Musgrave in Court
by Temperance Cartwright
3rd December 2012
The notorious disgraced auror Lawrence Musgrave finally had his day in court after months of investigation. It took nearly half an hour just to read the counts against him which included deception, intimidation, harassment, breach of parole and most serious of all, use of dark magic to control dementors. The number of crimes he stands accused outnumber any defendant since the Voldemort-era war trials, which sent Musgrave to Azkaban the first time.
Delays have plagued bringing the dark wizard to trial, first he evaded capture for some months before surrendering to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, then after extensive investigation he was sent into the care of St Mungo’s Hospital before finally despatched to Azkaban to await trial. Musgrave is represented by the voracious Harper Graves who has fielded the defence for several high-profile cases in the last twenty-four months.
"We put our trust in the justice system and a significant part of that trust is that everyone deserves fair representation," stated Graves when reached for comment. "The truth is ultimately what we all aim to uncover and in my opinion it is my client's best defence."
Musgrave spoke only to confirm his name to the wizengamot. He is linked to several terrorist incidents including the destruction of the Leaky Cauldron in November 2010
[1], the Three Broomsticks
[2] and
The Old Ocean[3] in January 2011. He is a known associate of the late high-flier, Ira Almasy, whose criminal connections were revealed last year before she took her own life.
The trial was already eagerly awaited, but has reached a new level of international interest given the arrest and accusations lodged against Minister for Magic, Edwin Glass last week. Glass stands accused of working with Musgrave with the dementors according to leaks, with reportedly explosive evidence which he may have attempted to scrub from the record to avoid it coming to light in court.
Turn to page 6 for a timeline of Musgrave’s crimes, analysis of the situation and a guide to how experts expect the trial to play out…
[3rd December] Musgrave in Court