In a secretly taped conversation at the Buddhist Society in London in 1982 Christmas Humphreys, prosecuting counsel at Ruth Ellis’s trial on 20 June 1955, said to her son Andre McCallum:
“As a barrister for fifty years I was just putting the facts of the actual murder. I knew nothing of the background and I didn’t care.”
“So you still think there was an injustice in that she [Ruth Ellis] was found guilty of deliberate murder when she wasn’t?”
“It [mercy] never came into my mind because, you must understand, how we play in parts as if on a stage. I have my part to play. Defending counsel has his. The judge has his. The jury have theirs…Mercy never came into it. It was never suggested. It was never part of it. There could be no mercy in what seemed to be cold-blooded murder.”
“I think I said to the jury, ‘Members of the jury this is to all intents and purposes a plea of guilty.’
Ruth Ellis had pleaded not guilty.
