But the prosecution has a star witness: Mel’s neighbor, who now changes her story under pressure, claiming she saw Ben standing over Mel with the knife while laughing . She’s lying—she’s been threatened by Mel’s ex—but the jury doesn’t know that.
Ben insists: “I didn’t do it.” But his lies (about taking heroin, about leaving the flat) make him look guilty. His own barrister, Juliet Miller, initially believes he’s guilty too. Ben is sent to HM Prison Belmarsh to await trial. There, he is placed in a cell with Rashid, a volatile but intelligent young Muslim dealer who runs the wing’s drug trade. Rashid initially bullies Ben, but later protects him from violent predators in exchange for Ben running errands (delivering drugs). criminal justice season 1
But Ben doesn’t want to believe he’s a killer. He remembers Mel kissing him, then suddenly turning cold. He remembers her saying, “You’re just a boy.” He remembers pushing her… but the stabbing? A blank. Juliet Miller, a chain-smoking, sharp-tongued barrister who has seen every kind of guilty client, begins to doubt the prosecution’s case. She realizes that DI Munday suppressed evidence: Mel had a history of violent arguments with an ex-boyfriend, and her phone records show a call to that ex the night she died, after Ben passed out. But the prosecution has a star witness: Mel’s
He wakes hours later, disoriented. Mel lies next to him, her throat cut, blood everywhere. He has no memory of the night. In panic, he flees, leaving fingerprints, DNA, and his jacket behind. He doesn’t call police. He goes home, showers, and tries to pretend it never happened. His own barrister, Juliet Miller, initially believes he’s
Inside prison, Ben transforms. He stops being the meek boy. He learns to fight, to lie, and to survive. He also begins to remember fragments of the night: the argument, the knife in his hand, the look of betrayal in Mel’s eyes. He confides in Rashid: “I think I might have done it.”