Blood Stain

by Peter Lalor

  —Not too long ago, ‘cause I still got the bruise there … he called the police in … He was rubbishing me having different fathers for my children again, and I just said to him, ‘Hang on,’ I said, ‘You said last night at a party that your parents were married and they’re, and they weren’t’, and he just went off his brain and said, ‘Don’t say anything about my mother.’ And then he attacked me.

  Knight claims confusion about the incident because the pain in her breast is ‘just too agonising to see or think of any-think’. Wells asks about how often she drinks.

  —Every now and then… I like Cadbury’s liqueur, Baileys, I don’t get that very often, or I’ll have a beer… I used to drink rum a long time ago. Pricey got me to taste that and I like it, but it’s not something I drink now … I can build up a lot of [sigh] what do you call it, I can handle a lot without it, but when I’ve got it in me I explode quicker. I let, like, you could, you can say things to me and say it and say it and say it and say it, when I haven’t got alcohol in me. When I got alcohol in me I come back and say something back to you. You know what I mean?

  Wells starts to chip away at her about how much she remembers, testing her alleged memory loss. He asks her what was the last thing she recalls on the night of the murder.

  —The last time I recall was … I went inside and watched a bit of TV.

  —Right. Was Pricey there?

  —Mmm …

  He backs off for a few questions, before approaching again. It’s a delicate matter, any wrong move could get the lawyer’s back up and they’d be finished. Wells is trying to pull teeth in the quietest way possible.

  —Can you recall what the, what the video was that you were watching?

  —No, it was ‘Star Trek’… I only seen a little bit of it ‘cause I went to bed meself.

  —Okay. So, you remember going to bed?

  —Mmm.

  —Okay. Was Pricey in bed when you went to bed?

  —Mmm.

  —And can you recall…?

  —He had to have been.

  —Do you recall that he was there or not?

  —I don’t even remember meself, so… I just remember watching a bit of ‘Star Trek’ … I don’t remember anything, so, I would have had to have gone to sleep.

  —So, you can’t. Can you tell me the next thing that you remember after that?

  —Them telling me that I’m in the Mater Hospital.

  —Do you recall being brought from the Mater here to Maitland?

  —I’ve got a faint recollection of sitting in a, well, lying in an ambulance.

  She remembers visits from her sister Joy, her daughter Melissa, her sister-in-law, Val Roughan, and also from her half-brothers Patrick and Neville in the past days. Wells had asked some 223 questions to get to this point and lets Victor Ford take over for a while. Ford takes her straight back to the events of Sunday and the AVO that was served on the Monday evening by the police.

  —So, did you have, after the police left, did you [and] Pricey have a discussion about this order?

  —Everything was fine between me and Pricey, even before they brought the order in.

  —Mmm.

  —There was no problems between me and Pricey.

  —You realise that what the order is is for you not to sort of see each other or approach each other. That’s what part of the order is.

  —I can’t read very well.

  Wells came back to ask a few more questions, the policeman trying to find out if Knight was aware that Price wanted her to leave the house. A matter of motive.

  —Was there any discussion from Pricey that he wanted you to leave the house and end the relationship?

  —He has said that several times over the whole lot of our relationship.

  —Was there any prospect recently that that was going to occur?

  —No.

  —Is it that Pricey didn’t want you to leave or that you didn’t want to end the relationship?

  —No. Pricey tells me he loves me, and he’s sorry and things like that.

  —And?

  —He wanted me in the relationship with him. He just fires off every now and then.

  —And can you tell me what causes him to fire off?

  —That he sometimes goes off because of his job.

  —All right.

  —Other times he’s—him losing his job in the mines. If there’s a bit of dust on the floor, you know, something’s dropped on the floor, he’d go off.

  —In the days leading up to Tuesday, the 29th, do you recall any incident where Pricey was asleep in the bed and it was the early hours of the morning and he woke up [to] find you standing at the end of the bed?

  —No.

  —That, which caused him to jump up out of bed startled.

  —No.

  Another memory lapse. Wells moves onto past domestics, asking if she can recall the police ever being called.

  —One was when I was drunk. But I never got to see the police on that one. So, what went on was really between the police and John there.

  —All right. Do you recall any of that at all?

  —Not with the police there. Not with the argument up to it. Pricey was trying to tell Rosemary that Johnathon had sex with my daughter up the arse.

  There’s a little confusion about who is who, but it’s established that Johnathon is Price’s son, Rosemary is his daughter and Knight is referring to her daughter Melissa.

  —And I told him he was a liar, that it was he [sic] jerked himself off with washing up detergent at her, and she was petrified. She rung me up. I went to Pricey about it. This was in the early stages of our going together.

  —Is there any other…?

  Knight starts to ramble from one topic to another with allegations of different children and husbands and sexual abuse. The cops don’t seem too interested in pursuing this line and probably find it hard to keep up with her as she jumps about. The interview is suspended at 11.11 am, forty minutes in, as the audio tape needs changing. Everyone seems happy to have a breather. It’s hard work getting anything out of her while not pushing her so far that Wiggins will call them off. They’ve logged up nearly 300 questions but haven’t made great progress. They change tapes and Bob Wells starts again.

  —I’ve been told that there was one incident earlier, sorry, later last year on, in or around August, 1999, that you caused a minor stab wound to Pricey’s right chest.

  —Yeah. That’s right.

  —Okay. Can you tell me the circumstances of the incident?

  She tells them some convoluted story over a four-way argument between Price, his youngest daughter, his ex-wife and her, and how she accused his kids of interfering with hers.

  —And he’s turned around and said my kids deserved to be raped by his children. And it could have been a fork, a spoon or anything in my hand—it was a knife that you cut your meal with and I aimed it at him and it got him. He was leaning closer than what I thought. And …

  —Were, were you …?

  —My eyesight was bad at that time, I’ve only had new glasses since then.

  —All right. Are you aware of where you actually… where the wound was?

  —It was up on the shoulder.

  —Do, are you aware of what shoulder it was?

  —Not any more.

  —Can you tell me your recollection of when that was?

  —Nope. I went to the solicitor on it and I went to the police and told them about it.

  —What solicitor did you go to?

  —Noonan, is it? Mmm. In Muswellbrook.

  —And what police did you go to?

  —Scone.

  —And can you tell me if there was any police action or further inquiries made in relation to that?

  —No. There was none.

  —Do you know if there was a record ever made of it?

  —Well, they said that they were going to, because I told them Pricey would most probably come in and report it. So, I don’t know.

&n
bsp; —Are you aware of, aware if Pricey came in and reported it?

  —No.

  —Is there any other occasion where you’ve assaulted or caused any injuries to Pricey?

  —No.

  Wells goes back to Tuesday night. She doesn’t remember what she wore to bed. He asks her to draw a plan of the house, to see where it will lead, but she and Wiggins decide she won’t, so he moves on to a bit of her history and then revisits her version of the alleged incident between her daughter Melissa and Price’s son Johnathon.

  —He took her once on his motorbike … and he jerked himself off in front of her and petrified her and she rung me up to come there. She didn’t want to press charges so I had to leave it. I told John about it and he just said he’s just taking notice of his silly mates.

  —So, she told… You didn’t go to the police about it at all?

  —No.

  —And you spoke to John Junior about it?

  —I spoke to, no, I never spoke to John Junior till he, about 12 months ago on it, when he yelled it out in the pub.

  —What do you mean by that?

  —Well, he yelled it out in the pub that he rooted Melissa up the arse, and I said, You’re nothing but a liar. You did not’ … I was very angry about him doing things like that to my daughter. But my daughter did not want charges laid, so I had to leave it.

  Knight went on to claim, without foundation, that not only had Price’s son abused her daughter, but his youngest daughter had interfered with her two youngest and that her girl’s father had also interfered with her daughter.

  —Has there been any other incidents where you’ve had a confrontation with a person with a knife?

  —Yes.

  —Are you able to …?

  —I asked this lady to take me to Coffs Harbour to my mother-in-law’s place to stay.

  —Do you know who that person was?

  —Molly Perry.

  —Can you supply me with the circumstances surrounding that incident?

  —Prenatal, from having the baby.

  —Post-natal?

  —Yeah. Whatever it is … She was very sick [Melissa]. I got her daughter to go over and get her, I signed a cheque from, at the garage. I was arrested and put in Morisset.

  —And did, the incident with the knife, do you actually remember what it was about? The … What you did with the knife?

  —Nope.

  —And do you recount… Recall to me what year that was or how long ago?

  —No. My 23-year-old daughter was only just a baby. They said I swung her around by her legs, I don’t remember none of that.

  The two police start to grill her further about her movements before the murder, what she was wearing and why the children stayed at Natasha’s. She says she hadn’t planned for them to.

  —The recording of the, the video on that Tuesday at Tasha’s, do you know how long that recording went for?

  —Not very long…

  —And at one point there you look at the camera and say, ‘I love my children’.

  —Ye-es.

  —’I love my children and I hope so see them again.’

  —Well, I say things like that…

  —Okay. It… any significance in that?

  —No. It was just being cheeky on the camera with my children.

  —At one time I think you say to your daughter … something about a pram, an antique pram or something.

  —Yeah. That’s her little pram.

  —And can you elaborate on that bit of the video tape?

  —Well, her father promised her her push-bike two Christmases back.

  —All right.

  —And I was just letting her know that [Natasha’s daughter] wasn’t getting the pram; it’s her.

  The detectives ask her if she will provide a copy of her handwriting, but she refuses. She also says she can’t say who Pricey’s friends are, only that he goes to the pub every day and that she goes with him on Fridays and some weekends. She then agrees that she knows Geoffrey Bowditch, Anthony Keegan and Jon Collison. She says he doesn’t have any enemies she knows of.

  Knight then claims that her youngest son ended up hating Pricey because he would grab the boy on his ‘dickie’, a practice that made the older man laugh but upset her and the boy. Another log to keep the sexual abuse fires burning. Knight also displays a degree of knowledge about the interview process when pressed about Price’s cars, asking Wiggins if the police are allowed to repeat questions. She claims no knowledge of how her car came to be back at her house.

  The interview is petering out.

  —Are you aware, did anybody come to the house while you were watching ‘Star Trek’ that evening?

  —Not that I’m recollecting.

  —Okay. Do, do you recall if there was any other person there besides yourself and Pricey?

  —No.

  That’s 504 questions and almost one hour of interview time and the police realise they are not going to get any more so they wind it up. Wells has one last thing to say to Knight.

  —Kathy, on Monday 6th of March—that’s next Monday, Kathy—I will be arranging for a court hearing here at the hospital. It will be at this hearing, after I’ve made other inquiries, that you will be charged with the murder of John Price.

  Knight looks at him sideways.

  —I don’t even know he’s dead yet.

  She isn’t letting go of this act for a minute, but Wells has got a little more out of her than he thought he would. She’s indicated that there is a bit of violence from Price and other men to her and now he’s got to find the husbands and get their stories.

  He rings a few of the senior police and briefs them about the interview, then heads off to see Phil Lloyd at Kalipa Bay on Lake Macquarie. His head is still thumping and he’s excited, shaking, on a dirty adrenalin high. He’s wondering if he could have got more from the interview. Where should he go next? How is he going to handle all the work? This is the biggest job he’s ever done. He knows he has to try for a murder charge but that raises the investigative bar so high. Crooks will almost always cop a plea for manslaughter when you’ve got them cold and the prosecutor’s office is usually happy to accept it and tie things up neatly and cheaply. To Wells this is a murder, a calculated murder; the worst he’s ever seen. He doesn’t want her taking a plea.

  As he drives on he suddenly remembers that they’ve forgotten to ask her about Natasha’s story of her saying she was going to kill Price. Fuck it. How could that happen? Things are going faster and faster. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How could you be so fucking stupid? Confronting Knight has brought back all the horrors from that house, the skin and the head and the butchered body. He can’t get over what she did to Price, what the poor bastard went through. In his time he’s seen dozens of terrible car accidents, train deaths, even a body crushed in a wool press. He could accept the damage done to somebody in an accident but this was done by the woman he was just sitting with. He’s almost hyperventilating, freaking out and he can’t keep driving. He pulls the car over near the Ryehope cemetery and puts his head in his hands. He’s disturbed the bats deep in the cave and they’re beating their wings against his face. He feels bloody awful. Exhausted but unable to slow down. After a while his heart gives up trying to bash through his ribs and he gets some composure back. He feels like shit but crawls around to Lloyd’s where the prosecutor assures him they can ask a supplementary question on Monday. Lloyd senses something is wrong and puts his arm around Wells as the detective goes to leave. He asks if he is okay.

  —Of course I am. I’m fine, mate.

  —Just take it easy.

  Wells has to get off to Singleton early the next morning so he heads home. It’s already after 6 pm and on the drive back he starts to get into a state again. His head’s still throbbing like a bastard and his heart’s banging away so much it’s hard to catch breath. At home he gropes towards the bedroom, unable to talk to Cath or the kids. He breaks down. He is sobbing and rocking back and forth on the bed lik
e a distraught child. Cath walks in, she thinks something terrible must have happened. He tells her that it’s the murder investigation that’s getting on top of him.

  —I can’t handle this … I can’t get over what she did … How could somebody do that to somebody else?

  Bob’s two young daughters look in and see Dad in this terrible state, Mum trying to comfort him. Cath wants him to go to the doctor’s but he says he’ll be fine. That night she wakes and finds him screaming and running around the house.

  —Where are the girls. Cath … Are the girls alive? I’ve got to find them.

  He has no recollection in the morning. It is the classic hypervigilance associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Another night he dreams he is being wheeled into an operating theatre. He looks up as they are about to put the oxygen mask on his face and Katherine Knight is staring down at him. He is paralysed by fear.

  The next day he takes it easy, fires up the barbecue and the family have their traditional Sunday affair. Wells tries to keep up appearances but he’s still feeling pretty awful. To make matters worse, the stress has caused his gout to flare up. He finds himself hobbling around for the next few weeks with one shoe on and another nearby. It’s all he needs. It’s a hereditary disorder that he can usually keep in check with pills, but this time they’re not doing the trick.

  Over the weekend Knight has been taking it easy in the hospital. They’ve had her on one-to-one nursing worried that she might react badly to the interview but she is fine. She is sleeping when the family visit later in the day.

  On Monday Bob Wells hits the ground running again. There’s going to be a formal charging of Knight at lunchtime at the hospital and he prepares a statement of facts for the magistrate. He types out that supplementary question for her in capital letters.

  YOUR DAUGHTER, NATASHA MAREE KELLETT, HAS MADE A STATEMENT TO POLICE. AMONGST OTHER THINGS, NATASHA HAS SAID THAT ON AN OCCASION AFTER YOU AND PRICEY GOT BACK TOGETHER AFTER A SPLIT-UP, THAT YOU SAID SOMETHING LIKE, ‘IF I KILL PRICEY, I’LL KILL MYSELF AFTER IT.’

  QUESTION:—WOULD YOU CARE TO COMMENT ABOUT THAT? YOU ARE NOT OBLIGED TO COMMENT UNLESS YOU WISH TO DO SO. ANY COMMENT MADE BY YOU WILL BE SUBMITTED AS PART OF THE BRIEF OF EVIDENCE AGAINST YOU. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?