"You were so incensed that she was going to leave you, you attacked her." says Corr, his voice rising slightly.

"No I didn't!" shouts Hobbs, his tone a complete contrast to Corr.

"You used your trophy to beat her didn't you? You hit her on the head with it a number of times."

"That's not true. Marina was killed by intruders."

"No, Mr. Hobbs, she was killed by you. After you had beaten her senseless with the trophy you drowned her in your pool."

"I'd never hurt her!"

"But you've got a violent temper, haven't you?" says Corr coldly.

"Not at all!"

"Well Mr. Hobbs, only that afternoon you broke another man's nose!"

"He called me a nonce!"

"So you think he deserved it?"

Hobbs falls silent before exclaiming happily.

"I couldn't have drowned her in the pool. You heard the police officer. My trousers were bone dry when they nicked me!"

Corr pauses and the court waits for his next move. Wait a minute, just wait a minute. I quickly scrawl a note on the reverse of one of the witness statements and yank the back of his gown. He turns around, takes it from me and reads it before placing it on top of his papers. There is a moment of pure silence.

"You've had that pool since you remodeled the house?"

"Yes," Hobbs agrees uncertainly.

"And you use it regularly all year round?"

"It's heated, so I normally swim in it every day. I have to stay fit," he replies, patting his toned stomach with his hand.

"Presumably you pay someone to change the chemicals?" Corr enquires.

"Yes, they visit once a month"

"So when you have leaves in the pool I presume you remove them with the implement that we saw you use yesterday?"

"Er, yes"

"And that's an item you've had for a while?"

Hobbs nods.

Corr goes in for the kill. "Did you use that pole to hold your wife underneath the water until she died?"

"My Lord!" interrupts Quinn, getting to his feet. "Mr. Corr has no evidence of that so the Defendant should not have to answer that question."

For a split second, Mr. Justice Wynne looks troubled.

"Mr. Quinn, the members of the jury did all in fact see the Defendant cleaning his pool with such an item yesterday. In light of the evidence he has given, the jury may draw an inference about the death from this. He should answer the question."

Hobbs looks discomforted before he replies.

"I didn't kill her. I had nothing to do with it. I was with Andre."

"So what about this?" asks Corr, handing around the enlarged, enhanced photograph of the broken champagne bottle. "It would appear that a bottle of the very rare champagne that you were drinking that night at Ghost also turned up at your house."

"There was some of that in my cellar"

I'm ready for this one. I pass my second note forwards. Corr nods and makes a noise of assent.

"Again Mr. Hobbs, we saw your cellar yesterday. It was full of cheap, mass produced bottles."

"Well I drank all of the good stuff." he tries to explain.

"And do you have any receipts to support this claim?"

"No," mutters Quinn.

"Sorry, what was that Mr. Hobbs? Please try and keep your voice up."

"I said NO!" he yells.

"Because the truth is you bought that bottle home with you from Ghost didn't you? You were drunk, you saw she was leaving you, you were angry and you attacked her."

"No! For the hundredth time, I did not. I loved my wife!" shouts Hobbs "No Mr. Hobbs you controlled your wife and when you lost control, you killed her." he finishes.

As he sits down I feel an overwhelming sense of pride. He totally took him to pieces. I look at the jury and see that they look very uncomfortable, which hopefully means they've realised they're sat in the same room as a murderer.

Quinn has gone very pale and has turned around in his seat to talk to Rivers. The pair of them are having an animated discussion in hushed tones and I'm dying to know what is being said.

Quinn gets to his feet. "The next witness for the defence is Andre Plushenko."

Andre Plushenko is a very tall, slim dark haired man wearing a very expensive pale grey suit. He delivers the oath in a heavily accented voice and introduces himself to the court.

"My name is Andre Plushenko," he says, rolling the 'r' in his first name.

Quinn takes him through how he knows Hobbs: they've been playing football together for the best part of six years. Predictably, Plushenko is telling the court about how Hobbs stayed with him for the night after they had left Ghost together.

"Ve vent back to my house. He stay on ze sofa. It vas no problem. When I get up at seven, he vas still asleep. I give him some coffee and he vent home about haff past eight. I know he not leave as I check on him at five to make sure he vas ok."

Plushenko gave this evidence at the last trial and I remember when I read the transcript thinking that it was pretty convenient that he had a perfect alibi like this. The prosecution have looked into every angle as to why Plushenko would lie and have drawn a total blank. His salary as a footballer means that he's rich enough already so it's not like we can suggest that Hobbs is buying his support.

Further, there are no apparent skeletons in his closest to suspect that blackmail is involved, so no-one seems to have a clue why he's supporting Hobbs in this cover-up. When Corr cross-examined him last time he didn't really get anywhere as Plushenko stuck firmly to his guns. I can practically hear his brain working from here. Plushenko looks totally bored by his involvement in proceedings and is currently studying his nails with a slightly irritated look on his face.

"You and Mr. Hobbs have been very good friends for some six years now?"

"Yes. Vot is your point Mr. Corr? I vould not lie to protect him if zat is vot you are suggesting?"

Corr smiles at him.

"You know me too well Mr. Plushenko. When you left Ghost, the Defendant was very drunk wasn't he?"

"Yes, but zat is no crime Mr. Corr."

Corr continues, choosing to ignore the persistent use of his name.

"When the Defendant left the club he had something with him, didn't he?"

"No, he did not haff any Krug Mr. Corr"

The court falls totally silent. You could hear a pin drop. I hardly dare to breathe.

"What was that Mr. Plushenko?" asks Corr, very, very quietly, reminding me of a tiger ready to pounce.

"Ze champagne. Ve drank all in ze bar. There vas none left ven ve leave"

"But I didn't mention any champagne Mr. Plushenko. What makes you think I was going to ask you about a bottle of Krug?"

Plushenko looks concerned for a moment, but his face relaxes after a brief period of thought. He fingers one of the gold chains round his neck.

"You ask me about vis last time Mr. Corr. I tell you last time, there vas no champagne."

"No, Mr. Plushenko. I did not ask you about this last time. We all have a transcript of what was said last time and when I asked questions of you, I did not mention any champagne. So tell me, how do you know about the Krug?"

"I do not know vat you mean," he replies, sweating slightly. "I do not understand."

"Well I'll make it easy for you then. As I didn't mention any champagne last time, let alone any any brand such as Krug, why did you bring it up? How did you know that was what I was asking you about?"

Plushenko has gone a really unattractive shade of red and is fidgeting with the bible in front of him. The whole courtroom is totally captivated, waiting for his answer. When none is forthcoming, the Judge intervenes.

"Please answer the question Mr. Plushenko."

There's about another minute of silence before he speaks.

"I, I guess. No-one tell me."

Corr lets this answer sink in before resuming his attack.

"So you just guessed that a bottle of Krug is now a key piece of evidence in this trial?" he asks, with a small smile on his face. I can see a number of jurors shake their heads.

"Yes. I guess. I guess!"

"Mr. Plushenko, enough of the lies. You've obviously spoken to either the Defendant or one of his team about this trial, haven't you?"

"No. I do not lie. I no speak to anyone."

"Are you familiar with the terms 'perjury' and 'conspiracy to pervert the course of justice'?" says Corr with a very serious expression on his weathered face.

"No," says Plushenko sulkily.

"Well, you will be soon" slams Corr.

I feel like jumping up and whooping. That was absolutely amazing. I cannot believe it. He's annihilated him, shown that there is a huge conspiracy to provide Hobbs with a defence. That was such an obvious lie, it's totally unbelievable. Plushenko is spitting in the witness box, trying to make his protestations heard. Quinn rises to re-examine. He is trying to act unconcerned about what has just happened, but is failing miserably.

"Mr. Plushenko, are you lying to protect your friend?"

"No!"

"And have you been in discussion with anyone about this case?"

"No! I haff not!"

Quinn sits down and there is silence. Mr. Justice Wynne looks around the court slowly before speaking.

"Mr. Plushenko, you may leave the witness box. Mr. Quinn, is there any further evidence for the defence?"

"My Lord yes, some excellent written character references for Mr. Hobbs."

"Well, we'll hear those now then take a short break before Mr. Corr' speech. Mr. Quinn, we'll hear from you tomorrow then I'll sum the case up."

As Rivers reads out a small library worth of letters from people who claim that they have known Hobbs for many years and have never seen him raise his hand to anyone. I try to suppress a yawn; this evidence is somewhat diluted by the fact he's already admitted breaking a man's nose.

I listen to him speak and try to suppress any thoughts that he actually has a really sexy voice. Rivers is facing the jury, relaying the contents of his documents to them. Some of them are paying attention but most are making no secret of the fact they now consider the defence case a complete waste of their time.

I quickly glance behind my left shoulder and see that Serena has stopped typing and is looking somewhat ashen at the turn of events. Rivers finishes and sits down. When the Judge has retired, Corr turns to me with a huge smile on his face.

"Well, I certainly didn't expect that," he says in an amazed tone.

"Talk about third time lucky!" I reply.

I hear an audible tutting noise from behind me and turn in surprise to see Serena looking at me.

"Is there anything you need me to do?" I ask Corr.

"No. I think you've done enough already," he remarks, noting something down on his papers with his fountain pen.

I try not to smile. "Well, if you think of anything you know where I am!"

His speech is sublime. He takes the jury through all of the key points of the evidence and totally goes to town on Hobbs and Plushenko.

"Members of the jury, I don't want to insult your intelligence by going over Mr. Plushenko's evidence with you; I know you will have seen straight through the facade of his words. There is only one way he could have known about what I was going to ask him; he must he been told about the new evidence in the case. Why? Well that's easy. The Defendant knew he was in big trouble and needed his faithful friend to slightly amend his story to save him. He is just as much of a liar as Mr. Hobbs. I do not think for a second either of them will have come close to fooling you and I know you will recognise the reality of this case. You have before you an angry and abusive man, a man who freely cheated on his wife because he knew he could get away with it. A man who never expected his wife would attempt to leave him. A man who was drunk and armed with his player of the year trophy. You've heard a lot of speculation about intruders and I have no doubt that Mr. Quinn will address you in the morning and spin you some impressive tale about burglars. But ask yourself this, why would burglars commit murder to protect their identities and take nothing? You've all seen the property for yourself, you know the items of value contained inside. It makes no sense. The tragic truth is clear. Mrs Hobbs was leaving the Defendant and when challenged, was killed by her feckless husband."

I faithfully type each word that Corr utters, marveling at his eloquent use of prose. He has the jury in the palm of his hand and I'm totally convinced that they're all sure of his guilt. They have to be. There is no way there can be any doubt after what they have heard. When he sits down, just over an hour and a half later, I'm positive it's in the bag.