I have to go to court on Wednesday

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Allow me to explain.

Shortly before last Christmas a work colleague stabbed his wife to death.
She had left him some weeks before because she could no longer stand his violent behaviour and she had gone to live with her mother taking the 2 kids, aged 4 & 5 with her.
He persuaded her to return with a promise of no more violence, a promise he did not keep, so she left again, this time for good.

She met this guy whilst he was working in a bar in Barcelona and fell in love with him and him with her. He wasn’t Spanish but Moroccan, something she only found out 10 days before they got married when he had to admit that fact and also that his name was not “Dave” but -******.
Now to my way of looking at it a Spaniard would be unlikely to be called “Dave” so surely this should have rung a bell with her.
Anyway, this guy was not a nice person even at work, he was forever calling my country and during the last World Cup he was found writing in Arabic in the 4 white fields of the Flag of St George, these small flags most of us had fixed to our sorting frames at the Royal Mail Delivery Office where I work.
This action of his did nothing to endear him to us.
I am now being called as a character witness and fail to see how I can say anything in his favour.
The only reason I can think of that he has requested my presence is possibly down to the fact that I never actually exchanged bad words with him unlike most of my co-workers, I just tolerated him but I did not like the man.
I like him even less now that he has deprived two children of a mother and it is unlikely that they will ever want anything to do with him when they are older and are aware of the full facts.

So, What the hell do I do?

2

Inform his solicitor that you don’t think you will be a positive for his defence. Let him know that you never liked the guy.

3

don’t ask Will I still have to attend court or will a phone call suffice

4

Play along with the solicitor, up until the point at which you take your oath to tell the truth.

Then tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

5

Remind me: is the point of a character witness to say ‘I knew him and
he’d never do something like this’ or ‘He was a lovely person, despite this lapse, I’m sure he’s ever so remorseful’? Or both?

Anyway, it sounds like you’re convinced he did murder his wife, and don’t like him at all. If you want to help him, I’d suggest talking to the solicitor and seeing how positive a true description can be made. If you want to screw him, see Phnord’s post. But it seems most likely you just don’t want to do anything for him.

In that case, why don’t you contact the solicitor saying “I’m afraid I don’t think I can say anything nice about this jerk, are you sure you want me?” and won’t he say ‘uh, no’?

6

SHADE: The man has already admitted to killing his wife and you are quite right I did not like him in the slightest.
However all this is irrelevant as I phoned his solicitor from work this morning and took the advice of DONT ASK (above) the solicitor was a bit taken aback but said that if that was how I felt there was little point in my attending the court proceedings.
A letter from him is to follow.

Thanks to all of you.