Into the Darkest Corner

Into the Darkest Corner

Lancaster Crown Court
R-v-Brightman
Morning Session
Before:
THE HONORABLE MR. JUSTICE NOLAN
Mr. Maclean: Would you please state your full name?

Mr. Brightman: Lee Anthony Brightman.

Mr. Maclean: Thank you. Now, Mr. Brightman, you had a relationship with Miss Bailey, is that correct?

Mr. Brightman: Yes.

Mr. Maclean: For how long?

Mr. Brightman: I met her at the end of October in 2003. We were seeing each other until the middle of June last year.

Mr. Maclean: And how did you meet?

Mr. Brightman: At work. I was working on an operation and I happened to meet her through the course of that.

Mr. Maclean: And you formed a relationship?

Mr. Brightman: Yes.

Mr. Maclean: You said that the relationship ended in June. Was that a mutual decision?

Mr. Brightman: Things had been going wrong for a while. Catherine was very jealous of the time I spent away from her working. She was convinced I was having an affair.

Mr. Maclean:And were you?

Mr. Brightman: No. My job takes me away from home for days at a time, and the nature of it means that I can’t tell anyone, not even my girlfriend, where I am or when I’ll be home.

Mr. Maclean:Did your time away from Miss Bailey cause arguments between you?

Mr. Brightman: Yes. She would check my cell phone for messages from other women, demand to know where I’d been, who I’d been seeing. When I got back from a job, all I wanted to do was forget about work and relax a bit. It started to feel like I never had the chance to do that.

Mr. Maclean: So you ended the relationship?

Mr. Brightman: No. We had fights sometimes, but I loved her. I knew she had some emotional problems. When she went for me, I always told myself that it wasn’t her fault.

Mr. Maclean: What do you mean by “emotional problems?”

Mr. Brightman: Well, she told me she had suffered from anxiety in the past. The more time I spent with her, the more I saw that coming out. She would go out drinking with her friends, or drink at home, and when I got home she would start an argument and lash out at me.

Mr. Maclean: Just with regard to the emotional problems, I would like to ask you about that further. Did you, over the course of your relationship, see any evidence that Miss Bailey would harm herself at times of emotional stress?

Mr. Brightman: No. Her friends had told me that she had cut herself in the past.

Mr. Lewis: Objection, Your Honor. The witness was not asked about the opinions of Miss Bailey’s friends.

Mr. Justice Nolan: Mr. Brightman, please keep to the questions you are asked. Thank you.

Mr. Maclean: Mr. Brightman, you mentioned that Miss Bailey would “lash out” at you. Can you explain what you mean by “lash out”?

Mr. Brightman: She would shout, push me, slap me, kick me. That kind of thing.

Mr. Maclean: She was violent toward you?

Mr. Brightman: Yes. Well, yes. She was.

Mr. Maclean: On how many occasions, would you say?

Mr. Brightman: I don’t know. I didn’t keep count.

Mr. Maclean: And what did you generally do, on these occasions when she “lashed out” at you?

Mr. Brightman: I would walk away from it. I deal with that enough at work; I don’t need it when I get home.

Mr. Maclean: And were you ever violent toward her?

Mr. Brightman: Only the last time.

Reprinted from INTO THE DARKEST CORNER. Copyright © 2012 by Elizabeth Haynes. Reprinted by permission of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.