Hope to Die

I covered the Camilla Rowan case for the Guardian back in 2003. I sat through every day of the trial, and I watched her that whole time. And I had no more idea of who she was at the end than I did at the beginning. The verdict didn’t come as a surprise, and at the time I definitely didn’t think there’d been any great miscarriage of justice. But there were still things that bugged me. Questions that neither the prosecution nor defence had managed to answer. So after I filed my last report I thought I’d spend a few days seeing what I could find. Thirteen years later, I’m still doing it.

Because this is the sort of case that, as a journalist, you only encounter once in a lifetime. It raises question after question after question, and yet the one person who could give us some answers still steadfastly refuses to do so. We all know she lied, but that doesn’t mean she lied about everything. Are there scraps of truth hidden in the bizarre and deeply disturbing story she told the police, and has never since deviated from? If there are, she’s not telling. But the truth, as they say, is out there. And to find it, I needed to understand not just the woman she became, but the girl she was before.

TITLE APPEARS OVER, TYPEWRITER STYLE:

Part one

“And you used to be so sweet”

Panoramic drone shot over Gloucestershire countryside. Summer sunlight. A village with a church, stone houses, a river winding through.

VOICEOVER – JOHN PENROSE

It all started here, in the small country town of Shiphampton, deep in the heart of the Cotswolds, one of the most beautiful and prosperous areas of the UK. Camilla was born in nearby Princess Alice Hospital, Gloucester, in 1980, by which time her parents, Dick and Peggy, had been married for seven years and almost given up having a child. Right from the start, she was their miracle baby, indulged and doted on, and given every advantage money could buy, including a pony, music lessons, and a private ballet teacher.

RECONSTRUCTION of little girl doing ballet movements.

When she was six, the Rowans entered a nationwide competition to find a little girl to front a new TV advertising campaign for My Little Pony. There were over 5,000 entries, and Camilla made it through to a shortlist of six. This is her screentest.

CLIP of Camilla Rowan in close-up, sitting at a table stroking a My Little Pony toy and smiling. She has her hair in bunches and is wearing a pink dress with a lace bodice and puff sleeves. She has a gap in her front teeth.

CAMILLA

I just love My Little Pony, and your little girl will too.

VOICEOVER – JOHN PENROSE

She didn’t get the gig.

Various shots of John on the phone, putting it down, leaving messages asking for a call back.

VOICEOVER – JOHN PENROSE

I contacted the Rowans a number of times through their lawyers while we were making this documentary, hoping they’d agree to take part, but they’ve refused to speak to anyone from the press ever since an incident a few weeks after the trial, when a journalist claimed Dick Rowan threatened him with a gun. The allegation was never substantiated and no charges were ever brought, but the extensive coverage of the incident provoked a fresh backlash against the family, along with threats of violence from certain quarters. So it’s perhaps understandable that the Rowans have tried to keep a low profile ever since. None of their other family members were willing to speak on camera either, probably for the same reason, but there was one person we were able to talk to: Sheila Ward, who worked for Dick Rowan for more than 20 years, and had a lot of contact with the family when Camilla was growing up.

Cut to: sitting room, gas fire, Border terrier on sofa, potted plants, etc.

TITLE OVER: Sheila Ward, Dick Rowan’s secretary, 1971–1996

SHEILA WARD