Innocence Betrayed

MASTERCLASS: If you’re old enough to remember Jeff Rawle as Billy Liar in the 60 sitcom of the same name or as Plantagenet in Doctor Who: Frontios, or more recently as George Dent in the satirical news comedy Drop The Dead Donkey, you will know that as an actor he is quite riveting – as he is in this episode of The Bill, bringing unexpected depths to a thoroughly nasty character.

THE BILL
Innocence Betrayed: Episode 010
Thursday 10 September 2009, 21.00 to 22.00, ITV1
Repeated on ITV1 on Friday 11 September at 22:35 and ITV3 on Monday 14 September at 23:00
*Guest starring Jeff Rawle as George Fielding*

After a raid, Paul Brewer (Michael Colgan) is arrested for having indecent images of a young girl on his lap top. At the station, D.S. Max Carter (Christopher Fox) and D.C. Jo Masters (Sally Rogers) interview Paul, who insists that the images would have been on the laptop when he bought it from a car boot sale.

However, when Max and Jo reveal the images were downloaded after he bought it, Paul finally admits he lent the laptop to a friend, George Fielding (Jeff Rawle), who he met in prison 10 years ago when he was serving time for burglary.

D.C. Jacob Banks (Patrick Robinson) is tasked with visiting George, who is a convicted paedophile. After Banksy explains why he’s there, George has no hesitation in telling the D.C. that he downloaded the images onto Paul’s computer and that Paul knew nothing about it.

Banksy is surprised by George’s admission, as he had been doing so well, even asking to be re-housed when teenage girls moved into his street. Back at the station, Jo and Banksy discover that the images weren’t downloaded but taken with a camera.

The pair put this to George who insists that he got the images from the internet and denies knowing who the girl in the photos is. Could she be in further danger..?

The girl is soon identified as four-year-old Lucy Gearie (Millie Missen) and Max is faced with the difficulty of explaining the situation to her parents, Kevin (George Calil) and Monica (Rebekah Manning).

They are both horrified by the news but manage to establish that on the day the pictures were taken, Monica’s brother-in-law babysat had been babysitting Lucy. Max is stunned to learn that Lucy’s uncle is Paul and heads straight back to the station to re-question him.

Paul finally tells Max that the day he was looking after Lucy, he had invited George over but accidentally fell asleep. When he woke up, he discovered George taking pictures of Lucy and horrified, threw him out of the house. He explains that despite what George had done, he didn’t want to get him into trouble, as George looked out for Paul when they were in prison together.

Banksy questions George, who corroborates Paul’s story, but the officer remains unconvinced. Is Banksy naive in thinking that a convicted paedophile is innocent and covering for someone else, or can he prove his theory right..?

THE BILL is a talkbackTHAMES production and a direct commission by ITV. This episode was written by Chris Ould, directed by Jamie Annett and produced by James Hall.