This time, the authorities had anticipated the crowd. John Pack met a police escort when he peeled off the M23, and two cars led him to a secure entrance at the rear of Belmarsh Prison.

Georgia saw no inmates, but caught whiffs of disinfectant, drains and catering-on-a-budget as she was escorted through a long passageway, with a guard ahead to unlock barred gates and another behind to lock when they’d passed through.

‘It’ll be OK,’ John said softly.

Georgia couldn’t stop wondering if the next years of her life would be bars, keys and toughened glass as a lift took them two storeys below ground to the peach-walled tunnel linking the maximum-security prison to the bomb-proof court across the street.

Megan was waiting in a hallway with one of her legal clerks. She gave Georgia a hug, but nobody was hanging around. The Bank Seven would be dealt with swiftly so that the crowds cleared and the court could get on with routine business.

It had become absurd trying to protect Georgia’s anonymity when there were thousands of people outside, holding up her photo and chanting her name. Megan hadn’t contested Judge Malum’s decision to waive privacy, so public and press galleries were rammed and Georgia felt every eye in the room as she entered the court.

Her parents sat with Megan at the front. Georgia spotted her nan upstairs and gave a wave as she crossed to the dock. Since her previous visit, Court One had been reconfigured for a complex espionage trial. The jury area had been fitted with monitors for computer-based evidence, the dock had been extended and the witness box was behind bulletproof glass.

Kamila, Wendy, Elodie and Pippa had already arrived from the Bronzefield maximum security women’s prison in Surrey. Georgia felt wary as she joined them in the dock.

The other six defendants were being represented by a joint legal team. But if any resentment had been caused by John’s decision to employ Megan Seebag, or by Georgia spending six months in the Freeman Unit while the others went to prison, there was no sign as Kamila began a line-up of hugs.

‘You’ve grown,’ Wendy said fondly as she pecked Georgia on both cheeks. ‘Have you met Pippa before?’

‘Not properly,’ Georgia said.

‘Circumstances could have been better,’ Pippa joked, her accent and posture eerily like big brother Gerard.

Zac and Gerard came into the court together. They might be sharing lawyers, but body language suggested they hadn’t kissed and made up after their fight. The prison officers placed Zac at one end of the dock and Gerard at the other, next to his sister.

Gerard leaned forward and narrowed his remaining eye on Georgia. ‘Hopefully your fancy lawyer will get this little problem out of your way, so you can get back to town for your Vogue photo shoot …’

Georgia tried to think of a retort, but Pippa stepped in.