Rebekah Murrell

She hasn't thought about her brother in a long time.

She hasn't had the headspace.

She is halfway out the door when she gets a news alert.

And when she clicks on the story, sees Lee's face staring back at her.

Oh my God.

Quickly followed by a knock at the door.

To properly tell the sad story of Lee Kirk, we could go back 200 years or more, but we'll start in a courtroom two years ago and see how far we get.

It is the end of Lee's trial, and he takes a deep breath as his sentence is read out.

This is worse than he'd expected.

Consecutive sentences, nine years back to back.

This is Alex.

Alex is tired.

Alex is tired because he works very hard as a clerk of the court.

He's been up against it all week, all month, all year as the backlog is yet to be cleared after the courts closed during the pandemic.

And things are still a little busy.

Alex loves his job.

He cares about his job.

So determined is he not to let the backlog get the better of his team that he works flat out from the moment he gets in to the end of the day, which is when he processes Lee Kirk's sentence and enters it into the system.

As his exhausted eyes stare at the sentencing remarks, where the judge clearly said...

As in, back to back, he reads... To be served concurrently.