Before the investigating officer, Senior Detective Constable, Georgia Connors left for her flight, I asked her to forgive me because over the last two days she had been taking down the statement, I had had tears flowing down my eyes.

It wasn’t like I spent the time crying or being hysterical, I just couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

Georgia replied, and I quote, “Don’t worry. It’s common amongst rape victims.”

I then told Georgia, “You’re the best psychologist I’ve had”.

Georgia smiled at me.

After SDC Georgia Connors, along with the other investigator officer who came to Forster with her, rushed to Newcastle to catch their plane back to Melbourne, I received numerous emails and phone calls from Georgia about my witnesses, their contact details and address or asking what town could she find them.

I used Facebook to track them down, so I could offer her the details of almost every witness I had given her at that time, which was more than a dozen names with contact details.

Georgia called me not long after I gave her these details to tell me she spent four days in Wodonga talking to my witnesses.

I assumed she got written statements from them only for her to tell me she took just one written statement. Georgia went on to tell me that she spokn to my witnesses only by telephone.

When Georgia returned to Melbourne she told me she obtained my medical records from the miscarriage and she had spoken to ‘M.T’.

Again, ‘M.T’ has lived in the heart of Melbourne for more than twenty years. ‘M.T’ lives just a few minutes by tram from Georgia’s office.

I asked about ‘C.B’, the young man who told me Shorten had come up to Wodonga to get ‘D.D’ and him to take over my Wodonga Young Labor Branch. He only lived about an hour’s drive from Melbourne. Again, Georgia called him on the phone.

I asked her about ‘C.R’. At least she went to see ‘C.R’ who was facing a serious illness in his family at the time. Georgia and her partner left  their business card and left.

I later found out ‘C.R’ eventually went down to the Melbourne police station to speak with Georgia but she wasn’t available to talk to him. Thankfully, one of Georgia’s colleagues took ‘C.R’s statement instead.

To my amazement, I got a call on the Thursday before ANZAC Day, 2014.

Georgia told me she and a few of her fellow officers entered the Marybyrnong office of Bill Shorten on the morning of the 17th April, 2014, the day before Good Friday, and arrested Bill Shorten for the rape of Kathy Sherriff (myself) in 1986.

Georgia told me they didn’t handcuff Shorten because he knew why he was being arrested and agreed to go quietly with them to the police station.

Georgia then told me when they arrived at the station Shorten’s lawyer was already there waiting for them.

(Side note: I asked Georgia if she had read Shorten his rights. She said “Yes”. So I asked if that meant he had been officially arrested, to which she replied, “Correct.”)

Apparently, Shorten’s interview with the police is on a DVD at VicPol FOI. I have sent in a request for a copy of that DVD, but after almost a year waiting, I was denied.

Georgia called me in either late July or early August of 2014, to tell me she presented my case to the Director of the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) in Victoria.

Georgia and I had got to know each other well during this time and, on this day, Georgia was really angry.

“What happened?”, I asked.

Georgia told me she’d just returned from presenting my case to the Director of the OPP. Georgia said that he, the director, “Didn’t even bother to read further than the front page of the brief of evidence“.

Apparently, the director saw the names involved and dismissed my case in less than 30 seconds, according to Georgia.

(Side note: I was shocked to hear Georgia so upset. Obviously, to me anyway, while Georgia was going through the investigation, she had come to realise I was telling the truth. I originally felt Georgia she was sceptical of me, but by the end she knew I was not making this up. In her own statement (which I got from FOI) Georgia wrote there was enough evidence for a criminal conviction).

The next day I was out.

I kept getting messages on my phone from someone I didn’t know so I didn’t answer. It wasn’t until the afternoon when I decided to answer this person’s call because he wasn’t going to stop ringing.

It was a man from Victoria Police telling me they wouldn’t be pressing charges.

I was still on the phone to him when Shorten came on the television with his ‘denial’ press conference, reading from a carefully scripted statement, which he repeated over and over. Journalists’ questions were not answered but ‘referred’ to his statement. It doesn’t take an Einstein to know that Shorten had made prior  arrangements for the media because, I was supposed to be told first. 

Obviously, he knew well in advance of me. After this, I decided to go to 60mins/ACA.

Victoria Police told me, “Don’t speak to the media”.

But I had been speaking to a lovely woman from Channel 7 (I still do).

This lovely woman got on a plane from Melbourne and tracked me down.

She even went door knocking until she reached out to a friend who posted something on my Facebook page. Amazingly, when she sent this friend a text message I was at this friend’s house. What are the odds?

The producer, my friend and I met up the following day and the producer took, what I consider, my real statement.

The next day, all three of us took a plane to Sydney and the following morning, the producer took me into the Channel 7 office to meet the executive producers of the Sunday Night program.

We arrived just before 9am. I didn’t go in front of the camera until around 7pm that night. (Note, I have a very serious back injury and by the time I was put in front of the camera I was in agony).

The interview went for over two hours, then we went back to the hotel. The following morning I was on a flight, with my friend and the producer, to Melbourne.

Sunday Night wanted to take me back to the scene of the crime in Portarlington.

My friend and I waited for four days for Sunday Night only to be told they were no longer going to run my story.

During these four days I spoke to Georgia and Rob from Vicpol. They promised to bring me the brief of evidence to look at, but all they had with them were empty manilla folders.

Georgia tried to tell me my medical records were looked over by a medical expert and this expert said I didn’t have a miscarriage, but an abortion. (On the front page of my medical records it clearly states, miscarriage).

Why?

Eventually, I found out Shorten’s lawyers had contacted Channel 7 and told them if they ran my story they would be sued.

I knew Sunday Night was already in trouble for the story they did on Schapelle Corby, charged and convicted with the importation of marijuana in Bali, so they didn’t want to take any chances. In fact it was the same reporter, so I now understand the cold feet.

Finally, I went to someone I knew, Larry Pickering, who at the time, published Australia’s most widely-read, independent blog, The Pickering Post. You will most likely know Larry was one of Australia’s most popular cartoonists, and later an investigative political blogger.

I gave Larry my police statement (please remember, I had never read Georgia’s police statement).

After leaving Larry’s home he called me and said, ‘Kathy, how do you spell your surname?”

I told him, “2′ x R’s and 2 x “F”s”.

Larry then laughed and asked, “You don’t spell it any other way?”.

I answered, “I think I know how to spell my own name.”

Larry laughed even harder this time and said, “It’s obvious then you’ve never read this statement. They’ve spelt your name wrong!”

Larry then laughed his head off, making me laugh with him. Larry gave me great advice. He told me which people from the media to speak to and told me that I could trust the barrister Peter Faris QC.

I met Peter Faris, face to face, in Melbourne in late November, 2014. What an enormous asset Mr Faris has been to me. His opinion and advice has been invaluable.

THANK YOU, (Sir) PETER! A personal joke. I always call him ‘Sir’, I can’t help it. Mr Faris always replies, “PETER!”

Mr Faris began helping me to try to get my VicPol FOI in October, 2014. He also came to assist me after the George Pell conviction in 2019.

But more about that in the next chapter.