TTN:-
He engaged a clever civvy lawyer
I wonder if that was Dato David Marshall? While on 48 Sqn 1963/66 at Changi as a Hastings co-pilot, my secondary duty was deputy squadron adjutant, to stand in for the WO adj who also ran the football team and hence was often "away". Among the many filing duties, etc, was the need to draw up lists for officers to attend CMs as officers under instruction. If I remember rightly you had to score three of these and could then be nominated to be a Board Member yourself. With that unenviable outlook, many and varied were the excuses given to be excluded from such lists.
Then an upcoming murder trial was announced! The arrangement between the British and Singapore governments was that all crime committed on British bases, that only involved British Servicemen/women and was not covered by the Singapore RTA, would be dealt with by Service courts, including it seems murder! This case involved members of the Sergeants Mess, one of whom died in rather gruesome manner in a Married Quarter. After investigation by RAFP, charges were made and a trial date set.
The first I knew of all this was a week when I was required to man the Orderly Room and told to draw up the usual lists for each day of the trial. It turned out to be a doddle! Rather than being inundated with excuses, my clients were trying to subvert the process by begging to be listed for every day! Other hopefuls lingered around outside hoping for last minute cancellations.
The big pull was the drama being enacted on a daily basis in the court. The defence counsel was Dato David Marshal, a renowned local lawyer and politician. He ran rings around the prosecution witnesses, particularly the RAFP who had been proceeding in an easterly direction, etc, only to end up contradicting themselves under his cross-examination. To cut the story short, what seemed at first to be an open and shut case ended with a verdict of Not Guilty to the murder charge, but Guilty of manslaughter. On appeal this latter verdict was quashed and our man went free without a stain on his character. The really galling thing about all this was that I wasn't allowed to list myself and hence learned about all this third hand!