Hope to Die

GQ: For the purposes of the recording, Mr Swann has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a fatal shooting at his home, Gantry Manor, Ock Lane, Wytham, on the evening of October 21st 2018. Mr Swann has been apprised of his rights, and has declined a solicitor at this stage. He is aware he can ask for legal representation at any time.

OK, Mr Swann, let’s start by hearing your version of events.

RS: My wife and I were in bed and heard a noise downstairs. I remember it was just after 9.30 because my television programme had just started.

GQ: What sort of noise did you hear? Breaking glass? Something like that?

RS: No. It was more like someone moving about. When you’ve lived in a house for a long time you get to know the noises. It was obvious there was someone downstairs.

GQ: Why didn’t you call 999? That would have been safer, surely?

RS: In case you haven’t noticed, we’re some way from the nearest police station. By the time anyone got there the culprit would have been long gone. Assuming, of course, that you people bothered coming out at all. And for the record, since you’re bound to ask, I was going to call you. I was on the point of doing so when those two uniformed chappies turned up.

GQ: Right. So to return to the sequence of events, you heard an intruder, and you decided not to call the police but go down and confront him yourself, even though you’re – what? – in your seventies?

RS: Seventy-four. And I’m fully entitled to defend both myself and my property. I know my rights -

AF: What you’re entitled to, Mr Swann, is the use of ‘reasonable force’. What is, and is not, ‘reasonable’ is determined by the level of threat confronting you at the time. That’s what we’re trying to establish. Especially given the fact that the man you shot was found not only dead but – quite literally – with his back to the wall. That doesn’t strike me as the stance of an aggressor.

RS: [silence]

Like I said, I heard the noise and went downstairs. I told Margaret to stay where she was.

GQ: I assume there were no lights on downstairs at this point?

RS: No, none. But I could hear him – he was in the kitchen.

GQ: He was in the kitchen, even though he must have known there was next to no chance there was anything valuable in there?

RS: We keep cash in a tea caddy. People our age often do. I assume that was what he was after.

GQ: OK, fair enough. So you go through to the kitchen, and – what? – confront him?

RS: Right.

AF: What did you say?

RS: [turning to DI Fawley]

I told him to eff off. To get the hell out of my property and not come back. Pointed the gun at him.

GQ: And what happened then?

RS: He laughed – called me ‘Grandad’. Said I didn’t scare him and it was probably just an effing air gun. Then he came at me with that knife. That’s when I shot him.

AF: And he ended up by the wall?

RS: Evidently. I can’t tell you any more than that. It all happened very fast.

AF: But you still maintain you were in fear of your life?

RS: He was three feet away from me, and at least forty years younger, and he had a weapon. Of course I was in fear of my life.

AF: You could tell his age? You just said the ground floor was in darkness.

RS: There’s a security light at the back of the house, and the kitchen blinds weren’t drawn. There was easily enough light to see it was a young man.

AF: Did you recognize him?

RS: Never seen him before in my life.

AF: There hadn’t been any strangers hanging round the house lately – people who might have been checking out the property?

RS: Of course not – we’d have phoned the police. That’s what you’re supposed to do, isn’t it?

GQ: So according to you, the shooting was an act of self-defence?

RS: Not ‘according to me’, it’s what happened.

[holds up his hand]

You can see that with your own eyes. And you have the knife. What more do you need?

AF: Thank you, Mr Swann. You’ve been very clear.

[silence]

RS: So is that it? I can go?

AF: Where’s the gun kept?

RS: What?

AF: It’s a simple enough question, Mr Swann.

* * *

‘So, your husband goes downstairs, leaving you in the bedroom. Can I ask why you didn’t call the police? Or if not the police, someone else who might have helped – a family member, a neighbour?’

An arch look. ‘There’s no telephone in our bedroom. And I don’t have one of those mobile things. I don’t want brain cancer, thank you very much.’

‘And you stayed upstairs? You didn’t see anything?’

Margaret Swann shakes her head. ‘No. Nothing at all.’

‘What did you hear?’

She frowns. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘You’ve clearly had no problem hearing me so far, Mrs Swann. I can’t believe you didn’t notice a shotgun going off in a silent house.’

* * *

RS: I keep my gun in an appropriately secured safe. And before you ask, I have a permit, and it’s fully up to date.

GQ: Yes, we’ve already checked that.

[passes across a sheet of paper]

This is a plan of the ground floor of your house, yes?

RS: [hesitates]