Sabine’s green kryptonite

Anyone who was present at Neelu Berry and Sabine McNeill’s witness intimidation trial earlier this month will no doubt recollect the sight of poor Sabine, crippled and hunched over with pain, as she manoeuvred her way slowly along the hallways of Blackfriars Court, leaning heavily on her walking sticks. Of course her loyal friends shuffled alongside her, ready to lend a helping hand should she collapse.

When asked to stand to hear the charged against her, she declined, stating that she was in too much pain to move. Hearts broke, hankies dabbed away onlookers’ tears. Clearly, Sabine was far too frail and elderly to endure the indignities of the courtroom.

She did seem to have a brief moment of spryness one morning during the trial as she emerged from her taxi onto the almost-deserted Pocock Street. Out she bounced, hale and fit, only to glance back and note the presence of (gasp!) a non-supporter. Quickly, she grabbed her walking sticks, assumed the Cripple Position, and shuffled toward the court.

And of course after the trial was done, she seemed to rally suddenly, in time for the celebratory group photo:

Penny Pullen, Belinda McKenzie, Matt Saunders, Neelu Berry, Sabine McNeill, and Dave Conaghan outside Blackfriars Crown Court. Belinda holds Sabine’s walking sticks, while Sabine brandishes her Nordic walking poles—doesn’t she look jaunty?

In the weeks before the trial began, of course, Sabine was in fine fettle. Here she is at an EU event in Brussels in late June, hobnobbing at an event for MEPs:

So nice that she didn’t have to bring along those pesky walking sticks!

Here she is at an event at Ergon House in Westminster on 7th July; seated, to be sure, but once again sans sticks:

And again yesterday at Ergon House, where she’s been regularly dragging herself to attend an event called #opencave, apparently to do with numerical metadata and Russian dolls:

Amazing but true: Sabine seems to have fully recovered from the agonies she experienced less than two weeks ago.

Doesn’t she look great? Ten years younger, and standing straight as a rod, nary a walking stick in sight. We’re all so happy for her!

One of our team members speculated last evening that perhaps it was contact with courts and police that brought on Sabine’s distressing physical condition. Maybe, they speculated, cops and courts are Sabine’s green kryptonite?

In fact, odd as it might seem, we do have some evidence to bear out this hypothesis.

Watch this video from 5th August last year, as Sabine is arrested at the Royal Courts of Justice. The combined effects of being in a court building, and confronted with uniformed police officers, almost does her in!

It’s shocking, really. Clearly, Sabine ought to have some sort of exemption from having to deal with courts and police at all, since they have such a detrimental effect on her health.

We wonder whether there’s some sort of Blue Badge equivalent she could get for that?