2.1 Planning for rapport with Mick Brough

You already have some information about Mick, which you got in Week 3.

For ease, this information is repeated here:

• Neighbours report that Mick’s visits to Leonard are to offer support with tasks he is finding harder to manage given his deteriorating health. When entering Leonard’s house he often takes in groceries in bags from ASDA.
• Mick’s work comprises casual labour – working cash in hand as a builder’s labourer for a variety of different builders in the local area.
• Mick has been seen visiting Leonard in the fortnight running up to the murder (dates uncertain). He is the brother of Leonard’s ‘girlfriend’ Anita, who is 32 and often goes by the name ‘Nita’.
• Mick drives an Audi A5.
• Mick has previously served time in prison but in the last 5 years has not come to the attention of the police.
• In an initial statement, Mick claims to have been at home watching TV at the time of the murder. He states that Anita can confirm this as she was also there.

So, you know that Mick has been regularly visiting Leonard and supporting him in ill health. You know that he is the brother of Nita who was Leonard’s much younger ‘girlfriend’. You know that he has prior convictions. The investigation team have looked further into these convictions and can provide the following information about them:

• At approximately 18 years old – Actual Bodily Harm. Fight outside a nightclub. Male victim jostles Mick in the club and Mick doesn’t like it. He follows the victim out of the club and pushes a broken bottle into his face, causing the victim to require hospitalisation and stitches. Sentenced to 9 months in Thorn Cross Young Offender Institution (behaviour while in Thorn Cross was fine).
• At approximately 22 years old – Actual Bodily Harm. Attack takes place at a bus stop. Mick plus two associates are walking past a bus stop. Victim (19 years) is waiting for bus alone, listening to CD Walkman. Mick punches victim in face repeatedly and steals the Walkman. Victim hospitalised with broken jaw. Sentenced to 6 months in Category C prison.
• At approximately 29 years old – Grievous Bodily Harm. Mick walks into a small hardware shop. He arms himself with a Stanley knife while the shop proprietor talks with a customer who then leaves. Mick approaches the shop proprietor, reaches over the counter and slashes at the proprietor’s face before stealing the contents of the till and running to a waiting getaway car. Victim is hospitalised requiring stitches to his face and minor plastic surgery reconstruction. Sentenced to 4 years in Category B prison. During time served, obtains three governor’s reports for assaults on other prisoners and one for assault on a member of staff in the education block.

You are also fortunate in that the Custody Sergeant who has brought Mick into custody has some informal comments on his behaviour so far. He has said ‘Mr Brough appears extremely agitated. He is argumentative, keeps shouting down the hallway that he is pissed off, and I’m afraid he is using a lot of bad language. I feel a bit sorry for the interview team.’

From the information above you are probably already forming an opinion of where the suspect might be on the interpersonal wheel, and you might already have a pit in your stomach at the idea of facing him in an interview!

Before the next activity, look again at the adaptive and maladaptive interpersonal circles [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] taken from Alison et al.’s (2013) ORBIT model (Observing Rapport Based Interpersonal Techniques) that you used earlier. Plot where you think Mick will be on the interpersonal circumplex.