Latest / Real Crime with Adam Shand / From Heroin and Heartbreak to Hope: Elizabeth's Redemption
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Apoche Production.
- 0:14Speaker 2: Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand. I'm your host,
- 0:17Speaker 2: Adam Shand. There are very few happy endings in the
- 0:20Speaker 2: crime world, so I like to bring you those stories
- 0:23Speaker 2: when I can. And today, I have an episode for
- 0:27Speaker 2: you that really moved me. Elizabeth, not her real name,
- 0:31Speaker 2: spent decades of her life mired in drug addiction, crime
- 0:34Speaker 2: and jail. She lived in a loveless world, never enjoying
- 0:39Speaker 2: any real sense of security. As the wife of a
- 0:42Speaker 2: major heroin dealer, she lived a high life and enjoyed
- 0:46Speaker 2: the trappings of wealth, but all of it disappeared the
- 0:49Speaker 2: day her husband vanished, presumed murdered. Elizabeth hit rock bottom,
- 0:55Speaker 2: but eventually managed to change her life and turn her
- 0:58Speaker 2: face away from drugs and crime. It's a story of
- 1:02Speaker 2: redemption and the infinite possibilities of faith. And hope. Elizabeth,
- 1:07Speaker 2: welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Thank you.
- 1:10Speaker 2: You're grimacing.
- 1:11Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 1:12Speaker 2: This is a difficult conversation.
- 1:14Speaker 1: Isn't it, really? Not really. No, I'm just, yeah.
- 1:18Speaker 2: But I think it's, I mean, I look at your
- 1:20Speaker 2: story as one of redemption and you look at the
- 1:23Speaker 2: cohort of women that you knew in prison and outside,
- 1:27Speaker 2: I guess a lot of them would be dead now or,
- 1:30Speaker 2: you know, when you think of those people that you're
- 1:33Speaker 2: running with them.
- 1:34Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:35Speaker 4: Yeah, well, yeah, my husband and my other partner, yeah,
- 1:41Speaker 4: lost my partners.
- 1:42Speaker 1: I mean, they end up calling me the black widow,
- 1:44Speaker 1: but it was nothing to do with me.
- 1:48Speaker 4: But they were saying, all the guys you were with
- 1:49Speaker 4: end up dying.
- 1:50Speaker 1: I go, all right. Oh, well, what can I do?
- 1:55Speaker 4: But, you know, I mean, yeah, there were just unfortunate situations.
- 1:59Speaker 4: Like I was in a position with my husband where
- 2:02Speaker 4: that I was on methadone.
- 2:04Speaker 1: I said, that's enough.
- 2:05Speaker 4: I don't want to do this stuff anymore. I really
- 2:07Speaker 4: want to get out of this scene. I was ready
- 2:09Speaker 4: to leave.
- 2:10Speaker 1: I'd seen people getting shot, you know, like things, you know,
- 2:14Speaker 1: stabbed and.
- 2:15Speaker 4: Police chasing us and shooting at us, the tires getting
- 2:19Speaker 4: blown out, all sorts of things, you know. And I
- 2:22Speaker 4: didn't want to live like a fugitive, especially not with
- 2:25Speaker 4: my kids. I wanted to give the kids a good education.
- 2:27Speaker 2: You already had a couple of kids. We should set
- 2:29Speaker 2: the scene here a little bit. And we can talk
- 2:31Speaker 2: about your husband, Victor. Tell us what that marriage was like.
- 2:35Speaker 2: And this is when you were deep in the gangster life,
- 2:37Speaker 2: if you like. Yeah. What was happening at that time?
- 2:39Speaker 2: And you already had a couple of kids already.
- 2:42Speaker 4: By the time I was 17, I had a heroin addiction.
- 2:46Speaker 4: And I went and did 18 months in Odyssey House
- 2:49Speaker 4: in the kids program. And then I got out and
- 2:52Speaker 4: just got straight back into it. None of my issues.
- 2:55Speaker 4: I mean, I think some of the issues with therapy,
- 2:58Speaker 4: it's a process, you know, like some of the issues
- 3:01Speaker 4: get addressed, but not all of them do. And sometimes
- 3:04Speaker 4: it's a journey. It's not like you're going to go
- 3:07Speaker 4: to a rehab and get cleared of everything. You've got
- 3:10Speaker 4: all these rehabs springing up that are saying, you know,
- 3:13Speaker 4: give us 25 grand for two weeks.
- 3:15Speaker 1: People are selling their houses. People are doing all sorts
- 3:17Speaker 1: of things.
- 3:18Speaker 4: And they're given false hope over it because there's no
- 3:22Speaker 4: way someone who's been using all their life, you know,
- 3:24Speaker 4: for 10 years.
- 3:25Speaker 1: Whatever, however many years, that they're going to give up
- 3:28Speaker 1: in two weeks. There's no way that's going to happen.
- 3:30Speaker 4: They're going to be a dry junkie because there's a
- 3:33Speaker 4: lot of issues that are buried underneath that people have
- 3:37Speaker 4: not explored.
- 3:38Speaker 2: Yeah, right. So as you say, you came out of
- 3:40Speaker 2: rehab at Odyssey House, very well regarded drug rehab in Sydney,
- 3:45Speaker 2: and went flat out into it. And you, at that time,
- 3:47Speaker 2: I guess you met your then-to-be husband, right?
- 3:51Speaker 1: Well, yeah, well, no, yeah, okay.
- 3:53Speaker 4: So I met him, I was going to selling drugs down.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Fitzroy Street for a while.
- 3:59Speaker 2: In Melbourne, here in St Kilda?
- 4:00Speaker 1: In Melbourne, yeah, St Kilda, Fitzroy Street.
- 4:02Speaker 4: And then I ran out of drugs and I was
- 4:05Speaker 4: buying more drugs off someone. And the guy got me
- 4:08Speaker 4: to give him his money. There was a group of
- 4:11Speaker 4: us all waiting to score off this guy. And my
- 4:14Speaker 4: husband was in the group of people that had given
- 4:16Speaker 4: him the money. Well, the guy had pulled my husband
- 4:19Speaker 4: aside and said, I'm going to rip everyone off. So
- 4:22Speaker 4: here's your money back, but everyone else is losing theirs.
- 4:25Speaker 4: And he goes, yeah, all right, sweet.
- 4:26Speaker 1: Well, anyway, then he tells me, he says to me,
- 4:30Speaker 1: you've been ripped.
- 4:31Speaker 2: I go, what?
- 4:32Speaker 1: He goes, yeah, there goes your money. I go, okay.
- 4:36Speaker 4: Well, he goes, but you can come for me and
- 4:38Speaker 4: I'll give you a hit if you want. And I said, yeah,
- 4:40Speaker 4: all right, let's go. And so that was it. That
- 4:43Speaker 4: was basically it with him.
- 4:45Speaker 2: And then that began a 10-year relationship in which you
- 4:49Speaker 2: found yourself, right?
- 4:50Speaker 1: No, that was five years actually.
- 4:51Speaker 2: That was five years.
- 4:52Speaker 1: That was five years, yep. So what happened was.
- 4:55Speaker 4: When I went to Sydney with him, I'd already been
- 4:59Speaker 4: busted for some crime. I can't remember whether it was
- 5:02Speaker 4: like this is why I brought my file because I
- 5:04Speaker 4: couldn't remember the date. I mean it says there that
- 5:06Speaker 4: the first charge that I had was possessed firearm.
- 5:10Speaker 1: But, yeah, I remember there being, you know, other crimes.
- 5:13Speaker 1: I thought it was, you know, bringing heroin.
- 5:15Speaker 4: That was the real big thing that I was on
- 5:17Speaker 4: the run for was when I brought heroin into Pentridge
- 5:19Speaker 4: because they see that as really, you know, a serious thing.
- 5:23Speaker 1: So you were bringing it to sell to inmates? I
- 5:25Speaker 1: was simply bringing medication to my husband. No, I was
- 5:27Speaker 1: bringing medication to my husband.
- 5:28Speaker 2: Your husband?
- 5:29Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 5:30Speaker 1: I was being a good wife.
- 5:32Speaker 4: Bringing him medication. You know, that's all I was doing.
- 5:35Speaker 4: But I was doing it in a shifty way.
- 5:37Speaker 1: Yeah, remember those songs, those... There were two occasions.
- 5:41Speaker 4: Those thongs that had a blue strip in the middle
- 5:45Speaker 4: and then black on both sides.
- 5:46Speaker 2: Okay.
- 5:47Speaker 1: So they had a strip there.
- 5:49Speaker 4: So I'd cut that with a fine razor blade and
- 5:53Speaker 4: then I'd dig out the thong and then I'd get
- 5:57Speaker 4: the dope, stick it in Glad Wrap, make it all flat,
- 6:00Speaker 4: cut down a syringe, put that in there as well,
- 6:03Speaker 4: wrap it in Glad Wrap, then I'd put one layer
- 6:05Speaker 4: of pepper so the.
- 6:06Speaker 1: Dogs don't smell it.
- 6:07Speaker 3: I see. Right?
- 6:09Speaker 4: So then, anyway, I was really stoned this one time
- 6:12Speaker 4: that I brought this property into the Melbourne City Watch House.
- 6:16Speaker 4: Russell Street it was in those days. But I looked
- 6:18Speaker 4: at the warden and as the warden looked at me,
- 6:21Speaker 4: he showed the other guy and they were looking at
- 6:23Speaker 4: each other going, oh, you know, the roll in the eye.
- 6:26Speaker 4: I thought, well, they've seen, they can see the glue
- 6:28Speaker 4: dripping off the side because I was, you know, too
- 6:31Speaker 4: quick and too careless.
- 6:34Speaker 1: But they let him in anyway. They let it in anyway.
- 6:36Speaker 4: Well, of course, my husband saw that it would be
- 6:39Speaker 4: a problem once he got into Pentridge. So the idiot,
- 6:42Speaker 4: he pulled it apart inside the van and they all
- 6:46Speaker 4: used together in the van on the way into Pentridge, right?
- 6:49Speaker 4: And left the runners and all the other paraphernalia in
- 6:53Speaker 4: the truck. So I get a phone call from Pentridge,
- 6:58Speaker 4: no property for so-and-so, you know.
- 7:01Speaker 1: And so I get there and I said, what's going on?
- 7:05Speaker 1: No property. I'm not to bring property in.
- 7:07Speaker 4: And they said, he said, no, just put anything that
- 7:10Speaker 4: you've got, put it in the locker and then come
- 7:12Speaker 4: and visit me.
- 7:13Speaker 1: It was a box visit. Come and visit me in
- 7:17Speaker 1: the box visit.
- 7:18Speaker 4: And then I'll tell you who I'll give you the name,
- 7:21Speaker 4: who to put it, who to give it to.
- 7:23Speaker 1: Well, of course, it's a huge red light.
- 7:25Speaker 4: You turn up to the Pentridge and you've got to
- 7:27Speaker 4: use a locker to leave your property. No, I don't
- 7:29Speaker 4: want to leave it to anyone yet. Just wait till
- 7:31Speaker 4: after my box visit. I mean, that's a bit sus
- 7:33Speaker 4: in itself. Not only that, they're waiting for me to
- 7:35Speaker 4: come anyway. And not only that, well, this time I'd
- 7:38Speaker 4: thought of another way and I had the jeans and
- 7:42Speaker 4: I went to a tailor and I did the same thing.
- 7:44Speaker 4: The flat pack of the hair I'm with wrapped up
- 7:47Speaker 4: with pepper, one layer of pepper.
- 7:49Speaker 1: And I stuck it in a zip inside this part.
- 7:53Speaker 4: The seam, wrapped in again with pepper so you couldn't
- 7:57Speaker 4: smell it.
- 7:57Speaker 1: It was done really well. It was sewed up by
- 7:59Speaker 1: the tailor and everything. You couldn't see anything.
- 8:02Speaker 4: It would have really got in there if it would
- 8:04Speaker 4: have got through the breaks. if it wasn't for the previous,
- 8:09Speaker 4: you know, the fact that my husband had left the thing.
- 8:12Speaker 3: In the van.
- 8:13Speaker 2: You were under suspicion.
- 8:14Speaker 1: So I was already under suspicion.
- 8:15Speaker 4: But I was being, yeah, I was being a dutiful
- 8:17Speaker 4: wife and bringing my husband some medication.
- 8:21Speaker 1: That's what I was doing. But, yeah.
- 8:24Speaker 2: So drugs were really the reason that you were with
- 8:28Speaker 2: him and a lot of things that happened were around
- 8:32Speaker 2: drug supply or drug use and the associates and things?
- 8:36Speaker 2: So what was that life like? What was going on?
- 8:39Speaker 1: It was hectic, you know, like sometimes we'd be.
- 8:42Speaker 4: One time we were living in Mentone and, you know,
- 8:46Speaker 4: we got chased by the police and my husband was
- 8:49Speaker 4: playing games with them. He'd slam the brakes on so
- 8:51Speaker 4: the police were nearly up my arse and then he'd
- 8:53Speaker 4: take off really quickly. But at the same time, he
- 8:56Speaker 4: also had like a bag, a pound of heroin or
- 8:59Speaker 4: something that he was also trying to hide under the.
- 9:03Speaker 2: The dashboard.
- 9:04Speaker 1: Yeah, under the dashboard.
- 9:05Speaker 4: Which that's why he was sort of playing games and that.
- 9:09Speaker 4: But we got to our court. And by that stage,
- 9:12Speaker 4: the police were shooting the tires out and had my
- 9:16Speaker 4: husband over the bonnet and cuffs and, you know, roughhousing
- 9:20Speaker 4: around and took the car as well.
- 9:22Speaker 1: And I knew what the dope was in the car.
- 9:24Speaker 2: I thought, oh, shit.
- 9:26Speaker 1: Anyway, they had the car. The police had the car
- 9:28Speaker 1: for three days. I went to pick it up. I
- 9:30Speaker 1: went to pick it up.
- 9:31Speaker 4: Three days later, there was a busted tire, two busted tires.
- 9:35Speaker 4: And I asked the policeman, can you help me with,
- 9:37Speaker 4: I was really nice to them. I said to them,
- 9:39Speaker 4: can you help me put the tyre back in? He said, no,
- 9:42Speaker 4: fuck you. I go, yeah, all right, that's really nice
- 9:44Speaker 4: of you. And then, so I did the tyres all myself.
- 9:47Speaker 4: That was the first time I've ever changed tyres on
- 9:49Speaker 4: my own and I did it.
- 9:51Speaker 1: I'm impressed.
- 9:51Speaker 4: That's good. So I did those two tyres and I
- 9:55Speaker 4: drove to the supermarket, put my hand down, bang, found
- 10:00Speaker 4: it straight away.
- 10:01Speaker 1: Found the drug straight away. There was 10 police. that
- 10:05Speaker 1: couldn't find it. They tore it all down. And I
- 10:07Speaker 1: found it straight away. One good, I became very good
- 10:11Speaker 1: at finding drugs. I found a lot of stashes.
- 10:14Speaker 4: I'd probably be killed if they, if the people found out.
- 10:17Speaker 4: Because I was finding, you know, ounce bags of heroin,
- 10:20Speaker 4: you know, like undiluted and.
- 10:23Speaker 2: Stuff. So the husband was very happy that day.
- 10:25Speaker 1: He was very happy.
- 10:27Speaker 2: He'd be looking at a significant stretch for that bag.
- 10:30Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
- 10:31Speaker 4: He was.
- 10:31Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 10:32Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 10:33Speaker 2: So he was he was dealing on a pretty big scale.
- 10:36Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 10:36Speaker 1: What he was doing was, yeah, on a pretty big scale.
- 10:39Speaker 4: I mean, we had the coffee shop, so we had
- 10:40Speaker 4: the gambling and we had the dope and we had
- 10:42Speaker 4: someone selling drugs for us as well. And well, you know,
- 10:47Speaker 4: he'd go and pick like he left me as He
- 10:51Speaker 4: actually left me as collateral once. You know, he went
- 10:53Speaker 4: to pick up a bag, like an ounce bag of dope.
- 10:55Speaker 4: He left me there as collateral. What do you mean? Oh, because,
- 11:00Speaker 4: you know, like they gave it to him on credit.
- 11:02Speaker 4: They gave him the dope on credit.
- 11:04Speaker 2: And you were left there?
- 11:05Speaker 1: I was left there on collateral, yeah.
- 11:07Speaker 2: For how long?
- 11:09Speaker 1: I think it was a couple of days and then
- 11:10Speaker 1: he came to pick me up. I can't remember exactly but.
- 11:13Speaker 2: So he was going to go off and offload the
- 11:15Speaker 2: dope and bring the cash back and then you were
- 11:17Speaker 2: more as a hostage?
- 11:18Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, yeah. Yeah.
- 11:21Speaker 2: How did you feel about that?
- 11:22Speaker 1: Well, shit, wasn't it? Yeah. It wasn't very nice. I mean, I, yeah.
- 11:28Speaker 2: Did you love this man?
- 11:29Speaker 1: I've never loved any man. I've never loved any woman.
- 11:32Speaker 1: I've never loved any man. I've never fallen in love.
- 11:38Speaker 4: You know, I've been obsessed or I've been intrigued or
- 11:42Speaker 4: I've been, you know, like, but not love.
- 11:46Speaker 1: And I think for me it was.
- 11:48Speaker 4: you know, I needed drugs and he was a drug
- 11:51Speaker 4: dealer at the time.
- 11:52Speaker 1: So that was it.
- 11:53Speaker 2: It was a practical relationship.
- 11:55Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 11:55Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 11:56Speaker 1: It was a practical relationship.
- 11:57Speaker 2: How much were you using back then?
- 11:59Speaker 4: At one point I was using five grams a day.
- 12:01Speaker 4: Five grams of heroin a day in those days was
- 12:04Speaker 4: about over a thousand dollars a day. I ended up
- 12:07Speaker 4: in Pentridge and just basically in the top tier, like
- 12:12Speaker 4: one of the top cells and just vomited and vomited
- 12:17Speaker 4: and just like for three days and it was like
- 12:19Speaker 4: the lights were on the walls were extremely white it
- 12:23Speaker 4: was no television in those days unless you were there
- 12:27Speaker 4: for a long.
- 12:28Speaker 1: Time you're doing you know you had to buy your
- 12:30Speaker 1: own stuff whatever.
- 12:32Speaker 4: And yeah it was a tough time you know and
- 12:35Speaker 4: also the you know like I mean from memory and
- 12:37Speaker 4: I don't know how much of this was you know
- 12:39Speaker 4: like a fictionalized version of my memory or if it was.
- 12:44Speaker 1: Like a bit of psychosis.
- 12:46Speaker 4: Sometimes, you know, some of the events that have happened
- 12:48Speaker 4: to me, well, some of that was psychosis. Some of
- 12:52Speaker 4: that was very real, but some of that was psychosis.
- 12:55Speaker 4: And I had this experience where I could just hear
- 12:58Speaker 4: the clamouring in the cells and the unrest, the constant,
- 13:03Speaker 4: the screaming. It was like living, it was like you're
- 13:07Speaker 4: in hell. It's like all of this distress, all of
- 13:11Speaker 4: this distress, Everyone is going through something horrible, you know.
- 13:15Speaker 2: And you're also strung out because you haven't had any heroin.
- 13:18Speaker 4: Yeah, and my whole bed was basically, I was on
- 13:21Speaker 4: the bed, and the whole bed was shaking. So it
- 13:24Speaker 4: was like, but it was probably part of that was
- 13:27Speaker 4: probably a psychosis, but it was like there was some
- 13:31Speaker 4: entity there, some dark entity that was kind of doing that.
- 13:36Speaker 1: I remember that very clearly.
- 13:38Speaker 2: So how was your relationship with your husband, Victor? It
- 13:41Speaker 2: was a practical relationship. Was he good to you?
- 13:44Speaker 1: Well, he wasn't bad to me. He wasn't really bad
- 13:46Speaker 1: to me.
- 13:47Speaker 4: But he was like he'd go to the Turkish shop,
- 13:50Speaker 4: he'd get 10 videos, he'd have his bag of dope
- 13:53Speaker 4: on the table, his spoon, his.
- 13:54Speaker 1: Water, and he'd just be whack, whack, whack smoking.
- 13:59Speaker 4: He'd always buy new clothes every week because he'd always
- 14:01Speaker 4: drop his cigarettes on his clothes.
- 14:03Speaker 1: When he knotted off. Burn his clothes.
- 14:05Speaker 4: That's one of the things that happened.
- 14:07Speaker 1: He was holding my son, a junk.
- 14:09Speaker 4: Yeah, and he was on the nod and the cigarette
- 14:12Speaker 4: fell on my son and my son started screaming.
- 14:15Speaker 1: So I grabbed it. What are you doing? Grabbed the baby,
- 14:19Speaker 1: tried to, you know, put some ointment on and stuff.
- 14:23Speaker 4: Well, the story that my mum ends up telling him
- 14:25Speaker 4: when she looks after him is that your mum and
- 14:28Speaker 4: dad just butt cigarettes out on you. So, you know,
- 14:32Speaker 4: like that's part of, you know, like I had all
- 14:34Speaker 4: this kind of stuff.
- 14:37Speaker 2: So, yeah, there's a lot going on. and you've got
- 14:40Speaker 2: people coming over, you had someone overdosed in the house
- 14:43Speaker 2: and died?
- 14:44Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah. Some guy, yeah, a guy died and my
- 14:48Speaker 4: husband wouldn't let me open the door to the police
- 14:51Speaker 4: or the ambulance. And the police saw me a couple
- 14:54Speaker 4: of weeks later in the park and basically said that,
- 14:59Speaker 4: you know, they apologised that they couldn't kind of get
- 15:02Speaker 4: him for They knew that I was going through psychological
- 15:07Speaker 4: warfare basically, living with a man like that. The shovel
- 15:11Speaker 4: in the closet that I was reminded about that I
- 15:14Speaker 4: was going to be digging my own grave with and everything.
- 15:18Speaker 1: Was he violent with you? He was scary. He wasn't
- 15:23Speaker 1: really violent. I mean, maybe not really.
- 15:29Speaker 2: But the psychological torture of having the shovel in the
- 15:32Speaker 2: cupboard there.
- 15:32Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 15:33Speaker 2: And the idea was if you gave him up or something,
- 15:36Speaker 2: you'd be digging your own grave. Is that the message?
- 15:40Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't even giving me up. It wasn't even
- 15:42Speaker 1: about that.
- 15:43Speaker 4: It was just a thing there and there wasn't any
- 15:47Speaker 4: reason why I was going to be doing it. He
- 15:50Speaker 4: was good at playing. He'd done a lot of time
- 15:53Speaker 4: in jail. He was good at playing mind games. A
- 15:54Speaker 4: lot of this, you know, mind games can be very torturous.
- 16:01Speaker 1: Absolutely, absolutely.
- 16:02Speaker 2: And so that was a control relationship that revolved around
- 16:07Speaker 2: fear and drugs, basically.
- 16:09Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 16:11Speaker 2: And you're estranged from your family at this time, so
- 16:13Speaker 2: you've got nowhere to go.
- 16:13Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, my dad came out and he came
- 16:17Speaker 4: out to see us, but didn't stay for long.
- 16:21Speaker 1: And, yeah, I was, yeah, I had no one else.
- 16:24Speaker 4: I was, though at the beginning I used to pay
- 16:27Speaker 4: for my brother and sister to come to visit us because...
- 16:30Speaker 4: You know, we had a lot of money. We had
- 16:32Speaker 4: a Lotus Elite, had some nice cars, had a lot
- 16:36Speaker 4: of cash, had a lot of gold, you know, had
- 16:38Speaker 4: all that stuff. So I was giving, you know, I
- 16:40Speaker 4: was just, I'd give all of my nine carat, 14
- 16:43Speaker 4: carat gold, I'd give them for presents to people and
- 16:46Speaker 4: all the 18 carats I'd keep myself.
- 16:48Speaker 1: All the good stuff I'd keep myself. But I was giving,
- 16:52Speaker 1: I was giving a jewellery away because it was 14
- 16:54Speaker 1: carat or nine carat. I didn't want that. I didn't
- 16:56Speaker 1: want that shit.
- 16:59Speaker 2: And all the while this is going on, there's a
- 17:00Speaker 2: shovel in the cupboard to remind you of how things
- 17:04Speaker 2: can go really bad really quickly.
- 17:06Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
- 17:07Speaker 2: So you're living, walking on eggshells. Yeah. Even if you're
- 17:11Speaker 2: doing it on very expensive shoes.
- 17:14Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
- 17:15Speaker 4: And even if like when he brought someone home and
- 17:18Speaker 4: they'd start smoking dope or everything and then things would
- 17:21Speaker 4: get deeper. And it was almost like he'd play with
- 17:24Speaker 4: somebody else over me and try and get me afraid
- 17:28Speaker 4: about this or that. You know, like, this is going
- 17:31Speaker 4: to happen to you, that's going to happen to you.
- 17:34Speaker 1: There was that.
- 17:35Speaker 4: There was also when, you know, my husband disappeared off
- 17:39Speaker 4: the face of the earth and then we didn't know
- 17:41Speaker 4: whether it was the police or the criminals.
- 17:45Speaker 2: So what happened? One day he just disappeared?
- 17:47Speaker 1: I was in fairly prison at the time.
- 17:49Speaker 2: For what?
- 17:50Speaker 4: I'd just been shanghaied from, I'd just done time in Malawa.
- 17:55Speaker 4: Guns or deception or something like that.
- 17:59Speaker 1: Fraud, thumbing.
- 18:01Speaker 4: And because I used to walk into banks and just
- 18:03Speaker 4: pretend I was someone else and just take out money.
- 18:06Speaker 1: I was just.
- 18:07Speaker 2: What, with credit cards or checks?
- 18:08Speaker 4: Yeah, with credit cards. Yeah, in those days you'd just
- 18:11Speaker 4: get them out of the mailbox or whatever, credit cards.
- 18:13Speaker 4: If you'd steal something from someone.
- 18:16Speaker 1: And go in and disguise. I mean, I always thought
- 18:19Speaker 1: I was a really good disguise artist, but.
- 18:20Speaker 4: I actually had this massive wig on and everyone could
- 18:23Speaker 4: tell that I had this wig on.
- 18:26Speaker 1: You know, when you look back, how stupid was I?
- 18:29Speaker 2: You were pretty good all around then, weren't you? Guns, drugs,
- 18:33Speaker 2: credit cards, checkbooks, deception. You know, you were a career criminal,
- 18:38Speaker 2: I guess you would say, at that time, yeah? So
- 18:40Speaker 2: you were in family at the time and Victor's not.
- 18:43Speaker 2: He's still in Sydney continuing his business.
- 18:45Speaker 4: He's still in Sydney continuing to do his business and
- 18:47Speaker 4: then just before I got out, I think it was
- 18:52Speaker 4: about 1987 from memory, like that's putting all the pieces together.
- 18:57Speaker 4: So 1987, I had this vision of the black and
- 19:02Speaker 4: the red. And he used to say to me, the
- 19:04Speaker 4: only thing that I don't know is when I'm going
- 19:06Speaker 4: to die. Because he caught me out a few times
- 19:10Speaker 4: when I said I was going somewhere and I wasn't.
- 19:12Speaker 4: So he used to say that he knows everything and
- 19:15Speaker 4: the only thing I don't know. But I heard those
- 19:17Speaker 4: words in Pentridge at the time when I had this
- 19:19Speaker 4: vision of the black and red blotch and the words,
- 19:24Speaker 4: my husband's.
- 19:25Speaker 1: Words, the only thing I don't know is when I'm
- 19:28Speaker 1: going to die. And his actual voice.
- 19:33Speaker 4: And then, yeah, I got out of jail and there
- 19:36Speaker 4: was this guy, this guy who was a friend of
- 19:38Speaker 4: his who was also like pretty much in the scene.
- 19:42Speaker 1: He ended up getting his head blown off. Anyway.
- 19:46Speaker 4: But he said to me not to go anywhere near
- 19:48Speaker 4: back to Sydney or don't start asking any questions because
- 19:53Speaker 4: then you'll be next. and and you know like he
- 19:57Speaker 4: didn't tell me anymore there was some it was a
- 20:00Speaker 4: long because it was such a long time ago there
- 20:02Speaker 4: was some talk afterwards that my mum said that there
- 20:04Speaker 4: was a watch that he left me that I identified
- 20:06Speaker 4: as my husband's watch but I'm not sure I never
- 20:10Speaker 4: I can't see that watch I don't remember it I
- 20:12Speaker 4: don't see anything about it there was Half truth, you know,
- 20:15Speaker 4: my mum would like to kind of sensationalise things.
- 20:19Speaker 2: Right.
- 20:20Speaker 1: Well, that's fair enough.
- 20:21Speaker 2: So he disappears, no trace, no body, no nothing.
- 20:27Speaker 4: Then I end up here in Melbourne, no trace, no body,
- 20:31Speaker 4: no nothing, no, I get warnings not.
- 20:34Speaker 1: To go looking for him.
- 20:35Speaker 4: I went back to Sydney to pick up 10 grand
- 20:37Speaker 4: off someone had a virus and mum sent me up
- 20:40Speaker 4: with a bodyguard and, But, yeah, that's.
- 20:44Speaker 2: All we've got. Because you were aware that he was
- 20:47Speaker 2: paying police up there for protection. It was a pretty
- 20:51Speaker 2: dangerous time to be paying police.
- 20:53Speaker 1: It was round about the time of the Royal Commission.
- 20:56Speaker 2: Woodward Royal Commission. Yeah. The Wood Royal Commission.
- 20:59Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
- 21:00Speaker 4: Yeah, well, round about that time. My brother was playing McDrury.
- 21:03Speaker 4: This bit is important because it got me a little
- 21:07Speaker 4: bit confused because I didn't know if it was one
- 21:11Speaker 4: of those cops.
- 21:12Speaker 1: Rogerson or if it was.
- 21:15Speaker 3: The Crimms and I didn't know who they were and
- 21:18Speaker 3: it was very similar.
- 21:19Speaker 4: And I was also friends with Debbie Huckstep, who was
- 21:22Speaker 4: Sally Ann Huckstep's sister, right, who was Warren Lamb Franchi's wife, basically.
- 21:29Speaker 1: And so I was in all of that.
- 21:30Speaker 4: So for me that was a very real possibility that
- 21:34Speaker 4: could have happened to him, right.
- 21:36Speaker 1: My dad wrote to.
- 21:39Speaker 4: the consul, his consul from this other country that he
- 21:42Speaker 4: comes from and, you know, and wrote to the police and,
- 21:46Speaker 4: you know, basically to establish, so what's my status now?
- 21:50Speaker 2: What am I?
- 21:50Speaker 3: Am I a widow? What help am I going to
- 21:54Speaker 3: get with these children and all the rest?
- 21:56Speaker 2: These were his children?
- 21:58Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
- 21:58Speaker 1: Yeah, two children to him.
- 22:00Speaker 2: So you're left, you don't know where you're at. You've
- 22:04Speaker 2: got a husband who's been tied up with corrupt police,
- 22:07Speaker 2: with crooks, gangsters. He's disappeared, probably murdered. What are you
- 22:13Speaker 2: thinking at this time?
- 22:15Speaker 1: So for some time I was a little bit psychotic actually.
- 22:18Speaker 1: I'd had some drugs.
- 22:19Speaker 4: I remember going up to Geelong or Corio around that
- 22:23Speaker 4: area and I was just walking into places and grabbing,
- 22:28Speaker 4: oh yeah, this passport will do, I'll use this one.
- 22:31Speaker 4: I was extremely frightened that the police were actually chasing
- 22:35Speaker 4: me and wanted to kill me and I was hitchhiking
- 22:37Speaker 4: at that stage and I got picked up by these
- 22:40Speaker 4: guys who were, you know, shady in some ways and
- 22:45Speaker 4: God knows who they were but anyway, one thing led
- 22:48Speaker 4: to another and there was a lot of talk between
- 22:51Speaker 4: them and there was suspicion on my behalf and I
- 22:54Speaker 4: also was paranoid because of, you know, having just come
- 22:57Speaker 4: out of jail and being told that my husband had been,
- 22:59Speaker 4: you know, is gone now and And you better keep
- 23:02Speaker 4: your head down because they'll go for you next, you know.
- 23:04Speaker 2: So they were saying that you might be paranoid but
- 23:07Speaker 2: there might also be people who genuinely want to get you.
- 23:09Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. I think there's a mixture.
- 23:13Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's hard to see what's real and what's
- 23:15Speaker 2: not at this moment.
- 23:16Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 23:16Speaker 1: So I ended up in this petrol station and I
- 23:20Speaker 1: jumped out of the car, left all my shit in
- 23:22Speaker 1: their car.
- 23:23Speaker 4: Jumped out of the car, went up to the fire
- 23:25Speaker 4: extinguisher and grabbed her. Those guys, don't you fucking come
- 23:30Speaker 4: near me.
- 23:30Speaker 1: I'm going to let this go. So I was getting
- 23:33Speaker 1: ready to let that. So they pissed off. They were,
- 23:35Speaker 1: you know, this chick's mad, nuts, whatever. I ended up, I.
- 23:40Speaker 4: Around there I stole a car and it was like
- 23:44Speaker 4: a shift on the side, a handle shift.
- 23:47Speaker 2: You threw it on the tree?
- 23:48Speaker 1: Yeah, I couldn't.
- 23:49Speaker 4: I wasn't used to it. Going from gear to gear.
- 23:54Speaker 4: Ended up in this marsh. It was a marsh with
- 23:56Speaker 4: all this shit and, of course, I was in there
- 23:59Speaker 4: hiding because I thought, you know, they're after me and
- 24:02Speaker 4: they're going to kill me. Yeah, and some of it
- 24:04Speaker 4: was psychosis but I think there was a degree of
- 24:06Speaker 4: it that was true and, like you said, because, you know, like,
- 24:10Speaker 4: what had happened earlier.
- 24:11Speaker 2: Yeah, the potential was there, you know.
- 24:12Speaker 1: But what happened was.
- 24:13Speaker 2: And I guess people would, and that's the thing, we
- 24:15Speaker 2: talked about this earlier, that the good crooks are very
- 24:18Speaker 2: careful not to tell their wives everything because one day
- 24:20Speaker 2: the wives might tell the truth about them. And there's
- 24:23Speaker 2: always that suspicion possibly from your husband's enemies or police
- 24:27Speaker 2: or whoever that what does she know?
- 24:29Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 24:31Speaker 2: And I guess she did know some things.
- 24:33Speaker 4: But I knew no one's, you know, one of the,
- 24:34Speaker 4: actually it's one of the things that saved me that
- 24:36Speaker 4: I knew no one's names because I.
- 24:38Speaker 1: Would have Talked about it.
- 24:39Speaker 2: So he did you a favour like that?
- 24:40Speaker 1: Definitely. Yeah, I feel like, you know, I was really protected.
- 24:44Speaker 1: I was really protected by not knowing people.
- 24:49Speaker 4: Yeah. You know, and even nowadays if someone says to me,
- 24:53Speaker 4: you know, they say, I don't know anyone.
- 24:54Speaker 1: I don't know these actors. I don't know who they are.
- 24:56Speaker 1: I only know.
- 24:57Speaker 4: People who I talk to day to day.
- 24:58Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough.
- 24:59Speaker 1: I don't know anything about that.
- 25:00Speaker 2: So you're in this disordered state and your husband's gone
- 25:04Speaker 2: and you're in Victoria and you're still committing offences.
- 25:08Speaker 4: So I just come out of the swamp, back into
- 25:11Speaker 4: the petrol station, on the phone to Brunswick police because
- 25:15Speaker 4: I was shitting myself and I thought I'm going to
- 25:18Speaker 4: hand myself in because maybe the police can protect.
- 25:23Speaker 3: Me, right?
- 25:23Speaker 1: Right. Because there was, like, I was just, like, backed
- 25:26Speaker 1: into a corner.
- 25:28Speaker 4: So anyway, the first thing I said to them when
- 25:31Speaker 4: they brought me to the station, I said to them,
- 25:33Speaker 4: you know, just give me.
- 25:34Speaker 1: A hot shot and that's it. Just don't, you know,
- 25:37Speaker 1: if you're going to kill me.
- 25:38Speaker 4: Yeah, if you're going to kill me, just, no, if
- 25:40Speaker 4: you're going to kill me, just give me a hot
- 25:41Speaker 4: shot and then we'll forget about it all, you know.
- 25:43Speaker 1: And I just thought, well, there's no way. They're going
- 25:45Speaker 1: to let me live now.
- 25:47Speaker 3: So.
- 25:48Speaker 1: This woman comes in. She's a nurse. She was a
- 25:51Speaker 1: police nurse, gloves on. I'd never seen a nurse like this.
- 25:55Speaker 1: And she comes up to me. She's got a syringe.
- 25:57Speaker 1: She's checking.
- 25:57Speaker 4: She wants to check all of my needle marks in
- 26:00Speaker 4: my arms and my legs.
- 26:01Speaker 1: She wants to check them all.
- 26:03Speaker 4: I'm going, I'm thinking to myself, this woman is checking
- 26:05Speaker 4: me because she's got this syringe in her hand of
- 26:08Speaker 4: hot shot that she's going to give me. She just
- 26:09Speaker 4: wants to make sure that I actually am a drug
- 26:12Speaker 4: addict so that way she won't get blamed or the
- 26:15Speaker 4: police won't get blamed for any malpractice.
- 26:17Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
- 26:18Speaker 2: Or murder.
- 26:20Speaker 1: Or murder, right? So that was very real.
- 26:22Speaker 4: The nurse came in and checked me out and had
- 26:24Speaker 4: their gloves and this and that and the other, and
- 26:26Speaker 4: then I end up going back to Brunswick.
- 26:28Speaker 1: Police with this syringe. Well, of course, the police, as
- 26:31Speaker 1: soon as I got to Brunswick, gave me a cup
- 26:33Speaker 1: of coffee, right?
- 26:35Speaker 4: But I started drinking the coffee and I'm feeling like
- 26:39Speaker 4: I'm starting to crash, right?
- 26:40Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, yeah, they've put something in my coffee, right?
- 26:43Speaker 1: So I'm not drinking the coffee anymore.
- 26:45Speaker 4: And I've stayed in the cells that night and then
- 26:47Speaker 4: I don't remember what happened, but that was a really
- 26:49Speaker 4: scary time.
- 26:51Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 26:51Speaker 2: And so you're still a heroin addict.
- 26:54Speaker 1: Back then, yeah.
- 26:54Speaker 3: Yes.
- 26:55Speaker 2: And you're able to find drugs. How did you survive
- 26:58Speaker 2: at this point? You're just doing your best, stealing, fraud, deceptions. Yeah.
- 27:04Speaker 1: Stealing, fraud, deceptions.
- 27:06Speaker 4: There was some really good, in those days there was
- 27:08Speaker 4: some really good cough syrup that had morphine in it
- 27:11Speaker 4: that we'd get. There was some bits and pieces that
- 27:14Speaker 4: you could get from chemists But apart from that, I
- 27:17Speaker 4: always end up finding something, you know.
- 27:19Speaker 1: To use.
- 27:20Speaker 4: For me, it was always like something to calm me
- 27:23Speaker 4: down because, you know, like you've either got people who
- 27:25Speaker 4: are attracted to poisons that bring you up, that actually
- 27:32Speaker 4: give you a high, and then there's other drugs that
- 27:34Speaker 4: will relax you or, you know, like heroin, morphine, all
- 27:39Speaker 4: those opiates, they're going to relax you, whereas drugs, the
- 27:43Speaker 4: speed or the ice or the cocaine, whatever, all similar
- 27:47Speaker 4: type of class drugs.
- 27:49Speaker 1: Right.
- 27:50Speaker 2: And you found the opiates were your drug of choice.
- 27:53Speaker 4: Yes, because I was already very, yeah, I was already very, like, speedy.
- 28:00Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 28:00Speaker 4: I was already naturally speedy, so now I need to
- 28:03Speaker 4: slow down.
- 28:03Speaker 2: And some adrenaline going on as well in these difficult,
- 28:06Speaker 2: dangerous situations, and the heroin seemed to be a way
- 28:10Speaker 2: to dampen yourself down.
- 28:12Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 28:13Speaker 2: Sleep as well, I guess. Yeah. Things like that.
- 28:15Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 28:16Speaker 2: So this goes on for a couple of years post
- 28:18Speaker 2: your husband vanishing, yeah?
- 28:19Speaker 1: Well, yeah. To tell you the truth, timeframes are pretty skewed.
- 28:24Speaker 2: I get it. But you were going back into custody
- 28:26Speaker 2: as well in this period as well?
- 28:27Speaker 4: Yeah, I ended up back in custody, in and out
- 28:31Speaker 4: of jail so many times, 13 times in and out
- 28:34Speaker 4: of jail.
- 28:34Speaker 1: So how much.
- 28:35Speaker 2: Time did you spend over your.
- 28:37Speaker 1: The longest time was 12 months, right? Right.
- 28:39Speaker 4: But the.
- 28:42Speaker 4: So the longest whack was 12 months, which is probably
- 28:45Speaker 4: the easiest stretch that I did. All the other shorter stretches,
- 28:49Speaker 4: three months, six months, et cetera, were all quite difficult
- 28:55Speaker 4: because you go in there and you lose everything that
- 28:59Speaker 4: you have. Like you've got, say you've got an apartment
- 29:03Speaker 4: or something and anything that you'd saved up or anything
- 29:06Speaker 4: that you'd accumulated or, you know, everything ends up disappearing.
- 29:11Speaker 4: And then you know, to back out with a $ 300,
- 29:14Speaker 4: I can't remember, I don't know how much it is
- 29:16Speaker 4: these days, a $ 300 check or whatever from Centrelink and
- 29:20Speaker 4: off you go.
- 29:21Speaker 1: And what are you going to do with that money?
- 29:23Speaker 2: You've got to score.
- 29:24Speaker 4: I mean, that's the first thing that you do because,
- 29:26Speaker 4: you know, everything's too overwhelming. It was overwhelming for me
- 29:29Speaker 4: to walk into Centrelink on my own. You know, I
- 29:32Speaker 4: was like, shit, everyone's like giants here. It's like I
- 29:36Speaker 4: was feeling overwhelmed about that.
- 29:38Speaker 2: And you accumulated over your... time, more than 500 charges. Yeah,
- 29:41Speaker 2: about 538, I think.
- 29:45Speaker 4: It was, yeah.
- 29:47Speaker 1: And 13 times in jail.
- 29:49Speaker 2: How did you find jail overall? Did you survive in there?
- 29:53Speaker 1: I survived, yeah.
- 29:54Speaker 4: I mean, when I was doing long periods of time,
- 29:57Speaker 4: I always got really good jobs. I worked in the kitchen,
- 30:00Speaker 4: I was working in the garden, I used the tractor stuff.
- 30:04Speaker 1: I'd always get decent jobs.
- 30:07Speaker 4: But, you know, if I was there for a short
- 30:09Speaker 4: period of time, there was always something that I was
- 30:12Speaker 4: going to be, you know, there was always someone that
- 30:14Speaker 4: I was going to step in over. You know, like
- 30:15Speaker 4: this one poor girl comes in and she got her
- 30:18Speaker 4: runners taken off her. And that's the very first thing
- 30:21Speaker 4: they did, take her runners off her. And then they
- 30:24Speaker 4: come into the cell, into the unit, and they say,
- 30:27Speaker 4: we're so-and-so because we're going to bash her.
- 30:30Speaker 1: I said, no, you're not.
- 30:32Speaker 4: You practically broke her back over her shoes. If she
- 30:35Speaker 4: has like an accident or something happens, then she is
- 30:39Speaker 4: likely to become paraplegic, so it's not going to happen.
- 30:42Speaker 1: And who says?
- 30:44Speaker 3: I say.
- 30:45Speaker 1: And righty, I was sitting here like this, trying not
- 30:47Speaker 1: to be, you know, intimidating. I say like this.
- 30:50Speaker 4: And there's 10 girls all standing around. And then she goes,
- 30:54Speaker 4: you've come that close.
- 30:55Speaker 1: And so I stood up. By that stage, I stood
- 30:58Speaker 1: up and they all shuffled out. And that was it.
- 31:00Speaker 2: Because you're not a big person. You're not an intimidating
- 31:04Speaker 2: looking person. But you had to have that front. And
- 31:08Speaker 2: you saw a lot of violence. We were talking before
- 31:10Speaker 2: about psychological scars, but you've got physical scars as well.
- 31:13Speaker 2: Some of them you did acquire in jail.
- 31:15Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 31:16Speaker 2: What were the kind of things you went through?
- 31:18Speaker 4: Oh, you know, stabbed, get stabbed, you know, like knit
- 31:21Speaker 4: lotion in the microwave oven, all heated up and then
- 31:24Speaker 4: thrown on you.
- 31:25Speaker 3: Sorry?
- 31:26Speaker 2: Prison napalm, I think they call it.
- 31:28Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
- 31:29Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, you know, like a few broken noses. I
- 31:34Speaker 4: gave a few broken noses too. I mean, you know, like,
- 31:36Speaker 4: I mean, I got into fights. A lot of the
- 31:39Speaker 4: fights I won, the fights that I didn't win, I
- 31:42Speaker 4: didn't hit back because out of principle, it was misunderstandings.
- 31:46Speaker 4: I wasn't going to hit back. Also, depending on who
- 31:48Speaker 4: it is, if you've got a young 18-year-old in there
- 31:51Speaker 4: who wants to have a go at you and she's
- 31:52Speaker 4: got like half the jail.
- 31:54Speaker 1: As her aunties and uncles.
- 31:56Speaker 4: then you haven't got a chance against her, no matter
- 31:59Speaker 4: if you win the fight or not, it doesn't matter,
- 32:01Speaker 4: you're going to end up copying her.
- 32:03Speaker 1: So of course.
- 32:03Speaker 2: Sort of going to back up on you afterwards.
- 32:05Speaker 4: Yeah, you can't, like, you've got to think about it and,
- 32:07Speaker 4: you know, cut your losses in that situation, because it's like,
- 32:12Speaker 4: I'm not going to go up against.
- 32:13Speaker 1: All of you guys, you know. But, yeah.
- 32:16Speaker 2: So you have to learn to be tough.
- 32:18Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I mean, I think I've always, I was
- 32:21Speaker 4: always extremely shy, but.
- 32:25Speaker 1: When I had my experience with God, I became assertive. Really?
- 32:30Speaker 3: Yes.
- 32:30Speaker 2: Because we'll get to that because you had this period
- 32:33Speaker 2: from like 87 when your husband disappears. For a couple
- 32:38Speaker 2: of years, you're in and out of custody. You're going
- 32:40Speaker 2: flat out. You're on your own trying to survive doing
- 32:42Speaker 2: your best. And somehow God comes into your life. What happened?
- 32:48Speaker 4: So I was just in a bad way and wanting
- 32:52Speaker 4: to score so I was stealing I was going to
- 32:54Speaker 4: steal you know clothes or whatever I don't know what
- 32:57Speaker 4: I don't know I had something some stolen property and
- 33:00Speaker 4: my mum said oh look there's the neighbor has been
- 33:03Speaker 4: around here and they've said that that they think that
- 33:06Speaker 4: God's calling you and that you should come to church
- 33:09Speaker 4: with them and I said oh I laughed about it
- 33:11Speaker 4: and I didn't believe I said and my mum was
- 33:13Speaker 4: kind of under her breath you know like rolling her
- 33:16Speaker 4: eyes and stuff I go all right well So I've
- 33:20Speaker 4: gone around there and I've said, okay, let's do a trade-off.
- 33:22Speaker 4: If you buy this dress off me, I'll come to
- 33:24Speaker 4: church with you. And they said, yeah, okay, come to
- 33:26Speaker 4: church first.
- 33:28Speaker 1: So they got me to church. So they got me
- 33:31Speaker 1: to church. I'm there with my feet up on the thing.
- 33:35Speaker 2: With you, yeah?
- 33:36Speaker 1: Yeah, with my slurpee, like, everyone's looking at me.
- 33:41Speaker 2: Who is this? You're saying, who, what are you looking at?
- 33:43Speaker 1: What are you looking at? What are you looking at?
- 33:45Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 33:46Speaker 1: No, I wasn't. I was pretty shy, so I wouldn't
- 33:49Speaker 1: tell people what you're looking at.
- 33:51Speaker 2: But you exuded a kind of arrogance and kind of like,
- 33:54Speaker 2: don't fuck with me kind of. Not then. Okay.
- 33:57Speaker 1: Not then. I do now, but not then.
- 33:59Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay.
- 34:00Speaker 2: So you get that first, and what was that like?
- 34:02Speaker 2: What was that feeling like? You said, well, I'm just
- 34:05Speaker 2: here to sell the dress.
- 34:07Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know, I just thought, well, actually I
- 34:10Speaker 4: got into the church and there was just a real.
- 34:15Speaker 1: It felt like God was speaking directly to me.
- 34:17Speaker 4: He was talking about the woman at the well who
- 34:19Speaker 4: was like the woman at the well was, she was
- 34:22Speaker 4: an outcast, right?
- 34:24Speaker 1: And she had many husbands. She was an outcast.
- 34:30Speaker 4: And so Jesus went there to speak to her in
- 34:34Speaker 4: the heat of the day. The heat of the day
- 34:37Speaker 4: is not when all the good women went out there.
- 34:39Speaker 4: The good women all went out in the morning when
- 34:42Speaker 4: it was still cool and they'd collect their water when
- 34:45Speaker 4: it was cool. All the bad girls had to go
- 34:47Speaker 4: out in the heat of the day. So this bad
- 34:49Speaker 4: girl was there, the Samaritan woman. and said to Jesus,
- 34:51Speaker 4: do you.
- 34:52Speaker 1: Want some water? And he said, well, if you would've
- 34:54Speaker 1: asked me, I.
- 34:54Speaker 4: Would've given you water that would quench your soul, and
- 34:58Speaker 4: this big hole in my soul. And that was it,
- 35:01Speaker 4: something happened to me, and it was just like God
- 35:04Speaker 4: was speaking directly to me. Everyone's faces turned into these
- 35:08Speaker 4: demonic creatures, everyone around me, because it became a scene
- 35:12Speaker 4: of back 2,000 years, where the cross is, that place
- 35:16Speaker 4: of the cross, because I was there in front of
- 35:18Speaker 4: the cross.
- 35:19Speaker 2: On Calvary.
- 35:20Speaker 1: On Calvary. And I was looking directly at Jesus' eyes.
- 35:22Speaker 1: He was looking directly in my eyes.
- 35:25Speaker 4: And there was every demon on her in hell, of course,
- 35:30Speaker 4: trying to get him down. Every demon that ever was,
- 35:33Speaker 4: every demon that was at that time, and every demon that.
- 35:36Speaker 1: Ever will be was there.
- 35:38Speaker 4: And I had to walk the gauntlet straight through all
- 35:41Speaker 4: these demons. to get to and I just kept my
- 35:45Speaker 4: eyes on Jesus and I just thought I know you're
- 35:47Speaker 4: stronger than I know you've beat all these guys so
- 35:50Speaker 4: I know you've beat everyone I know that you are
- 35:51Speaker 4: the king I know that you have the power I
- 35:54Speaker 4: know that you've done this so I'm looking straight at
- 35:56Speaker 4: you and that was it they all fell away and
- 35:59Speaker 4: then I got lifted up into this space where just
- 36:03Speaker 4: beautiful light colours colours in the trees lights around everything
- 36:08Speaker 4: that's alive you know just started to see you know
- 36:12Speaker 4: I was just And this.
- 36:13Speaker 2: Is one visit to church?
- 36:15Speaker 3: Well, no.
- 36:15Speaker 4: So I've entered in other bits and pieces that was
- 36:19Speaker 4: part of that.
- 36:20Speaker 2: So when you start going to church, these are the
- 36:22Speaker 2: sort of things you're going through. And, like, you've not
- 36:24Speaker 2: felt this kind of comfort or solace or love or
- 36:27Speaker 2: concern forever, ever since you were a kid?
- 36:31Speaker 3: No.
- 36:31Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Ever since with my dad or when I
- 36:34Speaker 1: go to it.
- 36:35Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 36:36Speaker 1: Sorry.
- 36:36Speaker 4: Well... Yeah, I mean, it's like I said, I was
- 36:39Speaker 4: feeling extremely shameful and guilty. I wasn't feeling like I
- 36:45Speaker 4: was a part of society anymore. I couldn't look at
- 36:48Speaker 4: anyone in the eyes when I talked. I was extremely shy.
- 36:52Speaker 1: I was feeling so guilty.
- 36:55Speaker 4: And the one very kind of material thing that happened
- 37:00Speaker 4: to me is that I was relieved of my guilt
- 37:03Speaker 4: and shame.
- 37:04Speaker 1: I was relieved of my guilt and shame. I became...
- 37:07Speaker 1: I became.
- 37:08Speaker 2: And you'd literally, you talk about Jesus and the demons,
- 37:12Speaker 2: you'd literally been through the valley with the demons in
- 37:15Speaker 2: your own life. Yeah. You know, because that's the thing
- 37:19Speaker 2: in that world. You can't really trust anybody. You've got
- 37:23Speaker 2: to look out for yourself. People are always worried about
- 37:26Speaker 2: being given up or stabbed in the back or physically hurt,
- 37:30Speaker 2: you know. You tried to take your own life at
- 37:33Speaker 2: a certain point before this, hadn't you?
- 37:34Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 37:35Speaker 2: And I saw the scar on your forearm there and
- 37:39Speaker 2: you tried the serious way. You went this way and
- 37:42Speaker 2: up your arm.
- 37:43Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 37:43Speaker 2: You wanted to die. What saved you, do you think?
- 37:45Speaker 4: Well, I'd already had an experience with God and I
- 37:48Speaker 4: was three years with God and then I had that
- 37:52Speaker 4: 12 years of backsliding. So I think in a sense
- 37:55Speaker 4: during that time I was saving my partner from so
- 37:58Speaker 4: many things, from death. I saved him a couple of
- 38:03Speaker 4: times from getting bashed and killed and stuff, and I'd
- 38:05Speaker 4: jump in.
- 38:06Speaker 1: The middle and save him.
- 38:07Speaker 4: I mean, I know it can be foolish, but it's
- 38:11Speaker 4: just a gut reaction of mine. If I see somebody
- 38:14Speaker 4: getting hurt, if I don't do something about it, I
- 38:17Speaker 4: won't be able to sleep. Yeah.
- 38:20Speaker 1: I want to be able to sleep at night.
- 38:22Speaker 2: And this was the father of your children.
- 38:24Speaker 1: So there was a strong connection.
- 38:26Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. So where were your children at this point?
- 38:29Speaker 1: My mum had them.
- 38:30Speaker 4: Yeah, my mum had a couple of my children and
- 38:32Speaker 4: my last child, she didn't want anything to do with
- 38:35Speaker 4: the father, so he went off straight away into foster care.
- 38:40Speaker 4: I kept seeing him every six weeks and, you know,
- 38:44Speaker 4: continued to see him every six weeks.
- 38:46Speaker 2: So you go from flat out as a criminal... Yeah...
- 38:50Speaker 2: getting out of jail, you're suddenly in Bible college.
- 38:54Speaker 1: Which is great. It's fantastic. It was beautiful.
- 38:58Speaker 4: It was like I was just like on this, it
- 39:00Speaker 4: was like I was just constantly stoned, you know, but
- 39:04Speaker 4: not stoned like off drugs. Like it was a high,
- 39:08Speaker 4: it was a high from God. It was a real
- 39:09Speaker 4: high from God. So, and it was great. And I
- 39:12Speaker 4: was hungry to learn and learnt so much during those
- 39:15Speaker 4: three years. Had a really good teacher. We had just
- 39:18Speaker 4: about every kickboxer in Melbourne come into the church.
- 39:21Speaker 1: It was like growing rapidly. Miracles happening there all the time.
- 39:26Speaker 4: There's people that have gone out everywhere who have started
- 39:28Speaker 4: churches in various different places as a result.
- 39:31Speaker 1: But it started to become like more.
- 39:34Speaker 4: Of a, self-development class more than anything when it started
- 39:39Speaker 4: to become a self-development thing when it started to become
- 39:42Speaker 4: like a prosperity driven doctrine that you're the promise of
- 39:45Speaker 4: abraham you should own all of the cattle on the
- 39:49Speaker 4: hill and.
- 39:49Speaker 1: All the hills and blah, blah.
- 39:51Speaker 2: God wants you to be rich.
- 39:52Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, that's when, yeah, well, that's when it's like, nah,
- 39:56Speaker 1: you're starting to lose me now.
- 39:58Speaker 4: This is about something a lot more profound than anything,
- 40:02Speaker 4: you know, that you can own or owning. It ends
- 40:05Speaker 4: up being something very deep in the soul that's a personal,
- 40:09Speaker 4: that becomes a personal relationship that's more, that's worth more
- 40:13Speaker 4: than anything that you can find.
- 40:14Speaker 2: Of course it is. Of course it is. And I
- 40:15Speaker 2: think one of the, Key thing is you're off heroin
- 40:17Speaker 2: by this time, I'm assuming, right? So one of the
- 40:20Speaker 2: big challenges that I've registered with people getting off those
- 40:24Speaker 2: sort of drugs is how do you replace the high,
- 40:29Speaker 2: the joy, right? And the world seems black and white
- 40:34Speaker 2: and two-dimensional without the high of drugs. So you were
- 40:38Speaker 2: finding that joy through your relationship with God.
- 40:41Speaker 4: Yeah. I think one of the most difficult things coming
- 40:44Speaker 4: off drugs is is not only the physical withdrawal, but
- 40:49Speaker 4: I guess like in a sense you're trying to work out, okay,
- 40:53Speaker 4: so for 20 years I've been getting up in the
- 40:56Speaker 4: morning and going out and committing crimes. What am I
- 40:59Speaker 4: going to do now with my life? You know, like
- 41:03Speaker 4: how am I going to shape this life? How will
- 41:05Speaker 4: I replace all of these habits that I have? One
- 41:09Speaker 4: thing that happened to me when I got out of jail,
- 41:11Speaker 4: that last lagging for escaped police custody, for which I've never,
- 41:16Speaker 4: ever been back to jail.
- 41:18Speaker 1: And I've never had anything wrong, like never.
- 41:21Speaker 4: Done anything wrong since then, apart from a couple of
- 41:23Speaker 4: driving fines or whatever. So since then, the temptation for
- 41:30Speaker 4: heroin just completely dispelled and disappeared.
- 41:32Speaker 2: Really?
- 41:33Speaker 1: Yes.
- 41:34Speaker 4: So I've never had any temptation for that stuff again.
- 41:39Speaker 1: So since that time, since 2004.
- 41:41Speaker 2: Well, let's roll back a little bit because you're in
- 41:43Speaker 2: the Bible college now In the.
- 41:46Speaker 1: 80s, into the 90s? 89, yeah.
- 41:48Speaker 2: But your criminal career wasn't quite over.
- 41:51Speaker 3: No.
- 41:52Speaker 4: Well, yeah.
- 41:52Speaker 2: So you had one foot in one camp, the other
- 41:56Speaker 2: foot in another.
- 41:57Speaker 4: So I did two and a half years Bible study
- 41:59Speaker 4: and then one of my court cases caught up with
- 42:02Speaker 4: me for sawn-off 22, sawn-off 12 gauge, and we had
- 42:09Speaker 4: some bullets in there, we had gloves, we had overalls,
- 42:12Speaker 4: we had balaclavas.
- 42:15Speaker 1: And we were going up the mountains to shoot birds.
- 42:18Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe not the bank on the way.
- 42:22Speaker 4: So, yeah, so I got in the courthouse and they
- 42:27Speaker 4: asked me to swear on the Bible. And at that
- 42:29Speaker 4: point I was extremely passionate about this conversion.
- 42:33Speaker 1: Experience I'd had.
- 42:34Speaker 4: So I started preaching in the Thomas court. Do you
- 42:37Speaker 4: believe what's in this Bible? You're asking me to swear
- 42:39Speaker 4: on the Bible.
- 42:40Speaker 1: Do you believe what's written in this Bible? Do you believe?
- 42:44Speaker 4: That people can be redeemed and there is change and
- 42:46Speaker 4: that's exactly what's happened to me.
- 42:48Speaker 1: Anyway.
- 42:49Speaker 2: But also the oath goes the truth, the whole truth,
- 42:52Speaker 2: nothing but the truth.
- 42:53Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 42:54Speaker 2: That now has a real resonance with you, I'd imagine.
- 42:56Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
- 42:57Speaker 4: Well, I think the truth is part of God's character.
- 43:03Speaker 4: So once God infuses his character into you, which is
- 43:07Speaker 4: basically what happens at the time of the new birth,
- 43:10Speaker 4: then you get that written on your heart.
- 43:13Speaker 1: It's basically like you get that, you know, you... But
- 43:17Speaker 1: I think I've always been... It's the hound of heaven.
- 43:21Speaker 4: I've always been hounded by heaven. And until I submit
- 43:25Speaker 4: to heaven, they're not going to let me go.
- 43:26Speaker 1: They're not going to let me go.
- 43:27Speaker 2: Absolutely. And this is very inconvenient for a criminal because
- 43:30Speaker 2: you have to tell lies. You have to bear false witness.
- 43:34Speaker 2: And now your heart's telling you something different. And I
- 43:37Speaker 2: guess there's a conflict going on to a certain extent
- 43:39Speaker 2: over those years, yeah?
- 43:42Speaker 4: Well, look, I've never, yeah, I've never malignantly, you know,
- 43:45Speaker 4: put somebody in jail. I did put someone in jail
- 43:48Speaker 4: for rape and, of course, I was following the criminal
- 43:53Speaker 4: code as well because at one point.
- 43:55Speaker 1: I thought that it was really important to do so.
- 43:57Speaker 2: So you've got a few old matters catching up with you? Yeah.
- 44:02Speaker 2: And you do some more jail in that period?
- 44:03Speaker 3: Well, yeah.
- 44:04Speaker 4: Yeah, I had, so I went, I testified in the dock,
- 44:08Speaker 4: then I went home to sleep that night and that's,
- 44:11Speaker 4: I had a vision that I was going, that there
- 44:14Speaker 4: was dry bones in the jail that were, you know,
- 44:19Speaker 4: and that I was going in.
- 44:20Speaker 1: For mission, basically. It was a mission.
- 44:24Speaker 4: So anyway, I went in and actually there's a couple
- 44:28Speaker 4: of girls who were still touched by that. very encounter
- 44:32Speaker 4: that they had with me on that occasion when I
- 44:34Speaker 4: went into jail so and their lives have completely changed
- 44:37Speaker 4: they're living straight clean lives after doing murders and stuff
- 44:41Speaker 4: you know so or manslaughter whatever yeah because these things
- 44:45Speaker 4: don't happen overnight and people so yes I ended up
- 44:48Speaker 4: doing that time in jail and then I got out
- 44:50Speaker 4: and there was still I got my son back by
- 44:54Speaker 4: that stage I got my son back they came back
- 44:55Speaker 4: with a bottle of champagne they said we've never done
- 44:58Speaker 4: this before But we've seen the change in your life, blah, blah.
- 45:02Speaker 1: And he's going to.
- 45:03Speaker 4: Come out of the water of the stage. You can
- 45:05Speaker 4: have him back. They came back with a bottle of champagne.
- 45:08Speaker 4: Mum got me, well, we had to have a transitional
- 45:12Speaker 4: conference within which mum said that I didn't have any money.
- 45:17Speaker 4: I didn't have a job. I didn't have any money.
- 45:19Speaker 4: I couldn't give him opportunities. And I said, yeah, well,
- 45:23Speaker 4: you're right. So she said, well, I think you'd be
- 45:25Speaker 4: better off with me in that case. and he's got
- 45:28Speaker 4: his friends with me and he's got his routine with
- 45:30Speaker 4: me and blah, blah.
- 45:32Speaker 1: So I said, yeah, all right, yeah.
- 45:34Speaker 4: I thought it would have been nice had she said,
- 45:36Speaker 4: you know, okay, look, I'll help you keep him or
- 45:39Speaker 4: we can do this together or something like that.
- 45:41Speaker 1: But no, it was just like pushed me out.
- 45:44Speaker 2: But it was a step in the right direction.
- 45:45Speaker 1: It was a step in the right direction.
- 45:46Speaker 2: What about your other two kids?
- 45:48Speaker 1: My other two.
- 45:49Speaker 4: Kids, my daughter, I had a pretty good relationship with
- 45:54Speaker 4: her and we're building it up again now.
- 45:58Speaker 1: My son, my mum made her will.
- 46:02Speaker 4: Just, you know, obviously for me, my brother and my
- 46:05Speaker 4: sister got very annoyed at me because he said that
- 46:09Speaker 4: I persuaded my mother to make the will like that
- 46:13Speaker 4: and that he should have been included in it and
- 46:16Speaker 4: what mother would do something like this to her child
- 46:18Speaker 4: and and that I was the worst thing that's happened
- 46:20Speaker 4: to him and that I've given him all this stuff.
- 46:23Speaker 2: Yeah, all that family stuff, yeah?
- 46:25Speaker 4: Yeah, and all the stuff that my mum's told and
- 46:28Speaker 4: this half-fruits that really make me look.
- 46:31Speaker 1: Like a shocking, horrible person.
- 46:33Speaker 2: Well, let's face it, you were doing some pretty bad
- 46:35Speaker 2: things back then.
- 46:36Speaker 4: Yeah, I was doing bad things, but I was doing
- 46:39Speaker 4: bad things. I never hurt a child, never hurt old people, never,
- 46:43Speaker 4: you know, I think one assault was.
- 46:48Speaker 4: You know, like with a clean syringe straight out of
- 46:51Speaker 4: the pack, the person felt.
- 46:52Speaker 1: Threatened and I didn't even pin them with it. The
- 46:55Speaker 1: person felt threatened so I got done for assault. Okay.
- 46:58Speaker 4: I had to explain all that when I got my
- 47:00Speaker 4: working with children check.
- 47:02Speaker 3: Right.
- 47:02Speaker 2: So, you know, we can dwell on the detail of
- 47:07Speaker 2: jail and violence and drugs and things, but I think
- 47:10Speaker 2: we've got the whole picture here.
- 47:11Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 47:12Speaker 2: But you've got this period through the 90s into the
- 47:15Speaker 2: early 2000s And I guess we can say you closed
- 47:20Speaker 2: the door on all that around about 2004. Is that fair?
- 47:25Speaker 1: 2004 I got out and that was the last time.
- 47:28Speaker 4: The charge was escape police custody and I've never been
- 47:32Speaker 4: back since.
- 47:34Speaker 1: And I thought, yes, what a great charge to go
- 47:38Speaker 1: out on. I mean, I'm released now.
- 47:41Speaker 2: You better tell that story. What happened?
- 47:43Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 47:44Speaker 1: Well, it was, okay, so escape police, yeah.
- 47:48Speaker 4: I was in Seymour, just got, well, actually, I'd gone
- 47:52Speaker 4: down to past Seymour to a rehabilitation, Christian rehabilitation. And
- 47:57Speaker 4: I brought this girl with me who was going to
- 47:59Speaker 4: go back and, you know, basically stay in my house
- 48:02Speaker 4: while I was in rehab. The people at the rehab
- 48:05Speaker 4: persuaded her to stay as well. And she was saying
- 48:07Speaker 4: how she was the worship singer and she was this
- 48:10Speaker 4: and that. Well, anyway, they started to sort of persuade
- 48:13Speaker 4: her to stay there. at the place she wasn't ready
- 48:16Speaker 4: to do rehab she didn't want to do rehab the
- 48:18Speaker 4: next day she turned on me she said you better
- 48:20Speaker 4: get us a fucking cigarettes we haven't even got a
- 48:22Speaker 4: cigarette here you know dying so i've jumped the fence
- 48:26Speaker 4: and got stole their marijuana and a big bag of
- 48:30Speaker 4: coins okay and um and so i think we had
- 48:34Speaker 4: about 200 bucks or something was shitty it was just
- 48:37Speaker 4: ridiculous shitty it was a caravan it was anyway It
- 48:41Speaker 4: doesn't make it right.
- 48:43Speaker 1: I understand that now, but it was just, yeah, something
- 48:46Speaker 1: I did.
- 48:46Speaker 4: Anyway, got on the train at that place and headed
- 48:52Speaker 4: down towards Seymour.
- 48:53Speaker 1: And, of course, once we get to Seymour, we were
- 48:55Speaker 1: supposed to ring up.
- 48:57Speaker 4: The drug dealer and set it all up and, you know,
- 49:00Speaker 4: walking towards the phone box with this bag and there's
- 49:04Speaker 4: these cops coming towards us and she's gone to me
- 49:07Speaker 4: and my friend's gone to me.
- 49:08Speaker 1: Oh, they're coming after us. I'm going, just relax. Just
- 49:10Speaker 1: keep walking, pretend nothing's happening. It's all right.
- 49:14Speaker 4: Well, of course, they did come after us and they
- 49:16Speaker 4: grabbed us and they brought us back to the station.
- 49:20Speaker 1: And brought us downstairs. And then in the morning, of course,
- 49:23Speaker 1: we went to court. We went to court.
- 49:25Speaker 4: And there's this little pokey little room that's near.
- 49:28Speaker 1: The courthouse for lawyers to talk to.
- 49:32Speaker 4: So a lawyer was in there talking to us and said,
- 49:35Speaker 4: you know, like, you're not going to get out.
- 49:38Speaker 1: You're not going to get bailed. There's no way that
- 49:40Speaker 1: you're going to get out. And I said, what?
- 49:43Speaker 4: And I said, well, what's through that door over there?
- 49:46Speaker 4: And he goes, don't even think about it. And I'm
- 49:48Speaker 4: looking at my friend and I.
- 49:49Speaker 1: Said, I'm going to go out that door. I don't
- 49:51Speaker 1: know what's through that door.
- 49:52Speaker 2: I'm going to go out that door.
- 49:54Speaker 4: Anyway, I didn't say anything because there was a two
- 49:57Speaker 4: policemen standing right at the door watching us, right?
- 50:01Speaker 1: But they were standing with their back towards us. They
- 50:03Speaker 1: were looking the other way.
- 50:04Speaker 4: And there was the lawyer that had briefly gone out
- 50:06Speaker 4: to the administration desk, right, to get something.
- 50:10Speaker 1: So I'm out of here. So I've grabbed my, so
- 50:13Speaker 1: what I look like, my hair was all messy and everything.
- 50:15Speaker 1: I was all excited.
- 50:17Speaker 4: Shoved my coat under my arm and walked through that door.
- 50:23Speaker 4: And that door was the court, the courthouse. And there
- 50:26Speaker 4: was one guy sitting in the courthouse with a translator.
- 50:30Speaker 1: And he looked at me and he goes, are you
- 50:31Speaker 1: a lawyer? I go, yep. I just walked out.
- 50:36Speaker 4: There I am.
- 50:37Speaker 1: I've just been in the cells all night, grubby clothes.
- 50:40Speaker 1: And I just ran. ran and I saw.
- 50:42Speaker 4: This and I thought the dogs the dogs I thought
- 50:45Speaker 4: straight away I saw this pickup truck and it had
- 50:48Speaker 4: cow manure in the back of it I jumped in
- 50:50Speaker 4: the cow manure.
- 50:51Speaker 1: And I just covered myself with my jacket and.
- 50:54Speaker 4: There's police and dogs and everything looking for me everywhere
- 50:59Speaker 4: then I started thinking I was there for about two hours.
- 51:03Speaker 1: Started getting cold but I also started thinking.
- 51:05Speaker 4: So I've got two lots of charges for possession of firearms.
- 51:12Speaker 4: They're going to have me on the newspaper. They're going
- 51:15Speaker 4: to say that she's armed and dangerous. They're going to
- 51:19Speaker 4: kill me on sight. And my kids are going to
- 51:22Speaker 4: see it on TV. And that's what was flashing in
- 51:26Speaker 4: front of me. And I thought, oh, well, stuff it.
- 51:29Speaker 4: I'm going to give this up. There was a truck
- 51:31Speaker 4: with the engine running. I'm thinking, should I grab the
- 51:34Speaker 4: truck and just take off down the street? I go, no,
- 51:36Speaker 4: it's going to that's going to be such a red light.
- 51:39Speaker 4: And I'm going to get, and I've never driven a
- 51:41Speaker 4: truck before. So I don't, I don't even know how
- 51:42Speaker 4: I'm going to do that.
- 51:43Speaker 1: I would have tried it.
- 51:44Speaker 2: You would have had a go.
- 51:45Speaker 4: But yeah, I would have had a go, but I
- 51:47Speaker 4: was thinking about all of the things that would happen
- 51:50Speaker 4: as a result.
- 51:51Speaker 1: And I thought, no, that's not a good idea. So
- 51:52Speaker 1: I jumped in the truck anyway, because.
- 51:54Speaker 4: I was hanging out for a cigarette and he had
- 51:56Speaker 4: cigarettes in his side thing. So I grabbed a cigarette,
- 52:00Speaker 4: lit it up and the truck was still going. And
- 52:02Speaker 4: I said, Hi, I've just taken a cigarette. I just
- 52:05Speaker 4: need a lift up the road.
- 52:06Speaker 2: The truckie came back now. Yeah, the truckie came back.
- 52:09Speaker 1: He looked at me and he shit himself. And I said,
- 52:13Speaker 1: I just need a lift up the road. It's not,
- 52:15Speaker 1: you know, and I've only taken one cigarette. That's, you know,
- 52:17Speaker 1: I mean, anyway.
- 52:20Speaker 4: Anyway, so he looked behind and, of course, there's still
- 52:23Speaker 4: police rushing around everywhere. And by this stage, I'd basically
- 52:27Speaker 4: given myself up. I was giving myself up. I just
- 52:29Speaker 4: wanted to get a cigarette. And I thought maybe I'll
- 52:32Speaker 4: get a chance to get a lift down the road
- 52:33Speaker 4: where I can score first before I get locked up.
- 52:37Speaker 4: And so, yeah, the police got me, flicked the cigarette
- 52:40Speaker 4: out of my hand, brought me downstairs into the police station.
- 52:45Speaker 4: Two women sitting on the thing, stripping me right off,
- 52:49Speaker 4: having me in the corner.
- 52:50Speaker 1: She's sitting there swinging her legs like that. I'm just here.
- 52:53Speaker 1: She won't give me back my clothes and I'm just
- 52:55Speaker 1: sitting there. I'm just standing there. And she's berating me. Oh,
- 52:59Speaker 1: what do you think? You're a scumbag. How about your children?
- 53:02Speaker 1: How about this and that?
- 53:03Speaker 4: She's trying to, you know, make me feel like all
- 53:06Speaker 4: ashamed and everything.
- 53:07Speaker 1: Or she's, you know.
- 53:09Speaker 4: Anyway, I just got up, looked in her eyes.
- 53:12Speaker 3: Really?
- 53:13Speaker 4: And I just grabbed my clothes and just kept staring
- 53:16Speaker 4: her out and put my clothes back on.
- 53:18Speaker 1: She didn't move a muscle.
- 53:20Speaker 4: And then she put me in the cell. No food,
- 53:24Speaker 4: no blankets, no what do you call it? Then we
- 53:27Speaker 4: get in the, you know, like the mattress.
- 53:30Speaker 1: No mattresses. No girlfriend.
- 53:32Speaker 4: My girlfriend had to go in the other cell. I
- 53:34Speaker 4: couldn't talk to the other guy. I wasn't allowed cigarettes, nothing.
- 53:37Speaker 4: She goes, you get nothing now, nothing. You stay here
- 53:39Speaker 4: with nothing. Well, thankfully the van came soon. But when
- 53:42Speaker 4: we went to court the next day, once they got
- 53:46Speaker 4: me into court, it was like the courthouse was, with
- 53:50Speaker 4: police of course because they had the whole police force
- 53:52Speaker 4: out looking for me but they.
- 53:55Speaker 2: Weren't letting you go a second time.
- 53:59Speaker 4: No but I think they were all just pissed off
- 54:01Speaker 4: or wanted to ogle me who is this person and
- 54:04Speaker 4: also because I sounded like a psychopath because the first
- 54:07Speaker 4: thing I asked them was what was going through my
- 54:10Speaker 4: mind in the first place I said to them So
- 54:13Speaker 4: would you put me on TV and would you have
- 54:16Speaker 4: talked about me having previous charges of firearms and what
- 54:23Speaker 4: would have happened? And then would I have been on
- 54:25Speaker 4: TV and all of that would have happened? Because I
- 54:27Speaker 4: was just trying to work out whether what I was
- 54:29Speaker 4: imagining was true. He looked at me like, huh, because
- 54:33Speaker 4: he thought straight away you're a megalomaniac or a psychopath
- 54:36Speaker 4: or you want to be on TV, you want to
- 54:38Speaker 4: be notorious or whatever.
- 54:39Speaker 3: I didn't want to be on TV, but I just
- 54:42Speaker 3: wanted to reassure myself.
- 54:45Speaker 4: That I hadn't given myself up for nothing at that
- 54:48Speaker 4: point in time because it was just the.
- 54:49Speaker 2: Right.
- 54:50Speaker 1: Yeah, at that point in time I was still hanging out.
- 54:52Speaker 1: I was still, you know, in this cycle.
- 54:55Speaker 2: Your thought patterns weren't necessarily logical, you know, a bit irrational,
- 55:00Speaker 2: maybe a little bit paranoid.
- 55:01Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like give me some... Yeah, give me some.
- 55:03Speaker 4: No, I wasn't paranoid at that stage. I mean, I
- 55:07Speaker 4: think when I was hanging out in.
- 55:09Speaker 1: The back of that truck with that cow shit.
- 55:12Speaker 4: I was thinking of all of the different possibilities and
- 55:16Speaker 4: all of the different things that could happen in this
- 55:18Speaker 4: situation and I was thinking of my past and what
- 55:22Speaker 4: the police knew about me and how they would respond
- 55:25Speaker 4: to that and everything else and then I thought well
- 55:27Speaker 4: maybe this will give them a chance to kill me
- 55:30Speaker 4: and and they'd have a reason to and then you
- 55:33Speaker 4: know like they'd cover it up really well and no
- 55:36Speaker 4: one would know that I was killed that you know
- 55:38Speaker 4: I was wrongfully killed and I don't know, all of that.
- 55:41Speaker 2: It's all racing. It's all racing.
- 55:43Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 55:44Speaker 2: And you're also probably fearing going back into custody all
- 55:47Speaker 2: that time, no?
- 55:48Speaker 1: I never, no, never.
- 55:50Speaker 2: Didn't bother you?
- 55:51Speaker 1: No, I mean, look, I didn't like it, but it
- 55:56Speaker 1: was all right.
- 55:57Speaker 2: It was part of the cost of the thing you
- 55:59Speaker 2: were doing.
- 56:00Speaker 1: Yeah, look, I've got one or two friends.
- 56:02Speaker 2: That I'm... So you got a short stretch there for that?
- 56:06Speaker 1: I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't remember which times.
- 56:10Speaker 4: Like probably I'm going to have to go through everything.
- 56:13Speaker 1: And do a timeline.
- 56:14Speaker 2: Fair enough. That's all right. Anyway, so suffice it to
- 56:16Speaker 2: say that was your last conviction.
- 56:18Speaker 4: Oh, my very last one. Oh, actually I did three
- 56:21Speaker 4: months dead time, which is really a horrible thing. So
- 56:28Speaker 4: if you're on remand, it's a horrible thing. I say
- 56:33Speaker 4: it's a horrible thing because it's wasted. It's dead time.
- 56:36Speaker 1: So I had $ 50, 000 worth of. Speeding fines, parking fines, whatever. Oh,
- 56:42Speaker 1: parking fines.
- 56:42Speaker 4: I'd just park my car in the police section or
- 56:45Speaker 4: in the.
- 56:45Speaker 2: Whoever you wanted.
- 56:46Speaker 1: In the prime minister's section or wherever.
- 56:48Speaker 4: I mean, whichever spot there was, I'd take the best spot, right?
- 56:54Speaker 4: So I ended up with $ 50, 000 worth of fines. And
- 56:57Speaker 4: I thought that those would have been at least taken
- 57:01Speaker 4: during this three months.
- 57:03Speaker 1: But they weren't. But during that time.
- 57:06Speaker 4: Okay, so that was the last time in jail, but
- 57:09Speaker 4: I had this feeling that I was in my cell
- 57:12Speaker 4: and I had, and it was just this pushing on
- 57:14Speaker 4: my chest and it was like, felt like it was
- 57:17Speaker 4: from heaven, from.
- 57:18Speaker 1: This other dimension. It was like from above.
- 57:20Speaker 4: And I had to forgive this really nasty person who
- 57:24Speaker 4: had killed someone who had, you know, like, and who
- 57:27Speaker 4: was giving everyone a hard time in jail. So I
- 57:30Speaker 4: had to forgive her, even, you know, we'd had, quite
- 57:32Speaker 4: a few blues together. We had quite a lot of conflict,
- 57:35Speaker 4: her and I, she and I. She was basically the
- 57:38Speaker 4: queen bee or whatever, but I'd always had like conflicts
- 57:42Speaker 4: with her.
- 57:42Speaker 1: So, but I had to forgive her.
- 57:45Speaker 4: And so this heaviness of, I'm going through my head,
- 57:49Speaker 4: you don't know what this girl's done. The amount of
- 57:51Speaker 4: people she's been ripped off, the murder that she did
- 57:55Speaker 4: and the details around it.
- 57:57Speaker 1: And she didn't even do it herself. She basically got
- 57:59Speaker 1: other people to do it for her.
- 58:01Speaker 4: The cowardly things that she'd done and everything else. And
- 58:05Speaker 4: I'm thinking of all the reasons why I shouldn't forgive.
- 58:08Speaker 4: But it was like, just separate the person from the
- 58:12Speaker 4: actual events, you know. And I had to separate the
- 58:16Speaker 4: person from the events. And I was able to actually
- 58:20Speaker 4: release and forgive. And that day I went out and
- 58:22Speaker 4: played baseball with her and smiled at her.
- 58:24Speaker 2: And didn't hit her with the baseball bat.
- 58:26Speaker 1: Didn't hit her with the bat. She didn't hit me either.
- 58:28Speaker 1: That's good.
- 58:28Speaker 2: Progress.
- 58:29Speaker 4: But, yeah, I saw her when I was out once
- 58:31Speaker 4: and I said hello and she ran like she saw
- 58:34Speaker 4: a ghost because I'd already bashed her once.
- 58:40Speaker 1: Right.
- 58:40Speaker 4: Because she was tormenting people. She was giving people a
- 58:43Speaker 4: hard time. She was riffing people off.
- 58:45Speaker 1: Yeah, right.
- 58:46Speaker 4: She'd ruined someone's face completely and I did other things
- 58:50Speaker 4: to her that are not horrible to talk about.
- 58:53Speaker 2: Yeah, okay. So you managed to forgive her. That's real progress. Yeah.
- 58:57Speaker 1: Elizabeth.
- 58:58Speaker 2: Yeah. So this is the beginning of the real change,
- 59:01Speaker 2: the permanent change in your life. You'd had time in
- 59:04Speaker 2: Bible college. You'd seen the possibilities. Your nature was drawing
- 59:08Speaker 2: you back into these situations. Where was the moment where
- 59:12Speaker 2: you really achieved this state of grace, that I think
- 59:15Speaker 2: you were always looking.
- 59:16Speaker 4: For well that was it like I mean the state
- 59:19Speaker 4: of grace happened initially in 1989 and I had that
- 59:23Speaker 4: three years in Bible college then I backslid for 12
- 59:26Speaker 4: years after which I thought I was like the woman
- 59:28Speaker 4: that had the 12 years bleeding that was not like
- 59:32Speaker 4: was out of like sorts and was not in society,
- 59:37Speaker 4: was not accepted in society, right?
- 59:39Speaker 1: So this one.
- 59:41Speaker 4: So that was at the time when I was looking
- 59:42Speaker 4: at the spade, that I was going to dig my
- 59:44Speaker 4: own grave and all that, and.
- 59:46Speaker 1: This was a time where I was.
- 59:48Speaker 4: Really having a lot of problems just staying alive. I mean,
- 59:53Speaker 4: it was just like my, you know, the person who
- 59:56Speaker 4: lived with me was my enemy. So, I mean, I
- 59:58Speaker 4: had to, I was always, always had my back up
- 1:00:01Speaker 4: in that.
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: So in many ways, yeah.
- 1:00:04Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 1:00:04Speaker 1: So, yeah, it became quite difficult.
- 1:00:08Speaker 2: But so you managed to eventually pull that behind you.
- 1:00:10Speaker 2: What was the key moment or the experience, the person?
- 1:00:15Speaker 1: It was that.
- 1:00:15Speaker 4: It was forgiving that girl. It was forgiving that girl.
- 1:00:19Speaker 4: It was between me and God.
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: It was the fact that I'd strayed so far.
- 1:00:26Speaker 4: It was about, you know, coming to terms with, you know, like,
- 1:00:30Speaker 4: I'm no longer, I'm not in charge of this. I'm
- 1:00:33Speaker 4: not in charge of this whole thing. You know, I
- 1:00:35Speaker 4: give the power back to you, God. And, you know,
- 1:00:37Speaker 4: it was about giving my power back to God, about
- 1:00:40Speaker 4: allowing God to lead me. And everything disappeared. And then,
- 1:00:45Speaker 4: of course, you know, the very first thing that happens
- 1:00:47Speaker 4: is you want to change the world. I was going
- 1:00:49Speaker 4: to change the world and I was going to.
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: So I did all these.
- 1:00:52Speaker 4: Courses and this, and I was thinking about all of
- 1:00:55Speaker 4: these ways that I could you know, change the system
- 1:00:59Speaker 4: and specifically for a lot of the girls as well
- 1:01:03Speaker 4: that are doing time and a lot of whom are
- 1:01:05Speaker 4: not bad, a lot of whom are mad, you know,
- 1:01:08Speaker 4: like they're not bad, they're mad.
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: So, you know, I mean, you know, I was going
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: to do all these things. I ended up studying.
- 1:01:17Speaker 4: I ended up working in this job doing a lot
- 1:01:21Speaker 4: of government research. So I was doing that. A lot
- 1:01:25Speaker 4: of work for the Fair Work Commission as well. I
- 1:01:28Speaker 4: was union delegate for ages as well, nearly. I got
- 1:01:31Speaker 4: shortlisted for a position as a union officer and I
- 1:01:36Speaker 4: was shortlisted from.
- 1:01:37Speaker 1: 50 to 5 and then.
- 1:01:39Speaker 4: From 5 to 3. I was the last three and
- 1:01:41Speaker 4: then someone else got the job.
- 1:01:42Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. But long story short, you found your way
- 1:01:46Speaker 2: into a caring role now. You're working in the social
- 1:01:48Speaker 2: services sector. You're really helping heal and transform other lives.
- 1:01:52Speaker 3: Yes.
- 1:01:53Speaker 2: What a miracle. That's a miracle, isn't it? Considering where
- 1:01:57Speaker 2: you were.
- 1:01:58Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:01:58Speaker 2: I mean, I'm tempted. I'm not very religious, but I
- 1:02:01Speaker 2: like the religious songs. And that song, Amazing Grace, I
- 1:02:04Speaker 2: think applies to you. Yeah. You know, if you can
- 1:02:06Speaker 2: find that solace in God and change your life, I
- 1:02:10Speaker 2: can see the light in you now that you didn't
- 1:02:14Speaker 2: have before, I guess.
- 1:02:15Speaker 1: No, I didn't.
- 1:02:16Speaker 4: And sometimes, yeah, sometimes the light gets very strong, especially
- 1:02:21Speaker 4: when I feel.
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: the weakest.
- 1:02:24Speaker 4: When I feel the weakest, the light around me gets really,
- 1:02:27Speaker 4: really strong. And it's extremely comforting, you know, and it
- 1:02:31Speaker 4: feels like, it feels like there's no longer any much
- 1:02:35Speaker 4: interest in this world now.
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: It feels like there's.
- 1:02:38Speaker 4: More of an interest in this other world that, you know,
- 1:02:41Speaker 4: I have my sights on and my life is kind
- 1:02:46Speaker 4: of in preparation for that, you know, finding that pearl
- 1:02:50Speaker 4: of a great.
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: Price and selling everything for it. And that's where, yeah, that's, yes.
- 1:02:55Speaker 4: Look, I've found a sense of purpose. Yes, I'm doing
- 1:02:58Speaker 4: social services. Yes, I feel like I'm contributing well. I'm,
- 1:03:04Speaker 4: you know, my life is ended though. And however, you know,
- 1:03:08Speaker 4: I'm sick. I'm wasted half, most of my life with,
- 1:03:13Speaker 4: and so I've had to, I have.
- 1:03:15Speaker 1: To, I'm going to continue working.
- 1:03:16Speaker 4: I'll probably never stop working because I don't see myself
- 1:03:19Speaker 4: sitting there doing nothing ever.
- 1:03:22Speaker 2: And I guess because you have, as you say, wasted
- 1:03:24Speaker 2: those years, there's an urgency about you now and what
- 1:03:27Speaker 2: you want to achieve. And I guess also, and this
- 1:03:30Speaker 2: is why we're doing this interview, because I think there's
- 1:03:31Speaker 2: probably girls out there, and boys too for that matter,
- 1:03:35Speaker 2: who are involved in some of the things you're involved in,
- 1:03:38Speaker 2: whether they were addicted to drugs or they're involved in crime.
- 1:03:40Speaker 2: And what would be your message to them about the
- 1:03:44Speaker 2: potential in their lives, even though they're at the lowest ebb?
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: Well, I think everyone is worth something.
- 1:03:50Speaker 4: There's no one that's absolutely scum of the earth that
- 1:03:53Speaker 4: can be thrown to the curb.
- 1:03:55Speaker 1: I think everyone in this world is worth something.
- 1:03:59Speaker 4: And we don't always understand what people are going through
- 1:04:03Speaker 4: or what they've been through or the issues that they've
- 1:04:06Speaker 4: had to confront or even the development that they've had
- 1:04:10Speaker 4: in their soul. We're in no position to judge. I
- 1:04:13Speaker 4: think everyone has something to live for. Everyone has something
- 1:04:18Speaker 4: to offer in this earth. Everyone that's, you know, I mean,
- 1:04:22Speaker 4: people that are alive, that are addicted, that feel stuck
- 1:04:26Speaker 4: in a rut of addiction and depression, anxiety and everything
- 1:04:34Speaker 4: else that kind of goes along with it.
- 1:04:36Speaker 1: Usually it's the reason why people use.
- 1:04:40Speaker 4: There's hope. There's always hope and, you know, there's hope
- 1:04:43Speaker 4: and there's Well, I'm a prime example that people can change,
- 1:04:48Speaker 4: you know, like people who have been bashed, stabbed, raped,
- 1:04:53Speaker 4: done a lot of time in jail, nearly killed, tried
- 1:04:56Speaker 4: to kill themselves, all of this other trauma can be healed,
- 1:04:59Speaker 4: you know. I mean, there's a chance for it to
- 1:05:01Speaker 4: be healed. You don't have to live your life in depression.
- 1:05:03Speaker 4: You don't have to live your life in a debilitated
- 1:05:07Speaker 4: state because you're so anxious or you're so ashamed or
- 1:05:11Speaker 4: you're so guilty or you're so frustrated or you're so
- 1:05:16Speaker 4: like i mean whatever it is i mean there's always
- 1:05:20Speaker 4: hope there's a place for everyone.
- 1:05:22Speaker 2: Correct and that's a great place to end this interview
- 1:05:25Speaker 2: and i want to thank you elizabeth it's been a
- 1:05:28Speaker 2: hard road but you're on a good road now and
- 1:05:32Speaker 2: i'm sure there are people out there listening to this
- 1:05:36Speaker 2: who see themselves Elizabeth's story and realize there is hope
- 1:05:41Speaker 2: you just got to make the right choices life is
- 1:05:45Speaker 2: lived in choices and it's split seconds in moments and
- 1:05:49Speaker 2: if you make the right choice now there's going to
- 1:05:52Speaker 2: be hope for you so I'm going to put some
- 1:05:54Speaker 2: links in the show notes for people that might want
- 1:05:56Speaker 2: to change their lives I really urge you to listen
- 1:06:00Speaker 2: carefully to what you've heard today if Elizabeth can do
- 1:06:03Speaker 2: it you can do it as well and if there
- 1:06:05Speaker 2: are parents out there who are struggling with their kids
- 1:06:06Speaker 2: I understand the potential for change and the potential for hope.
- 1:06:12Speaker 2: This is great. I really enjoyed this. So if you
- 1:06:14Speaker 2: want to report a crime, you can always call Crime
- 1:06:17Speaker 2: Service 1-800-333-000. Or if you don't trust the police, I
- 1:06:21Speaker 2: get that. Maybe you're on the run from police. I
- 1:06:23Speaker 2: don't know. You can always email me, adamschanderrider at gmail.com.
- 1:06:27Speaker 2: I also want you to follow me on Facebook. We're
- 1:06:30Speaker 2: building a community there of people who want to talk
- 1:06:32Speaker 2: about these sort of issues. So find me on Facebook.
- 1:06:34Speaker 2: That's also in the link. to the episode. This has
- 1:06:38Speaker 2: been Adam Chan for Real Crime. Thank you for listening.
- 1:06:47Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to this episode and supporting this story.
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