1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,800 Speaker 1: Listeners should be warned that this episode of Life and 2 00:00:02,840 --> 00:00:08,320 Speaker 1: Crimes contains graphic imagery and language. You will hear some beeps, 3 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:11,760 Speaker 1: and there is no doubt that the story we tell 4 00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: today is extremely disturbing, which it has to be. Donna 5 00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: looked in the rear vision mirror and caught the eye 6 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:21,959 Speaker 1: of one of the men in the back seat. She 7 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:26,040 Speaker 1: didn't like the look he was sizing her up. Years later, 8 00:00:26,120 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: when Donna saw Edvard Munch's painting The Scream, it reminded 9 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 1: her of the way her friend Angela looked at that moment. 10 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,040 Speaker 1: Then she saw the glint of the knife in his hand, 11 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:44,400 Speaker 1: held low between the bucket seats. That's when she knew 12 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:47,400 Speaker 1: there was no way out. I'm Andrew ruled this as 13 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,479 Speaker 1: Life and Crimes. Today we're going to talk about the 14 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,120 Speaker 1: ones that got away. I'm going to do this because 15 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: recently I've put together a book, which, funnily enough, is 16 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:02,160 Speaker 1: called Life and Crimes, and it features twenty two of 17 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:05,759 Speaker 1: the stories that I've written over the years, twenty two 18 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 1: out of hundreds, really, and I chose them as some 19 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,120 Speaker 1: are old, some are new, some are borrowed, and some 20 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:15,319 Speaker 1: are blue. There's all sorts of stories there, But the 21 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 1: ones that stand out for me over forty odd years 22 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:23,720 Speaker 1: of writing stories are the stories that are about people 23 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:27,039 Speaker 1: who got away with it. Stories where I tell the 24 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:30,320 Speaker 1: victim side of the story but we don't know who'd 25 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:34,319 Speaker 1: done it, who did it, and who done it is 26 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:37,960 Speaker 1: a common enough feature of crime stories, but in the 27 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:42,520 Speaker 1: real world there's nothing amusing about it. It is often 28 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,399 Speaker 1: a terrible thing because in many cases, someone has got 29 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:51,600 Speaker 1: away with a very serious crime and has never been 30 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: hauled to account, and they're victims are haunted by that 31 00:01:56,400 --> 00:02:01,640 Speaker 1: fact and it never leaves them. They are damaged. And 32 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 1: not long before we came into the studio to do this, 33 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:09,639 Speaker 1: I had a long conversation with a woman who's now 34 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,919 Speaker 1: middle aged. We will call her Donna. It's not her 35 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: real name. Her real name does start with d that's 36 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: not Donna, But I've always called her Donna in any 37 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:24,000 Speaker 1: reference to her, in print or anywhere else. And Donna 38 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:28,639 Speaker 1: is someone I've spoken to and I've met, but I've 39 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:32,600 Speaker 1: spoken to her regularly for more than twenty years. She 40 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: was the victim of a pack rape when she was 41 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,239 Speaker 1: fourteen years old, along with a school friend of hers, 42 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:43,519 Speaker 1: a girl from her own class out in a high 43 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:49,839 Speaker 1: school in the eastern suburbs, and that crime was horrendous 44 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 1: in all ways and in many ways, and all the 45 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: more so because of the effect it had on those girls. 46 00:02:56,480 --> 00:02:59,079 Speaker 1: I don't really know. I can't talk for the other one. 47 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: Because she didn't want to have anything to do with 48 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:07,720 Speaker 1: stories or anything else. She decided to lock that experience 49 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 1: away in a box and get on with her life, 50 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,399 Speaker 1: which is one way to cope with such a terrible incident. 51 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: But Donna is a different sort of person. She's I 52 00:03:19,919 --> 00:03:25,200 Speaker 1: have to say, highly intelligent, highly articulate, I would suggest, creative, 53 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 1: I'd suggest sensitive, and by her own admission, very damaged 54 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: by what happened to her all those years ago. Now 55 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:39,000 Speaker 1: we're talking about Melbourne Cup Day nineteen seventy six, when 56 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: this happened. That is a long time ago. It's coming 57 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: up forty years in two more years, and I recall 58 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: it well. It was a dark, wet day. It was 59 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:52,839 Speaker 1: the wettest Melbourne Cup on record. I think I think 60 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: many inches of rain fell in the afternoon of the Cup. 61 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,040 Speaker 1: It almost drowned out the running of the Cup. It 62 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: was run and won in about the slowest time of 63 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: the twentieth century, because the horses were running basically through 64 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 1: three inches of water as they galloped. It was so 65 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: dark and so wet and so much rain that the 66 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:20,239 Speaker 1: caller couldn't see the field. There was so much mud 67 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: spattered over the field that the caller couldn't tell which 68 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:26,919 Speaker 1: one was what until they got halfway up the straight. 69 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:31,840 Speaker 1: It was a remarkable day with this feeling of doom 70 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:36,840 Speaker 1: and thunderstorms and rain. It was biblical. It was sort 71 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:38,760 Speaker 1: of like the end of the world. And on that 72 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:42,599 Speaker 1: day there was what they called Cup Day Rock. They 73 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: used to hold this concert at Festival Hall, the old 74 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:49,279 Speaker 1: boxing venue in West Melbourne. Now Festival Hall was a 75 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: very big venue. It had started life as a boxing 76 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:57,360 Speaker 1: and wrestling stadium run by Stadiums Limited, which was a 77 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:01,320 Speaker 1: front for the notorious John Wren, the man who virtually 78 00:05:01,400 --> 00:05:05,120 Speaker 1: ran Melbourne in the old, bad old days. And as 79 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,200 Speaker 1: time were on and boxing became less popular, Festival Hall 80 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,039 Speaker 1: was a very big rock and roll venue back in 81 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,839 Speaker 1: that era in the year seventies and Cup Day Rock 82 00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: was a big thing they did every year. And that afternoon, 83 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,479 Speaker 1: while seventy eight thousand people were at the races getting wet, 84 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 1: watching a Kiwi Mudla called vanderhum Win the Melbourne Cup. 85 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:32,279 Speaker 1: There was a big crowd at the Cup day rock concert, 86 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: mostly teenagers or young you know, people that were not 87 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:39,240 Speaker 1: far out of their teens. And among them were these 88 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:41,279 Speaker 1: two fourteen year old girls who'd come in on the 89 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: train from i'l say, Ringwood out that area. They went 90 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,839 Speaker 1: to school high school out there. There was a little 91 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:51,640 Speaker 1: bit of background to it, at least one of the girls, Donna, 92 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:55,960 Speaker 1: had been into the Rock Toober concert a couple of 93 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: weeks earlier, and there she had met a young guy 94 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:02,719 Speaker 1: who could have been an apprentice builder or something like that. 95 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:07,320 Speaker 1: His name, she thinks was Wayne Thompson. That's the name 96 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:10,720 Speaker 1: she's got, and that's the name that has been published 97 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 1: before in connection with this story, so I believe it's 98 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: okay to use that name. And Wayne Thompson or the 99 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:21,640 Speaker 1: guy that called himself Wayne Thompson, may not be his 100 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:26,160 Speaker 1: real name. He drove a tan colored or fawn colored 101 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:29,320 Speaker 1: station wagon, probably a Holden or a Falcon. He had 102 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:32,120 Speaker 1: tools in the rear of the station wagon, as if 103 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:34,680 Speaker 1: he worked on building sites that sort of stuff. He 104 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,160 Speaker 1: might have been an apprentice build, a carpenter, whatever, or 105 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:40,520 Speaker 1: maybe a laborer. Back in those days, a lot of 106 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: people left school fairly young and went to work and 107 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:46,960 Speaker 1: the minute they turned eighteen, they had a car. And 108 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:49,919 Speaker 1: they were young blucks with adult tastes. So I have 109 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: to say they drank and they smoked, and he chased 110 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,719 Speaker 1: around after girls, and some of them, the bad ones, 111 00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: did a lot more than chase after girls. They were 112 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: bad dudes who set out to trap young girls, sometimes 113 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:08,559 Speaker 1: against their will, and they did some very bad things. 114 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: And that is what happened on this occasion. Wayne Thompson 115 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 1: was quite a pleasant looking bloke and had a good 116 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:19,480 Speaker 1: line of talk, and he'd actually driven out to the 117 00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 1: eastern suburbs from his home suburb, which I think was footscrap, 118 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:27,320 Speaker 1: and that had impressed our girl Donner that he'd driven 119 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:32,000 Speaker 1: out during the week before the Cup day to see her, 120 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 1: and she thought, you know, he was a bit of 121 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 1: good stuff because he had a car, he was eight 122 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:40,120 Speaker 1: in et cetera, et cetera. He had the blonde haircut, 123 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: the sharpie haircut, which was then very fashionable among some 124 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: young people. And he also had a few bad habits 125 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: which she didn't know about. And on this day, after 126 00:07:51,960 --> 00:07:54,680 Speaker 1: meeting up again, with him at cup Day Rock. She 127 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:57,040 Speaker 1: went outside and there he was with his station wagon, 128 00:07:57,120 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: and he had in the car a couple of other 129 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 1: young guys who both of them call themselves John, which 130 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:07,160 Speaker 1: probably may not have been their real name. Wayne persuaded 131 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 1: Donna that they'd go to a party, and at first 132 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 1: she played it cool and said, I don't know, I 133 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: don't want to do that. But she realized later, too late, 134 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: much later, that Wayne, being persuasive and plausible and you know, 135 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:26,720 Speaker 1: sort of a blonde pretty boy, that it was his 136 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:31,280 Speaker 1: job in this group of young men to chat up 137 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: vulnerable girls picked out of the crowd at concerts. This 138 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:41,240 Speaker 1: was the modus operandi of a gang, a gang of 139 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: gang rapists. Terrible thing. Donna took the bait. She and 140 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 1: her friend Angela we will call her, agreed to go, 141 00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:53,120 Speaker 1: and as soon as he closed the deal, Wayne switched things. 142 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:56,360 Speaker 1: He said his car was already full, but the girls 143 00:08:56,400 --> 00:08:59,360 Speaker 1: could get a lift with his friends, and he assured 144 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:03,080 Speaker 1: them that he's in the other car were trustworthy. Now, 145 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 1: as he says this, right on que a gleaming red 146 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:10,640 Speaker 1: Tarana pulled up next to them. Now, back in that era, 147 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:15,120 Speaker 1: at nine to seventy six, Tarana xw ones were big deal. 148 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:18,280 Speaker 1: They were racing them at Bathist. They were hot. A 149 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:20,880 Speaker 1: V eight model I think was one of them, and 150 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: they were very fast production cars, and every young buck 151 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:29,040 Speaker 1: in the Burbs I thought they were wonderful and wanted one, 152 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:32,000 Speaker 1: and in this case, one of these guys had one. 153 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:35,079 Speaker 1: This would suggest, of course, that whoever was driving it 154 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:39,960 Speaker 1: wasn't actually eighteen. It was probably twenty twenty one. It 155 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:42,640 Speaker 1: was a two door manual. It had black bucket seats 156 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:44,960 Speaker 1: that had a bittered ball on the gearstick, which was 157 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:47,680 Speaker 1: what they used to do then, and it had a 158 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:51,040 Speaker 1: huge transfer on the top of the windscreen the front 159 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:55,800 Speaker 1: wind screen with the word Tarana, funnily enough, and so 160 00:09:56,080 --> 00:09:59,400 Speaker 1: that made it quite a distinctive vehicle. There were four 161 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: young men in the car. The driver wore a hat. 162 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:07,200 Speaker 1: A big man leaned forward in the passenger seat and 163 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:11,040 Speaker 1: unlatched it so that Angela could climb in between the 164 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:15,600 Speaker 1: pair of young guys in the back seat. Donna realized 165 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:17,840 Speaker 1: that she was expected to sit on the big man's 166 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,920 Speaker 1: knee in the front. She wasn't that delighted by this, 167 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,200 Speaker 1: but she thought, well, it won't take long to get 168 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:28,640 Speaker 1: to the party. It gave her the impression, being squeezed 169 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:31,199 Speaker 1: in like this, that the party could not be far 170 00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:35,280 Speaker 1: away and maybe there in three minutes. Well, she was wrong. 171 00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:38,120 Speaker 1: Wayne had assured her that he would drive ahead and 172 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:42,560 Speaker 1: lead the way, and she believed him, and Angela trusted 173 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:47,800 Speaker 1: her because Donna was sort of the sparky, outgoing, verbal one, 174 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:49,760 Speaker 1: the one that could talk fast and all the rest 175 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:53,800 Speaker 1: of it. And so in a sense, she was the 176 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:57,680 Speaker 1: one that led Angela, the quieter girl along, which I 177 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:01,080 Speaker 1: think is another thing that has haunted her, that she 178 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:06,559 Speaker 1: felt responsible for her friend or for her classmate. It 179 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: was all organized in seconds. The situation had changed from 180 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:13,360 Speaker 1: the girls going with three people that Donna had already 181 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 1: met before to being in a car full of strangers. Bang. 182 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,800 Speaker 1: That's how fast these guys had switched. They'd done the 183 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:28,360 Speaker 1: Thinberland Patrick switch and bait, as they say. The first 184 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:30,720 Speaker 1: thing she realized was that the four men belonged to 185 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:34,360 Speaker 1: one ethnic group. They were dark haired and spoke with 186 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:38,200 Speaker 1: the same accent. She thought they were Greek or perhaps 187 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: Italian in itself. That didn't matter to her. Donna and 188 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:46,280 Speaker 1: some of her five siblings were born overseas to a 189 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:50,440 Speaker 1: Canadian father, and a Northern Irish mother and her family 190 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:53,560 Speaker 1: had been all over the world before immigrating only a 191 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:57,240 Speaker 1: few years before, so she knew what it was like 192 00:11:57,280 --> 00:11:59,760 Speaker 1: to be an outsider. She had a bit of an accent. 193 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 1: She still does have a trace of her an accent 194 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: that's a touch of Irish and a touch of Canadian. 195 00:12:07,559 --> 00:12:11,840 Speaker 1: So when she was fourteen living at home with her parents, 196 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:15,840 Speaker 1: I'm sure that that accent was quite pronounced. What made 197 00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:19,440 Speaker 1: her uneasy was that these strangers knew things about her. 198 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:22,960 Speaker 1: They knew which concerts she'd been to. They knew she 199 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 1: liked dancing. She used to do ballroom dancing lessons. They 200 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,200 Speaker 1: knew where she came from, and they knew which school 201 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:33,360 Speaker 1: she went to. Now that was, looking back on it, 202 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:36,880 Speaker 1: a bit spooky because they knew all about her and 203 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:40,960 Speaker 1: she knew nothing about them. They'd done their homework. This 204 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:44,280 Speaker 1: when you look back on it, when you know what 205 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:49,440 Speaker 1: happened later, he's quite sinister. She said. They were kind 206 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:52,480 Speaker 1: of laughing, but in a sly way, and that's how 207 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:54,920 Speaker 1: she told me about it. Later, she says, we were 208 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:58,840 Speaker 1: being interviewed, but I didn't realize they were looking for 209 00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:01,920 Speaker 1: someone who fitted their someone who came from a different 210 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,880 Speaker 1: area and had no idea who they were with or 211 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: where they were taking us. The men avoided using each 212 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,319 Speaker 1: other's names. This is how cold blooded they were. They 213 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,600 Speaker 1: called each other mate, although she heard the name Joe 214 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:20,080 Speaker 1: and one of them mentioned working in a garage. What 215 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:23,160 Speaker 1: the men knew about her was harmless enough in itself, 216 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:28,600 Speaker 1: but they fact they knew it did unsettler and settled 217 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: her greatly. Later on, Donna looked in the revision mirror 218 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:34,600 Speaker 1: and caught the eye of one of the men in 219 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:38,920 Speaker 1: the back seat. She didn't like the look he was 220 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:44,320 Speaker 1: sizing her up. The longer they drove, the stranger the 221 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:47,880 Speaker 1: situation seemed. For the second time in three days. She 222 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,400 Speaker 1: was driven into the Western suburbs. She'd been out there 223 00:13:50,559 --> 00:13:52,920 Speaker 1: a few days earlier with Wayne on a bit of 224 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:57,760 Speaker 1: a reconnoiter, a trip that in itself hadn't been altogether satisfactory, 225 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:03,560 Speaker 1: but which hadn't scared. I'd point that out. Both cars 226 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:06,880 Speaker 1: pulled up at a service station. She was uneasy. The 227 00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: one that she calls the big Guy got out and 228 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:12,600 Speaker 1: spoke to Wayne secretively. It was as if they were 229 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 1: discussing a drug deal. It wasn't a drug deal, but 230 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:23,000 Speaker 1: it was a deal. The big guy was the boss. 231 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:27,720 Speaker 1: He was broad shouldered, thick set, strong accent. Donna noticed 232 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:31,840 Speaker 1: a distinctive crease across the bridge of his nose. By 233 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:34,480 Speaker 1: the time they left the service station, Donna was spooked, 234 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:37,760 Speaker 1: but she didn't know what to do. Even if she 235 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:42,160 Speaker 1: got away from the front seat, Angela was trapped in 236 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:44,960 Speaker 1: the back of a two door car. She'd never get out. 237 00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:51,600 Speaker 1: Soon the cars leave the houses of the Williamstown area. 238 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:55,000 Speaker 1: Back in those days, Williamstown and Altona were sort of 239 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:58,480 Speaker 1: the outer edge of the western suburbs, very different from now, 240 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:01,680 Speaker 1: and they passed open country. It was, in fact, the 241 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:05,840 Speaker 1: rifle range at Williamstown. They then turned off onto a 242 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,680 Speaker 1: rough dirt track that led into wasteland between the Altona 243 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:15,360 Speaker 1: beachfront and a row of huge fuel or chemical storage tanks, 244 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 1: which used to be a bit of a landmark. Out 245 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:21,040 Speaker 1: there in the distance, she could see the tiled roofs 246 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:24,800 Speaker 1: of a new housing development, but the wasteland was deserted. 247 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 1: She could hear thunder as the cars stopped near a 248 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:34,320 Speaker 1: patch of stunted scrub. Everything seemed wrong. Donna jumped out 249 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:36,480 Speaker 1: of the tarana and ran to the other car to 250 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:40,160 Speaker 1: Wayne's car, checking over a shoulder that Angela was behind her. 251 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:44,200 Speaker 1: What's going on? She yelled to Wayne, what's the problem? 252 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,800 Speaker 1: He said, and one of the two people with Wayne 253 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:51,040 Speaker 1: said something strange. He said, we're doing a deal. It 254 00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:54,920 Speaker 1: was an emission. She heard a thud. She heard a 255 00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:59,680 Speaker 1: sudden exhalation of air and a scream. She jerked around 256 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: the sea that the big guy had knocked Angela to 257 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,640 Speaker 1: the ground and was dragging her, much like a hunter 258 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 1: dragging an animal that they'd shot. Angela was clearly terrified. 259 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:17,400 Speaker 1: Years later, when Donna saw Edvard Munch's painting the scream, 260 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:22,320 Speaker 1: it reminded her of the way her friend Angela looked 261 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:28,160 Speaker 1: at that moment. Donna turned back to Wayne and the 262 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 1: two Johns, the alleged Johns, and begged them to do something, 263 00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: but they mumbled something about going for help. They got 264 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:39,720 Speaker 1: in their car and drove away. She never saw them again. 265 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:45,200 Speaker 1: It was clearly a setup. The big man threw Angela 266 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:47,920 Speaker 1: into the Tarana. Donna ran at him and jumped on 267 00:16:47,960 --> 00:16:50,600 Speaker 1: his back. She clawed at his neck. He grabbed her 268 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:53,440 Speaker 1: and tossed her into the back seat with Angela, who 269 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 1: was sobbing. She's crying. The other two men were still outside, 270 00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:01,800 Speaker 1: leaving the driver and the leader in front. The other 271 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:05,240 Speaker 1: two walked off as if they had reversed their movements. 272 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,600 Speaker 1: The driver sped off, bouncing over the rough ground, then 273 00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 1: stopped the car. Donna was terrified, but she was still 274 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:16,560 Speaker 1: thinking clearly. She said, you don't want to do this, 275 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:19,719 Speaker 1: you don't want to do this. But the big guy interrupted. 276 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,679 Speaker 1: He said, why don't you just fucking shut up? And 277 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:28,119 Speaker 1: he said it, staring at her in a very threatening way. 278 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:32,720 Speaker 1: Then she saw the glint of the knife in his hand, 279 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:37,880 Speaker 1: held low between the bucket seats. That's when she knew 280 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:42,520 Speaker 1: there was no way out. But she couldn't imagine what 281 00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: was going to happen. How could she. She just turned fifteen, 282 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,640 Speaker 1: She just had her birthday. She'd been fourteen a few 283 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:54,240 Speaker 1: days earlier, and now she was fifteen. It wasn't until 284 00:17:54,359 --> 00:17:59,080 Speaker 1: Donna was twice that age, an apparently successful and sophisticated 285 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:03,120 Speaker 1: woman living a long way from Melbourne, that she found 286 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:11,040 Speaker 1: the words to finally tell what happened that day. By then, 287 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:16,240 Speaker 1: another fifteen years later, she had worked hard and lived fast, 288 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:20,879 Speaker 1: a party girl, running on adrenaline and deadlines, pushing herself 289 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:23,199 Speaker 1: to exhaustion so that she could sleep it off and 290 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:27,119 Speaker 1: do it all again night after night. She left school 291 00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:31,960 Speaker 1: in Melbourne soon after the rapes, after the rape of 292 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:36,280 Speaker 1: herself and her friend Angela, and a waste land out 293 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:41,720 Speaker 1: near Altona Beach, she started as a window dresser. She 294 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:46,120 Speaker 1: moved to working in nightclubs and then theater steadily, more 295 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,959 Speaker 1: frenetic jobs that kept her body and her mind busy. 296 00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,320 Speaker 1: It was the mask she turned to the world away 297 00:18:54,400 --> 00:19:00,840 Speaker 1: to keep her nightmares at bay. It didn't always work. Once, 298 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:03,040 Speaker 1: when she was drunk in a club at five a m. 299 00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:05,440 Speaker 1: She told a friend she'd been raped, and then she 300 00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 1: went silent. The friend did not hear the full story 301 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:14,640 Speaker 1: until years later. After one failed relationship and a few 302 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:19,720 Speaker 1: false starts, Donna stayed single for years. Her family knew 303 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 1: what had happened in Melbourne, but it was to boo. 304 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:24,439 Speaker 1: Nobody wanted to. 305 00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:25,000 Speaker 2: Talk about it. 306 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: Her parents had opposed her going to the police back 307 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:33,040 Speaker 1: when she was fifteen. They'd moved into state soon after 308 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:39,280 Speaker 1: and tried to quote leave it behind. Donna was implicitly 309 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:44,000 Speaker 1: encouraged to go along with this sort of family silence. 310 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:49,400 Speaker 1: This silent conspiracy to keep it buried for the same 311 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:54,080 Speaker 1: reasons that so many rape victims keep the crimes secret 312 00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:59,280 Speaker 1: and still do. They fear the shame, the blame, and 313 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:04,800 Speaker 1: they fear fear itself, fear of reprisals as well, fear 314 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 1: of being cross examined in court and judged outside court. 315 00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:14,119 Speaker 1: In any case, this fifteen year old girl who became 316 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:16,879 Speaker 1: that thirty year old woman who is now in her 317 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:19,960 Speaker 1: early sixties. For years, she couldn't force herself to talk 318 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:23,920 Speaker 1: about it until one day in early nineteen ninety two, 319 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,880 Speaker 1: when the past finally caught up and her mask cracked. 320 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:31,680 Speaker 1: It happened with a chance sighting at a place where 321 00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 1: she was working. A supervisor asked where she went to school, 322 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:38,040 Speaker 1: explaining that one of the men working there thought he 323 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:42,560 Speaker 1: remembered her face from a high school in Melbourne. It 324 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:46,560 Speaker 1: was a harmless enough query, but Donna was rattled by it. 325 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:52,159 Speaker 1: Being recognized triggered a rush of submerged memories and fear. 326 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:58,240 Speaker 1: From that day, friends noticed that her behavior changed. Now, 327 00:20:58,280 --> 00:21:03,000 Speaker 1: this is classic PTA. It's pushed down, it's pushed down, 328 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:06,119 Speaker 1: it's pushed down, and eventually it gets the top and 329 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:10,080 Speaker 1: spills over. This is what happens to so many police soldiers, 330 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:14,800 Speaker 1: you know, victims of violence, victims of rape. One of 331 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,040 Speaker 1: those friends was a guy called Tom McDonald. He was 332 00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:21,000 Speaker 1: a business lawyer who then practiced mostly in the United States, 333 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:25,800 Speaker 1: but he often visited the city where Donna lived. The 334 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:28,800 Speaker 1: Australian city with Donna lived. He first met her in 335 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:31,320 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one at a club that she managed. They 336 00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:33,720 Speaker 1: became friends, and then he helped her with a legal 337 00:21:33,720 --> 00:21:38,119 Speaker 1: problem and they became good mates. He told me that 338 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:41,280 Speaker 1: the Donna he met when she was okay. She was 339 00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:45,760 Speaker 1: sparkling company on a great cook, but their friendship was platonic, 340 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,600 Speaker 1: fair enough. After one meal together in early ninety two, 341 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,840 Speaker 1: they were listening to music and having a drink when 342 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:58,920 Speaker 1: Donna's charm offensive fell apart. She said she trusted him 343 00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:02,000 Speaker 1: because he had never made a pass at her. Then 344 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:06,639 Speaker 1: she said she'd been having strange feelings, and then she 345 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:11,840 Speaker 1: broke down completely. The savvy club manager that she was 346 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:20,400 Speaker 1: in working hours turned back into that terrified, frightened schoolgirl. Crying. 347 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:25,679 Speaker 1: She poured out a stream of raw recollection. It was 348 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:30,040 Speaker 1: so traumatic it made her physically ill. Tom MacDonald told 349 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:34,240 Speaker 1: me a long time later afterwards, he said, he felt 350 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,800 Speaker 1: ashamed to be a man. Then he decided to help her. 351 00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:43,080 Speaker 1: He suggested psychological treatment and legal remedies and crimes compensation, 352 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:45,880 Speaker 1: all these things that she could do to try and 353 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,879 Speaker 1: regain some control over what had happened to her. Really, 354 00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:53,960 Speaker 1: not so much you needed the crimes for the money, 355 00:22:54,000 --> 00:23:00,080 Speaker 1: but to feel that you'd taken back some control. The 356 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:04,840 Speaker 1: other was justice. Of course, she wanted to search for 357 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:09,520 Speaker 1: the attackers and see them punished. So McDonald helped Donna 358 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:13,520 Speaker 1: to launch a crime's case that she eventually won. But 359 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:18,280 Speaker 1: mere compensation about six months wages for a dozen rapes 360 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:21,360 Speaker 1: and a ruined life was never going to be enough 361 00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,840 Speaker 1: to put her back together again. Meanwhile, Donna's friends saw 362 00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:29,119 Speaker 1: what they call that sparky, mischievous, bossy girl unravel completely. 363 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,560 Speaker 1: The workaholic could no longer work. Her inner suburban house 364 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,520 Speaker 1: was a mess. She stayed indoors for days, curled in 365 00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:40,400 Speaker 1: a ball crying. On a first visit to a psychologist, 366 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,720 Speaker 1: she handed over a tape recording of an interview she'd 367 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: had with a sexual assault counselor. It was, the psychologist 368 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:52,840 Speaker 1: said later, a harrowing account of a harrowing crime. We 369 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:56,520 Speaker 1: haven't yet shared the full extent of this with our 370 00:23:56,560 --> 00:24:00,479 Speaker 1: listeners here. Another friend heard the story firsthand with detail, 371 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:05,359 Speaker 1: shook him all the terrible, filthy parts that she needed 372 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:09,200 Speaker 1: to have said, he says. Johnna finally went to the 373 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,159 Speaker 1: police in March nineteen ninety two, while in Melbourne for 374 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 1: a conference. She went to nine to one in community 375 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,800 Speaker 1: policing squad and started talking. It took ten hours to 376 00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,080 Speaker 1: finish the statement. A policewoman took it all down and 377 00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,160 Speaker 1: shared a piece of boiled fruitcake with her, the only 378 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: thing either of them ate from midday until ten o'clock 379 00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:34,160 Speaker 1: at night. She recalled every detail as if it were 380 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:37,840 Speaker 1: frozen in time. I had these snapshots in my brain, 381 00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:42,359 Speaker 1: she told me later. It unfolds like a film, looks 382 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:45,000 Speaker 1: like a Noah film. And I have to say, for 383 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 1: those listeners who have seen Dead Man Walking, which I 384 00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:52,320 Speaker 1: personally find one of the most haunting films I've ever seen, 385 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:56,280 Speaker 1: the scenes in that film that are shot in black 386 00:24:56,320 --> 00:25:01,360 Speaker 1: and white, that are reconstructing the crime that was committed. 387 00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:04,840 Speaker 1: I think that the sense you get when you watch 388 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:09,400 Speaker 1: that film is the sense that Donna gets every time 389 00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 1: she thinks about what happened to her that total sense 390 00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:23,080 Speaker 1: of nightmarish, sinister horror that you cannot escape. She says, 391 00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,120 Speaker 1: it wasn't just the knife that the man held, the 392 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:30,960 Speaker 1: main leader of the pack rape, but the look in 393 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,399 Speaker 1: the eyes. He dragged her out of the car, and 394 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,600 Speaker 1: then he got in the back seat and he proceeded 395 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:42,800 Speaker 1: to assault Angela. Donna was in shock. Back then the 396 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,800 Speaker 1: driver stayed in the car watching the other two men 397 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,320 Speaker 1: walked up. These are the two men who had walked away. 398 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:52,560 Speaker 1: They returned. They pushed and abused her, working themselves up. 399 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,960 Speaker 1: They called her a looking slut, stupid bitch, and other 400 00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:01,479 Speaker 1: worse words. They grabbed it a breasts. They called her 401 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:07,560 Speaker 1: bhutana or putana Greek and Italian variations of war. She 402 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,919 Speaker 1: refused to undress. One of them called her a smart bitch, 403 00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:13,399 Speaker 1: and they shoved her face down on the bonnet of 404 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,320 Speaker 1: the car and pulled her clothes down, one holding her 405 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:22,359 Speaker 1: by the hair. What followed was obscene, violent, and degrading. 406 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:28,040 Speaker 1: She was numb with pain, fear, and concern for Angela, 407 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:32,240 Speaker 1: who she knew was a virgin, and who Donna thought 408 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:37,720 Speaker 1: guiltily wouldn't be there except for her. Donna felt guilty 409 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:41,680 Speaker 1: that she'd brought Angela with her. She could hear her 410 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,960 Speaker 1: friend whimpering in the car. It rained again. This is 411 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,880 Speaker 1: the wettest day for years, the wettest Melbourne Cup day ever. 412 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,200 Speaker 1: She tried to block out what was happening by concentrating 413 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:55,520 Speaker 1: on the sky and on the rain drops on the windscreen. 414 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:59,280 Speaker 1: She'd see them running down. She never forgot that forever. 415 00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:06,200 Speaker 1: After a wet windscreen jolted her into remembering those unspeakable acts. 416 00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:11,720 Speaker 1: The rapists laughed and taunted Donna as they zipped up 417 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:15,680 Speaker 1: their jeanes. She dressed herself and got in the car 418 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:21,879 Speaker 1: with Angela, thinking it was over. But it wasn't. The 419 00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:25,280 Speaker 1: Tarana when a few hundred meters and stopped waiting was 420 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:29,320 Speaker 1: another station wagon, a metallic mock, a brown Ford with 421 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,879 Speaker 1: curtains in the back. There were two men in it, 422 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,919 Speaker 1: a tag team. The big guy dragged Angela out and 423 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,120 Speaker 1: ordered both girls into the ford. He got in too, 424 00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:43,000 Speaker 1: as if he owned them. They drove off. Donna didn't 425 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:47,760 Speaker 1: see the Toronto again except in bad dreams. She had 426 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,200 Speaker 1: no idea where they were until she saw a footscray 427 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:54,800 Speaker 1: Institute of Technology sign as the car turned down a 428 00:27:54,840 --> 00:28:00,880 Speaker 1: sloping entrance. To park land beside the river. That's the 429 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:06,119 Speaker 1: Marrabanong River, opposite Flemington Racecourse, which she noticed was still 430 00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:09,960 Speaker 1: crowded after the races. It was quiet over on the 431 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,520 Speaker 1: Footscray Bank, but a family was nearby trying to have 432 00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:17,800 Speaker 1: a picnic despite the weather. The girls were raped again. 433 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:21,720 Speaker 1: Donna could see the picnickers through the fogged up windows. 434 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,399 Speaker 1: She willed them to realize what was happening and to 435 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,720 Speaker 1: rescue them, but of course that didn't happen. They drove 436 00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:35,000 Speaker 1: off again. This is the third lot of driving in 437 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:39,880 Speaker 1: this sequence of this nightmare series of horrors. The gang 438 00:28:39,960 --> 00:28:43,719 Speaker 1: leader put his arm around Angela in a grotesque parody 439 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:47,160 Speaker 1: of affection. When the cars stopped the traffic lights, he 440 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:50,840 Speaker 1: whispered in Donna's ear, I know you'd like to run. 441 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:54,640 Speaker 1: They drove under a bluestone bridge where water was lying 442 00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:59,160 Speaker 1: across the road, almost knee deep. They turned into cobbled 443 00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:04,480 Speaker 1: lanes among warehouses and factories, somewhere in North Melbourne or Kensington. 444 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:07,800 Speaker 1: Now this is an area I know reasonably well because 445 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:11,840 Speaker 1: I once lived over there. I'd suggest that it's on 446 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: the city side of the main Bold Meadows railway line 447 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:19,920 Speaker 1: at Kensington down the hill between the railway line and 448 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: the old Arden Street football ground. I reckon it's in there, 449 00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:27,000 Speaker 1: because there was a heap of lane ways and factories 450 00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: and empty places and all the rest of it. Particularly 451 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 1: on weekends, there was nothing much happening there. The car 452 00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:35,960 Speaker 1: went up a steep lane and stopped in a car 453 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:39,680 Speaker 1: park underneath the building. It was dark and deserted. That's 454 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:43,360 Speaker 1: cup day, see it's public holiday. But suddenly the space 455 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:46,280 Speaker 1: was filled with the rumble of a V eight engine 456 00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:51,720 Speaker 1: and male voices. More men. Donna whispered to Angela to 457 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:55,160 Speaker 1: cling to the pack leader. She said, just stay with him. 458 00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,560 Speaker 1: He won't let anyone else touch you. She was not 459 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,800 Speaker 1: sure this was true, or even if they would both survive. 460 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:09,600 Speaker 1: She feared their ordeal was heading for some more sinister climax. 461 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:14,680 Speaker 1: I was frightened. We were going to be annihilated. Are 462 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:19,720 Speaker 1: the words, she told me. Years later, one by one 463 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,640 Speaker 1: the newcomers raped on her, except the last one, the 464 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:28,280 Speaker 1: twelfth man to grab her that day. She saw his face. 465 00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:32,239 Speaker 1: She thought one of the others called him Steve. He 466 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:36,360 Speaker 1: was smaller and fairer than the rest. Unless sure of himself, 467 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:40,480 Speaker 1: she whispered to him, help get me out of here. 468 00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:43,760 Speaker 1: He quietly helped her to get dressed, and then he 469 00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:46,360 Speaker 1: called to the leader. They made us getting late. Why 470 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:50,040 Speaker 1: don't we get rid of them? They drove it was 471 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,480 Speaker 1: getting dark. Minutes later, the car pulled into a lane 472 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:57,480 Speaker 1: beside the North Melbourne Railway station and the two girls 473 00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:01,400 Speaker 1: were shoved out like pieces of rubby. They'd avoided death, 474 00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:07,840 Speaker 1: but their life sentences were just beginning. And that is 475 00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,400 Speaker 1: the major part of a story that I wrote a 476 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:16,440 Speaker 1: long time ago, and that I've rewritten with some changes 477 00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:20,920 Speaker 1: in recent times. It is one of the stories, one 478 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,960 Speaker 1: of the twenty two stories in my new book Life 479 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,520 Speaker 1: and Crimes. It's one of the stories there that stand 480 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,520 Speaker 1: out for me because it is one of those where 481 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:37,320 Speaker 1: the bad guys got away, the ones that got away. 482 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:41,280 Speaker 1: In the forty plus years since those rapes, those two 483 00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:45,040 Speaker 1: girls have grown into women who have been haunted by 484 00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:47,120 Speaker 1: what happened to them. I doubt this is a day 485 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:49,320 Speaker 1: in their lives that they don't think about it, that 486 00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:53,360 Speaker 1: it doesn't affect them in some way. Nothing can change that. 487 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,160 Speaker 1: But one of the bad things is that the people 488 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,280 Speaker 1: that did it were never ever caught. At the time 489 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:06,040 Speaker 1: their parents persuaded them not to go to anybody. And 490 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,960 Speaker 1: it was only in the nineties, some sixteen odd years 491 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 1: later that as we discussed that, Donna went to the 492 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,880 Speaker 1: police and made a ten hour statement and set certain 493 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:20,480 Speaker 1: things in train. Now in the end that did not 494 00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:25,840 Speaker 1: lead to anybody being arrested or convicted either. And ultimately, 495 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:28,720 Speaker 1: some time after that, she came to me and poured 496 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: her heart out. Somehow we found each other and she 497 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:34,400 Speaker 1: told me her story, trusted me with it, and I 498 00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:39,040 Speaker 1: wrote that story, and I stay in touch with Donna. 499 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:43,320 Speaker 1: As I said before, she's intelligent, she's articulate, She's a 500 00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,160 Speaker 1: very clever woman. And I think that probably makes it 501 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:50,520 Speaker 1: even harder for her. Really, the humiliation is probably even 502 00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:54,840 Speaker 1: sharper for her. She can talk about it, and she 503 00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:58,160 Speaker 1: talks about it with passion and with anger and with 504 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:02,200 Speaker 1: great verve. But every time she talks to me about it, 505 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:05,680 Speaker 1: even you know, if it's on the phone or in person, 506 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,480 Speaker 1: she'll break down. At some point it overwhelms her. The 507 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: emotion overwhelms her like a wave, and it hits her 508 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:17,840 Speaker 1: and her voice breaks and she starts to sob, and 509 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 1: then she forces it back inside her and keeps talking. 510 00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:27,720 Speaker 1: Because even now, at the age of sixty three or thereabouts. 511 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:34,760 Speaker 1: She is determined if she can to a do something, 512 00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:37,760 Speaker 1: to find the people that did it and make them 513 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:42,240 Speaker 1: pay and be She wants to see the system altered 514 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:47,200 Speaker 1: so that victims of sexual assault and these sort of 515 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:53,240 Speaker 1: violent assaults are handled better by the system. I think 516 00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:56,960 Speaker 1: by and large that has happened. Things have changed a 517 00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:00,360 Speaker 1: lot since the seventies, and a lot of the things 518 00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:04,200 Speaker 1: that she knew were missing back in the day are 519 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:10,040 Speaker 1: now present, and there are now specialist sexual assault units, etc. 520 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:14,280 Speaker 1: Donna's problem is that when she goes to see police 521 00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:19,080 Speaker 1: about it anytime in the last thirty years, inevitably she's 522 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:23,439 Speaker 1: frustrated because the original file from the nineteen nineties has 523 00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:27,719 Speaker 1: been lost I think twice, not only physically lost, but 524 00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:31,480 Speaker 1: the police that handled it and have dealt with it, 525 00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:36,080 Speaker 1: they've moved on, they've retired, they've been transferred, so there's 526 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:41,600 Speaker 1: never been any continuity. She doesn't feel that this crime is. 527 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:46,920 Speaker 2: Very serious, very serious pack rape, a pack rape that 528 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:51,520 Speaker 2: would have got the offenders hanged back in the time 529 00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:54,360 Speaker 2: of let's say, around World War One. 530 00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:59,919 Speaker 1: I think men were hanged for pack rapes in that era. 531 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:04,480 Speaker 1: I remember my grandparents talking about it that it was 532 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:08,080 Speaker 1: a thing. It was a very serious capital offense, and 533 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:10,879 Speaker 1: men were hanged for it, just as they were hanged 534 00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:14,799 Speaker 1: for murder in those days. So this was once a 535 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:17,719 Speaker 1: capital offense. These men got away with it. It's an 536 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 1: offense that, even under our current laws, could result in 537 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:27,799 Speaker 1: very long sentences. And I'm suggesting here looking at some 538 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,840 Speaker 1: other crimes I know of, such as the Askavail rapist 539 00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:34,520 Speaker 1: in the nineties. He originally got more than thirty years, 540 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,520 Speaker 1: which was later pulled back to twenty seven or twenty 541 00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:41,879 Speaker 1: eight years on appeal. But you can see that if 542 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:46,319 Speaker 1: these men had been caught, they probably would have got 543 00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:52,040 Speaker 1: more than twenty years jail and thoroughly deserved it. Now, 544 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:56,000 Speaker 1: we can't spend all day going through this, but I've 545 00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,440 Speaker 1: done some research on it in the past, and I 546 00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:02,719 Speaker 1: was able to track down a phone number and an 547 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:07,359 Speaker 1: address for the then boy, the nineteen seventy six boy 548 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:11,320 Speaker 1: called Wayne Thompson, and to track down people that knew 549 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:17,120 Speaker 1: people and so on. Police were able to identify certain individuals, 550 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,719 Speaker 1: but the problem was that in the absence of any 551 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:26,960 Speaker 1: other evidence, they were not in a position to lay charges. 552 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:30,840 Speaker 1: All these people would have to do is to deny 553 00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:35,680 Speaker 1: everything and to say it didn't happen. But against that, 554 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 1: let's put a few things out there. This car in 555 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:46,640 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, November nineteen seventy six, a young man 556 00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 1: from it'll be from the western suburbs, so it'll be 557 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:54,000 Speaker 1: Foot's Gray or el Tarner or Spotswood or out that way, Williamstown. 558 00:36:54,400 --> 00:37:01,080 Speaker 1: Young guy, probably Greek, maybe not maybe Italian, but the Mediterranean. 559 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:07,160 Speaker 1: He had a red tarana, the hot tarana, with the 560 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:13,120 Speaker 1: big tarana writing across the windscreen in capital letters. Someone 561 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:18,279 Speaker 1: somewhere is going to have a polaroid snapshot or one 562 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:21,200 Speaker 1: of those old snapshots that people used to take of 563 00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:25,160 Speaker 1: each other on weekends or whatever. It's stuck in an 564 00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:30,880 Speaker 1: album somewhere of that car with its driver. Someone somewhere 565 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:36,080 Speaker 1: will remember this. Someone somewhere will be the young guy 566 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:40,680 Speaker 1: who didn't rape the girl, who said let's get out 567 00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:44,320 Speaker 1: of here, let them go. That young guy took pity 568 00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:48,600 Speaker 1: on them, he didn't commit rape. That guy is out 569 00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:52,480 Speaker 1: there somewhere he might recall who was who and the zoo. 570 00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:56,000 Speaker 1: They're all old now. I believe some of them will 571 00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:00,680 Speaker 1: be dead. Others will be getting on. They were older 572 00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:02,960 Speaker 1: than they're victims. 573 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:03,319 Speaker 2: By a few years. 574 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:08,239 Speaker 1: So these guys are now approaching their seventies and they 575 00:38:08,239 --> 00:38:12,719 Speaker 1: will have led hard lives probably, And it would be 576 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,200 Speaker 1: a wonderful thing if among our listeners there were people 577 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:22,960 Speaker 1: who remember anything that might help the police solve this case. 578 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:27,839 Speaker 1: And there is no other way of solving it except this, 579 00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:33,759 Speaker 1: that someone can recall that car, or a group of 580 00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:37,880 Speaker 1: guys who fit this profile that era. Someone who remembers 581 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:41,360 Speaker 1: Wayne Thompson or a guy called Wayne who in nineteen 582 00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:45,400 Speaker 1: seventy six was a young apprentice, or a builder builder's 583 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:49,880 Speaker 1: laborer who had a tan colored station wagon undoubtedly Holden 584 00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:53,880 Speaker 1: nor Falcon, that sort of stuff. Someone somewhere must recall 585 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:58,160 Speaker 1: that Melbourne in nineteen seventy six was a much smaller place. 586 00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:03,120 Speaker 1: The western suburb in those days ran from the Maravanong 587 00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:07,000 Speaker 1: out to the Williamstown Rifle Range. They were much smaller suburbs. 588 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:12,200 Speaker 1: There were far fewer people around, and out there somewhere 589 00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:16,360 Speaker 1: there are people listening to this who will know someone 590 00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:23,239 Speaker 1: who knows someone who can help. I'm asking you in 591 00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 1: listener land to get in touch to help us solve 592 00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:32,920 Speaker 1: the one that got away. There are other stories in 593 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:36,440 Speaker 1: this collection Life and Crimes that also need to be solved, 594 00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:39,160 Speaker 1: but I would like to see none of them solved 595 00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:43,960 Speaker 1: more than this one. This really means a lot. Anyone 596 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,240 Speaker 1: who wants to get in touch with us, please email 597 00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:52,359 Speaker 1: us on Life and Crimes at news dot com dot 598 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:58,920 Speaker 1: Au or email me direct Andrew dot Rule at news 599 00:39:59,280 --> 00:40:04,239 Speaker 1: dot com. All our emails are at news dot com 600 00:40:04,239 --> 00:40:08,080 Speaker 1: dot Au, so they're easy. Please do that. I'd love 601 00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:12,480 Speaker 1: to talk to anyone who can throw any light on 602 00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:15,400 Speaker 1: any of this. It doesn't matter if it's just a 603 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:21,000 Speaker 1: little thing. Someone lived in the same street, someone used 604 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,680 Speaker 1: to work on a building site nearby that had a 605 00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:26,400 Speaker 1: car like that used to whistle at girls as they 606 00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:30,600 Speaker 1: walk past. Whatever it might be, you might know something 607 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:35,000 Speaker 1: that we can use to backtrack to solve this case. 608 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:40,560 Speaker 1: I have to say that I've done today's podcast without 609 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:45,279 Speaker 1: talking with Donna. On the podcast, Donna is currently in 610 00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:49,120 Speaker 1: a distant part of a distant state, and one day, 611 00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:52,680 Speaker 1: if we get anywhere, I would like to talk to her, 612 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:55,600 Speaker 1: and I think she would like to talk to us. 613 00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:59,000 Speaker 1: But I have to say it is a grueling process 614 00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:06,880 Speaker 1: and it's not easy. Thanks for listening. Life and Crimes 615 00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,520 Speaker 1: is a Sunday Herald Sun Production for True Crime Australia. 616 00:41:11,040 --> 00:41:15,439 Speaker 1: Our producer is Johnty Burton. For my columns, features and more, 617 00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:21,240 Speaker 1: go to Heroldsun dot com dot au, forward slash Andrew 618 00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:26,760 Speaker 1: Rule one word. For advertising inquiries, go to news Podcasts 619 00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:31,359 Speaker 1: sold at news dot com dot au. That is all 620 00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:36,160 Speaker 1: one word news podcasts sold And if you want further 621 00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:40,760 Speaker 1: information about this episode, links are in the description.