Episode Two: The Anna O Files Podcast

Written By Lex Brookman

BREAKING NEWS: Meet Dr Prince

Here’s the full written transcript for Episode Two of our podcast. All cited works will be listed below, along with the content warnings.

Hello, listeners, and thank you for joining me on this breaking news update. There's been a startling new development in the Anna o case. A sleep expert has been called to wake Anna o for trial, a Dr. Benedict prince. But what do we know about him and his connection to the case? And the real question is Anna O guilty or innocent?

You've studied the Anna O. Case in detail. Then there is no way to avoid the truth.

I say my wife was the first police officer on the scene back in 2019. She was working for the Thames Valley Serious and Organised crime unit. This was her first case as SIO, though I imagine you already knew that.

Donnelly just says, I see.

Anna O has been part of my family's life almost as long as our own daughter. I add the disclaimer as I always have to, not to be clear that my wife ever betrayed any privileged information, I combined what is open source with other, less controversial examples of resignation syndrome from around the world. That's how I wrote the book and the article mainly the outbreak of cases in Sweden, I recall, alongside another cluster of cases in Kazakhstan, two small former soviet mining and farm towns called Krasnagorst.

And yes, yes, we're well acquainted with those.

Impatience gathers in me now. I am tired of this faceless man and his nomic answers.

I don't mean to be rude, but why would a pop psychology book and an obscure academic journal article be of interest to the Ministry of Justice? Donnelly smiles again, as cruelly and quickly as before.

In your article, you claim to have developed a new diagnostic method to help patients wake up from resignation syndrome. Is that correct?
He's clearly read the article or a summary of it. He knows that isn't right, which means he's testing me.
No. Donnelly feigns surprise.
No, my article sets out a new framework for understanding psychosomatic conditions, especially those involved in sleep related acts, including the phenomenon of sleep crimes. I'm interested in whether or not sleepwalkers are technically conscious of their actions when they commit a crime like a murder.

Say the same applies to patients suffering from resignation syndrome. Are any of us aware of what we do while sleeping? Can we be held criminally responsible? When does sleep take over and consciousness end a controversial subject?

That answers my next question. He's already seen the blogs and social media accounts attacking me.

Of course he has. Ever since my book hit stores, I've been a target for trolls from all corners of the globe. Some people are still stuck in prehistoric divisions between neurological disease and so called functional disease. I say they think because something happens in the psyche, then it isn't real. My work attempts to alter that perception. Some people take issue with that. Does that mean you can help patients with resignation syndrome to wake up? I am struck by the bluntness of the question.

Well, that depends. Donnelly looks steadily at me, those beady eyes staring into my soul. On what exactly I shuffle, fuss, compose myself. I long for some water. How long the patient's been asleep? Mainly, I say, what external factors may have caused the illness in the first place. My book was the mass market pop psych write up. My paper does the heavy academic lifting, setting out new theories and looking at the current data. But it's not a cure all for Anna O. As an example, four years is at the extreme end of resignation syndrome.

My data was largely focused on those within one to two years. So it's still purely theoretical? For the moment, yes. How long would it take to test your new theories? In the real world, I mean? I laugh. How long's a piece of string?

Surely you have an estimate?

At a guess, three months, I say. That would be a minimum.

Donnelly looks at his watch. He seems newly impatient now he tidies the file and slides it neatly into his attache case as if he's heading back for another post midnight shift at the office. Donnelly looks at Bloom and nods briskly. I turn to Bloom, my anger still simmering.

What am I doing here?

Bloom takes over now. She shifts her bulk on the chair with the balletic ease of the truly corpulent. She is briskly matter of fact, speaking to me like a prisoner being read their rights. The Secretary of State for Justice and the attorney general for England and Wales have just authorised the temporary release of patient RSH493 from the Coral Ward at Rampton Hospital into the secure custody of The Abbey under my direct supervision. The MoJ order is protected under the Official Secrets act, and anyone who leaks the information in this building or elsewhere will face prosecution.

Do you understand? Prisoner RSH493. I know that number. Every newspaper reader does too.

Rampton Secure Hospital the last high security medical facility to admit women. Patient number four nine three, Ms. A. Ogilvy.

Donnelly and Bloom stand. Now automatically, I stand with them.

Dryness crawls all over my mouth.

No, I say. I'm sorry, but I don't understand. What is this?

Bloom glances at Donnelly again, then says, Amnesty International is about to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to get Anna Ogilvy released on the grounds of inhumane treatment. Before that happens, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Ministry of Justice need to put her on trial for murder or risk losing her case entirely.

I digest the new information.

Which means Anna Ogilvy must be fit to stand trial. To be fit, she must do something she hasn't done in four years and wake up.

Yes. And there it is. The real explanation.

For a moment, I think of all those horror stories from school. History lessons. The half starved teenage conscripts in World War I. Plucked from the trenches, patched together, then marched towards execution. Shell shock, mistaken for cowardice. This feels eerily similar.

I'm a psychologist, not a prison officer. I treat people. I say I don't condemn them. There must be other sleep experts you can call on.

It's Donnelly again. Weary of this now? We already have. We've spent years flying in world class consultants from America, Europe, Asia and beyond. The best of the best. But the field is still under resourced and their methods proved sadly unsuccessful. Your paper, Dr. Prince, is the last credible chance we have.

Why bring her here?

If you turn up at Rampton Hospital every day, the news will leak. The Abbey is also the only sleep clinic in London that can accommodate a case of this nature. You can cope with the strict confidentiality requirements.

We have no other choice.

She will be transferred tonight, escorted by police liaison and registered under a different name. As far as you're concerned, you treat her like any other patient. She'll be recognised. Four years ago, maybe. Not now. Nearly half a decade asleep. Does things to a person.

What about other staff?

Donnelly says a nurse from Rampton will accompany the prisoner and work here under the alias of an agency worker. You will be her day to day point of contact while Professor Bloom coordinates your efforts with our side. Miss Ogilvy won't leave her room.

You won't tell anyone that she's here?

Only family members, who you may also liaise with, know otherwise. The secretary of state has vowed to personally go after anyone who ignores the terms of her temporary relocation.

I feel dizzy with the audacity of it. Angry too.

This is absurd. You can't seriously believe Anna Ogilvy is a danger to the public.

Or is it just the headlines you're worried about? Donnelly doesn't rise to it. Try telling that to the victims'families. Anna Ogilvy can't be released and she can't be indefinitely held. This saga has to end. Sign the ose and walk away. Or put your theories to the test in the real world. It's entirely your call, Dr. Prince. And what if I can't wake her? I say, what if my theory doesn't work.

Donnelly finishes buttoning his coat. He sighs. Hollowed out by the day's events. He stares at me with those cold, grey green eyes.

Then sooner or later, he says dryly, anna Ogilvy will be free to kill again.

You can find out more on the developing case of Anna Ogilvy, potential double murderess, in Anna O by Matthew Blake, available now. This extract from the Anna O audiobook was read by Dan Stevens. Stay tuned for more breaking news.

Content Warnings for THE ANNA O Podcast. and the book itself:

Murder

Psychosis / Therapy / Psychotherapy

Suicide

Death

Hospitals

Poisoning

Death of a Child 

Imprisonment 

Refugee Crisis 

Alcohol Dependency 

Drug Addiction 

True Crime / Consumption of True Crime

Lex Brookman
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Episode Three: The Anna O Files Podcast
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Episode One: The Anna O Files Podcast