SCARLETTE, MANNION & ME By Adv. Jos. Peter D'Souza When shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightening or in rain; When the hurly burlies done, When the battle's lost and won, Then shall we three meet again.
Yes, the opening portents of the three witches in King Lear. Shakespeare was a genius unparalled. Today, the lines echo on the windmills of my mind. When shall we three meet again. Scarlette, I never met. Mannion, did I? And the third, I know from moment to moment. This is being penned (excuse the old fashioned lingo) only because today's papers left some bad news on the doorstep. Michael Mannion went public. He gave his story to the press and police. He has become a celebrity. And advocates are under a cloud because of some rather dubious advise given to him by one of our kind. Initially he has kept the name anonymous. Thus bringing all advocates under a cloud. Some of the press asked him to disclose the identity, but he preferred to keep mum. I prepared this article. Before dispatching it, a media friend phoned in t inform that he had disclosed my name. Hence, the above few sentences have been entered. I suppose he realized his folly. Perhaps some folks want him to be the next celebrity. A co-star with another angle, another sale, another rags to riches media hyped story. If the star can dream limousines after having lived forever in a caravan, why not claim a piece of the pie. Mannion is a cool customer. That, he sure was. As a preface let me say as an advocate, and even from times before my legal practise, I have dealt with all nationalities. From this vast array, the largest chunk are the 'Brits' as they are still referred to by many of us. By far and large they were all the 'Honest to God' type. Though, ironically, most did not believe in any god. Yet, without a doubt, they came through as straight, and liked straight talk. Most of these I met in very unfortunate circumstances – behind bars, arrested on a charge of drug possession, sometimes involving kilos. They would shoot straight from the hip, and always wondered how I could get them off. 'But the drugs were mine!' was their usual amazed refrain! I had a hard time explaining the concept of 'Innocent till proven guilty'. Some, I even suspect, wondered whether I was conning them into earning a fat fee by taking on the case. Anyway, all of them are safely back home, and those, who may chance upon this article, reading it beside some English fire-place will chuckle and say to themselves – Yes, mate, those were the days. They were an honest bunch. But now I have encountered a new breed. Just the opposite of what we knew. These only spew half truths if not flat falsehoods. The average Goan on the street can smell them out a mile away, but these are not the ones before the cameras. Around 8th February I was visited in my office by young British lady who had come down to Goa in connection with her brother's drowning death which she had reason to believe was homicidal. In fact, the police report accompanying the corpse for post mortem had pre-empted an opinion - that the death was 'not' homicidal. What the girlfriend narrated confirmed our worst fears. But this is not the main issue and the case for me is still open. I will refer to it only to help understand a tale of two stories. We will call this person 'Frazer', and it won't be too much off the mark. His sister & girlfriend now back home in the U.K. will understand why if her eyes fall upon this article. And I may send her a copy. While on this the Frazer case, I received a phone call on the evening of February 23rd from someone who gave his name as Michael Manion of the U.K. He was rather agitated and I asked him to visit me at my office which he did a little later. I am not free to disclose more of what transpired at my office under the cloak of client confidentiality. To date he has not given me permission to go public on what was conversed. But that is not the main issue of this article. All I would say is that half truths are worse than lies, and there is more than meets the eye. As proof of his visit to my office I have a copy of the receipt issued to him for the retainer, and I immediately opened a file in his name as is the office practise. Yet, I can go on record to say that telephonically we did verify with the police who informed that no offence had been registered. I did not even get the name of the drowned person, though Manion had indicated it was a girl. Because of Manion's fears, coupled with the uncertainty of the police action, I asked him to 'lie low' and keep in touch. That was the last I 'saw' of him. But all I can say is that he left instructing me not to disclose the details of his visit on grounds of client confidentiality till he gives me permission. I heard this on more than one occasion since then. At this stage I would like to state that since I am counsel for at least two suspects in the entire sordid episode surrounding both Scarlette's life and death, I will not be touching on any fact which is of immediate relevancy to the case. That will be done in a court of law, it the matter does reach there, and I am personally against any form of a 'media' trial. Hence I will deal only with Scarlette, Manion and Me in the bargain. A couple of days after this Michael Mannion left us, I read a small report in the local newspaper which was in connection with the drowning of Scarlette. It said the mother accompanied by her Supreme Court Advocate had visited the Anjuna Police Station demanding a reopening of investigation into her daughter's death. It looked like her plea was falling on def ears. I immediately contacted the local British Consular office at Panaji whom I know very well and asked them to ask the mother to get in touch with me. This was because I was privy to what had happened on the fateful night and wanted to help the mother whom I had plenty of sympathy till then. There was no response. But to be fair to the mother, I have now learnt that the message did not get across. Shortly thereafter, another person entered on the scene. He was Julio, the alleged 'boyfriend' of Scarlette. His grievance was that the cops had taken his passport, and he had to go to Finland for a job. That's how our office got back into the action of the case. All this was before the 'second' autopsy report when what the mother was saying was apparently falling on deaf years. My instruction to Julio was that he keeps his mouth shut, and in any case he did not know anything of what happened at Lui's bar where Scarlette spent her last hours. But, one Sunday afternoon around that time, Julio phoned me to say the 'mother' was asking him to come over and sign some papers prepared by her advocate. I took the opportunity to try once more to get in touch with the mother. Through Julio the mother was informed to come with her advocate to our office, and I would be present despite it being a Sunday. Not only did I want to meet with her who was now taking center stage and pass on 'information', but I also wanted to check the statement they wanted Julio to sign. Though this went across, there was no sign of the mother, nor of her advocate. Then came the by now notorious 'second' autopsy report, and all hell broke loose. The mother became a star attraction. And she played her role well. In the meanwhile I was in touch with Michael Manion telephonically. He wanted to give his story, but from the safe shores of 'Good Ole England'. The police also wanted to meet him desperately. I learnt there was a L.O.C. (Look Out Circular) on him, and as such he would not be in a position to leave the country. I conveyed this message to him. But as stated earlier, he was a cool customer. He had his map chalked out overland through Nepal. I got in touch with SP Bsosco George and extracted from him an assurance that they only wanted a statement from him, and he would be kept safe. Soon I found myself playing the role of a liaison between the SP Bosco George and Michael Manion. After his last s.m.s. on 8.3.08 at 6.41 p.m. which read "Peter its Michael here can u advise me any more pls?" the rest were telephonic conversations. In the meanwhile 'Samson' had been arrested, though he was under detention from quite some time. I was approached by one of his relations to file a bail application on his behalf. I declined as I felt there would be a conflict of interests vis a vis Manion. Ethically I was not sure, but better to be safe that sorry. I took up the case on behalf of Placido Carvalho as there was not even a whisper against him. I am not very certain, but something tells me I managed to pull Mannion back from the borders. I asked him to go to any of the British High Commissions or Consular offices in India and give his statement to them in order that they could forward it to the local police. I also suggested that he make a statement before a Magistrate or Notary and send it over by post. Another idea was to send me his statement by email at my g-mail address and I would do the rest. Nothing of this ever happened as far as I know. In contrast, in the other 'Frazer' case I received everything on e-mail without much ado. My all but last conversation with Mike Manion was very interesting. He was definitely coming in like the spy who came in from the cold. It was to be only a matter of days. Then in one call he asked me a strange question as to whether he would be kept in the same cell as the other accused when arrested. He was literally and genuinely afraid for his life. I did my best to assuage him. Then suddenly he phones in to inform that he no longer needs my services and he would be coming down to Goa with a Delhi advocate. After that I did contact him once for permission to go public about us two, since the press were breathing down my neck. First, he said O.K.. I immediately got in touch with one of my media friends and arranged an interview. I was all set to go, in order to clear up a lot of misunderstanding. But in less than an hour I get another call from Mr. Manion reverting back to his old 'Ormeta' as it is termed in the mafia – and binding me to silence. I cancelled my interview . As was anticipated, Michael Manion went over to the camp of Scarlette's mother, and the rest is in the present continuous. To date neither he nor his advocate has had the courtesy to release me from my bond to silence due to client confidentiality. Hence I cannot disclose what he informed about the incident. And in any case his statement to me would not be relevant in a court of law. But I do hope he reads this article, and after doing so, I do hope he speaks the truth which he at one time so desperately wanted to tell all and sundry but was too afraid to open his mouth. As far as I am concerned, it has been very difficult for me to remain silent all this while watching simple Goan folks being taken for a ride. Yet, I cannot go beyond the brief I set out at the beginning of this article. There was no intention to say what Manion told me about the incident between the girl and others on that fateful night. This article was only to be about Scarlette, Manion and Me. I hope I have done justice to my brief. (Adv. Jos. Peter D'Souza) ------------ The article above appeared in Gomantak Times last week. ======
