chant his name.

SC: Oh?

Y-P: [sings] Jeremy Corbyn...

Jeremy... not as other children.

Elspeth Socialworker: Well, you are safe now. Your parents are coming to pick you up after this interview. But we need you to do one last thing, before you go. Sergeant?

[indistinct noises. A box is placed on the table: video evidence accompanies this transcript]

Sergeant Copper: Miss Young-Person, using the doll, would you show us exactly where he touched you?