Georgie Someday had never been one to panic. To her mind, she was more of a fretter. The difference was subtle but important. A panicker abandons logical thought in favour of irrational dread. A panicker assumes the worst, but fails to formulate any sensible strategy for dealing with it. A fretter, on the other hand, uses anxiety positively. A fretter calculates all possible outcomes and designs coping strategies for as many as conceivably possible.

Having said that, standing in the Royal Courts of Justice Great Hall, clutching her phone, with half an hour to go before the trial was due to start and still no sign of Priest or the defence’s star witness, Georgie was experiencing a sensation she thought was, in truth, much closer to panic than fret.

She put her phone away and removed her glasses to clean them for the eighth time before passing back through security and out onto the Strand. People bustled past, pulling coats tightly around them, ignoring the glare of television cameras lining the entranceway to the High Court. Close by, she overheard a solemn-faced presenter standing rigidly in front of a camera:

‘Operating globally with a combined turnover of over fifty-five million pounds, the Elias Children’s Foundation is one of the largest charities in the UK established for the benefit of child victims of war, domestic violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Its operations include an African education programme, disaster and emergency response schemes, HIV and AIDS prevention and care programmes, and programmes aimed at stopping the exploitation of child soldiers for terrorist purposes. It’s not for profit but don’t let that label fool you – this is big business.

‘I’m outside the High Court today because the charity’s founder and CEO, Alexia Elias, is suing small independent online magazine, The Real Byte, for libel following an article about her they published in 2014. You may remember that in 2009 a scandal broke out at the Elias Foundation when it was discovered that a small branch office had been funnelling charity funds to an organisation known as the Free People’s Army, a terrorist cell operating in northern Turkey.

‘Following extensive investigations by the Charities Commission, that office was closed down, with Turkish police arresting several Elias Foundation employees.’

She decided to hang around. Although the way the reporter kept brushing her hair back vainly was beginning to grate on her, she was interested to know how accurate the reporting was. So far, not too bad.

‘In 2014, The Real Byte published an article alleging that not only was Alexia Elias fully aware of the Turkish scandal involving her charity, but she had received bribes from terrorists totalling four hundred thousand pounds to keep quiet about it. This is day one of a four-week trial here at the High Court in which Alexia Elias hopes to clear her name . . .’