Chapter 23 – The Court Case
Almost two further years passed, Lizzie and Robbie returned to their life in the west. Now they divided their time between Broome and the desert. The business in Broome was booming, but the desert was their true love and they spent at least half of each year there.
Now there were two more children, a rising two year old cheeky boy, Stephen, with tousled blond hair, and another dark haired girl, Sarah, little more than a baby, colours like Cathy and Lizzie but with a face full of Robbie, his mischievous grin. Now Cathy spent the school terms in town, she was good with her lessons, smart just like her Mum, Robbie said. But she came back to the desert on her holidays and she loved it still, speaking a fluent mixture of two languages and with favourite pastimes of digging yams and hunting goannas.
Then one day the call came. The court case was set down for next Monday, a week away. There had been so many delays and adjournments over the last two years that it was impossible to believe it would ever come to trial. But now it had. It involved a prosecution for rape for three men, each on three separate rape charges. And a fourth man who had aided and abetted in the concealment of evidence after the fact was charged as an accessory to one count of rape, along with upcoming charges for other sexual crimes in Melbourne.
Lizzie marvelled at the courage of the other two women, both having agreed to attend and give their evidence as well. It had been hard enough for her, but she known Julie all her life and trusted her. And now, with Robbie in her corner, she knew she could do whatever it took. But these girls’ lives were still a mess, neither had really got over this experience and dragging it all up through court would be very hard for them, she knew how dirty the barristers doing the cross examination would play, and wished she could do more to help them.
But the die was cast and on Monday it would begin.
In Sydney Julie sat thinking about the momentous last three years of her life, that bright day of Lizzie’s wedding and the tremendous public sympathy it generated; but also all those hard years before and after, with many times when she felt the threads holding all these cases together would unravel into an unusable tangle.
It had not worked out quite as planned but in the end they had Alicia’s testimony along with Lizzie’s and Mimi’s, plus they had a copy of the photos as evidence for what had happened. These were found in Jack’s possession, following a Victorian search warrant looking for child pornography, at his house in Melbourne. With this find the Director of Public Prosecutions said there was more than enough to convict them and send them all to prison for a good long time.
While the case against Jack for rape was not strong and they had decided not to proceed with this charge, they had an excellent case against him for being an accessory after the fact, and the Melbourne police had also found other pornographic images to investigate, which they had now linked indecent assault of other girls in that city.
It sounded simple but it had taken almost three years to put it all together. In the process they had gone to Broome and collected evidence from the school and other people in the community about the actions of the men there, testimony from the school principal about Dan’s visit to Cathy, testimony from Alice about his visit to the restaurant, descriptions of all the men in Broome a week later. Then there was testimony of the mother and brother of Mimi in Newcastle and of the Alicia in Sydney along with that of others in the company office who provided more pieces of corroborating evidence.
Once the investigation had become known there had been endless obstruction and obfuscation, particularly after they seized the photos. She sensed that these men were running scared and were prepared to use every tactic, legal and illegal, to seek to escape the net. But now it had finally become a solid wall of evidence.
Nobody could foresee any problems and now the hearing was set to start on Monday for the first case, three charges of rape along with additional charges of carnal knowledge with persons under 16, against a Mr Martin Wallis.
Monday dawned bright and clear. A veritable army of lawyers and reporters was waiting outside the court before the doors opened. It was to be a preliminary stage this morning, presentation of initial arguments before a judge, then empanelling a jury.
Their barrister stood before the judge. He stated his case and laid out the charges.
Julie was curious how the other side would respond, the evidence seemed so clear to her. What she heard took her by surprise.
The defence barrister stood up and said. “Your honour, I move to have these charges dismissed. This is on the basis that this is a case of attempted entrapment by a person, Miss Julie McCredie, who has taken a personal dislike against the defendant and his friends.
Because of this she has gone about soliciting the assistance of others to fabricate evidence against Mr Wallis and his friends. None of these cases would have come to trial in this court if it was not for her actions in soliciting many persons of highly dubious character to come forward and fabricate evidence.
I wish to show to your honour a series of letters and documents including a letter from Miss McCredie asking her friend Lizzie Renford to make a statement against my client. I also tender two advertisements in the Sydney and Newcastle papers encouraging people who have been subject to sexual attacks or violence to come forward and provide Miss McCredie with information on their experiences. While there is not a mention of money Miss McCredie has also provided financial assistance to these witnesses as an incentive for them to make up these stories.
So your honour, I consider that the only way you can rule is that this is a case of purposeful entrapment where all the key witnesses for the prosecution have had their evidence solicited and even paid for by this vindictive woman.
It is well known that she is a crusader for women’ rights and goes about seeking that charges be laid against those who she claims have had sex with non-consenting women despite all the evidence indicating that these women give themselves willingly. In this particular case this is shown clearly by these girls’ sexual proclivities, including two having worked as prostitutes and the third having taken a large payment in return for sex.
On this basis I call for you to dismiss this case and also make a recommendation that the Director of Public Prosecution to also not proceed with charges against the other named parties.
Julie felt as if she had been struck by a rock in the head, nobody on her side had even considered this as an issue; surely it was not a basis on which the judge would have to do more than make a cursory rejection as yet another piece of avoidance.
She had heard a rumour that the judge had a family association with the Wallis family and in the past had been heard to comment that Martin was a fine young man. But surely this could not influence his decision as he sat on the bench and upheld the law of the land.
But now he was reading the submission handed to him closely and he looked like he was giving it serious thought. After a minute he announced that he needed to call an adjournment for an hour while he considered this request and looked up some matters of the law in this regard. They all filed out of court. She could see a gloating look on the face of Martin, as well as similar looks on the faces of Dan, Will and Jack who walked out alongside him.
Outside in the street she felt a buzz of excitement at this unexpected development. She knew that everyone was looking at her; it was all about her and the question of whether she had let her desire for vengeance lead her to gather evidence in some way that was not proper. Even though her mind said what she did was honourable, she had a sinking feeling.
An hour later all reconvened. Julie could feel her knees shaking.
Without any preliminaries the judge started speaking. It took a few seconds for Julie’s mind to catch up with his words.
“I have considered the request of the defence. I rule in its favour. This case is dismissed. I also make a recommendation that the similar charges against the other two co-named defendants are withdrawn.”
He then w
ent on to make remarks about the prosecution’s conduct of the case and Julie’s role in soliciting evidence, but Julie was past hearing. All she could see was the gloating smirks of these four men as they walked from court, and much worse, in her mind were the hurt and desperate faces of these girls who had trusted her. She also felt she had failed all the thousands of other girls who had looked to them for courage.
Lizzie's Tale Page 27