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00:00If Gold Coast singer Fairley Arrow is telling the truth, then she certainly has been through an ordeal.
00:13Missing for two days, Fairley Arrow says she was abducted and tied to a bed in an unknown location.
00:19They sold it as an awful, shocking kind of crime. How could this happen?
00:24She was released unharmed last night, but police have raised doubts about her story.
00:28Well, I remember jokingly saying to all the other crew, I said, wouldn't this be a great publicity stunt, you know, to fake your own abduction?
00:34After several hours of questioning, Fairley admitted her story was a hoax.
00:38I would say she was just a crazy woman from the Gold Coast.
00:41The police are preparing to throw the book at the young star for sparking one of the biggest missing person investigations in recent memory.
00:48It was exhausting keeping up the lie.
00:58I had been in the music industry my whole life.
01:11Being on stage, singing, there's no words to explain it.
01:16It's just better than sex.
01:21It is.
01:22So I was working in nightclubs, a little bit of touring with the Kinsmen, opening for their show.
01:35Would you please make welcome the Four Kinsmen?
01:38Here they are.
01:39Yeah, Four Kinsmen were a show band and super popular.
01:44So I would open for them for years.
01:47You know, George and I finished up in a relationship and got married.
01:51And they would go off touring, always touring, always on the road.
01:55I'm mom now, I have a son.
01:57But seeing the husband go off and doing his thing and being a star and all that kind of stuff.
02:03And we were like, well, why am I less important?
02:07You know, why can't you stay home and I'll go do my thing?
02:11I just wanted to be a singer.
02:16So George was off touring all the time.
02:18I had a nanny that lived with me until I think the first thing that happened.
02:27The dogs had been fed, but my nanny wasn't there.
02:34So it was strange.
02:37I go, I didn't feed them.
02:39There was just stuff being moved around the house.
02:42Then the first time we really knew something was going on,
02:46I woke up in the morning and there was a whole array of clothes laid out for me to wear.
02:52That was the time we called the cops.
02:55I was a detective senior constable there at Gold Coast CIB.
02:59Very busy place to work.
03:00Everything from basic break-in-enters and drugs through to murders.
03:06There's like half a dozen cops just wandering around the house,
03:09questioning me.
03:09And I don't even know how seriously they were kind of taking it.
03:14It's a strange one because they've cleaned up a house.
03:18They've done the dishes, but there was never any threats or anything.
03:21I go, what are you going to do?
03:22Well, there's nothing we can really do about it because we would have to catch this person.
03:26Well, how are you going to catch this person?
03:27Well, we've got really nothing to go by.
03:30Where do you start?
03:31I mean, we tried.
03:32And then the police would come in and say,
03:33well, it's probably not a good idea for your son to be here.
03:36You may want to consider your son going to your parents' place.
03:41So we're looking at what was there in some deranged fans of hers.
03:45She might have upset somebody.
03:47Fast forward, it happened again.
03:50Someone came in feeding the dog, putting her clothes on the bed.
03:53And then he started getting in through the alarm code.
03:56And then reset the alarm system on the way out.
03:58So it was very sort of, is this really a stalker?
04:01So one of the cops said to me, you need to get a knife or you need to get a gun.
04:06And you need to put that under your pillow because he's going to take you or he'll kill you, one or the other.
04:13That for me was the moment I thought, oh, I'm done being a victim.
04:20I'm going to do something about it.
04:26So I went to see Bob, my buddy.
04:31Bob Deering and I had been friends for a long, long time.
04:34Great guy.
04:35Bob Deering was larger than life.
04:37Frequent of the nightclubs.
04:39We used to call him the oldest teenager on the coast.
04:41Kind of an ageing life, surf life-saving, big guy who just wanted to solve every girl's problems.
04:50And Robert Deering and Feely were close.
04:52We were very close friends.
04:55We're never going to get married, have kids or babies because very close friends.
04:59We're very close friends.
05:00He was a good guy because he bothered to be there for me when no one else was.
05:04And he had been, we had been talking about this for a long time.
05:07Well, first of all, when she came in on a Saturday morning, remember this, I was so hungover.
05:12She was trying to explain the situation to me.
05:14I said, look, honey, I'm that hungover.
05:16Come back and talk to me tomorrow about it.
05:18So she came back on Sunday.
05:18Bob came over to hang out with me and said, what, what are you going to do?
05:29Because it was other people at the time being stalked and everything else.
05:32Well, she didn't want to be a statistic.
05:34And I didn't want her to be a statistic either.
05:35I don't know who came up with the idea.
05:38For the police to take it seriously and to actually do something, there has to be a crime committed.
05:44So we started brainstorming the what ifs.
05:49What if you disappeared for a couple of days?
05:51I thought it was a great idea, breaks the kidnapping, comes back, tells the truth, the police then do an investigation and really follow up on it.
05:59It's like this snowball that rolls downhill and just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
06:05And all of a sudden, this crazy idea that we cooked up wasn't so crazy after all.
06:16This is all we thought about.
06:18I need to disappear.
06:19The police need to think the guy's taken me.
06:22I need to show up somewhere.
06:23And then the cops will say, oh, he committed a crime.
06:26We're now going to go find him.
06:28It was like a little movie right there, beginning and a middle and an end.
06:32You had to make it look like I was really kidnapped.
06:34That was the general idea.
06:35I should have been kidnapped.
06:36It needs to look like a struggle.
06:39She had the car there.
06:40The car door was open.
06:41Keys were on the ground.
06:43And a bag or shoes?
06:45I can't remember.
06:46I think it was a yellow and blue baby bag that I'd used to throw stuff in.
06:51On the ground to the right side of the pool where the driveway was.
06:56She just come over and jumped in my car and I drove down to the town of country.
07:02Where the hotel was, they always had to sign up vacancies.
07:05So I assumed that not many lost people would stay there.
07:10I just kind of remember going through some bushes to get to the room.
07:14Whether she came in through the back window or whether she came in through the door, I really can't remember.
07:19And then I remember him saying, do not open the door to anyone.
07:25I left the keys there and I took off.
07:32Well, the flag was raised from her two friends who were supposed to be meeting her for a dinner date.
07:38And so I was working that shift.
07:40We looked at the scene.
07:42The car was still running.
07:43Keys in the ignition.
07:45The front door was open.
07:46Handbag and one of her earrings was on the ground near the door.
07:50So, yeah, it was taking very seriously.
07:52So, I was recruited by the Queensland Police Service to manage media on the Gold Coast.
08:00I'd only been in the job a year.
08:02And the officer called me and said, there's been a woman who's been abducted.
08:08I think I wrote up a statement and then I issued that out to media, which at the time was via fax machine.
08:15You print up the document and then you send it on a fax 25 times to all the media outlets.
08:20I was working in the Bureau here on the Gold Coast for Channel 7.
08:24I was a cameraman.
08:25I was working for Channel 9 News as a reporter.
08:29The police were saying that there's been a disappearance.
08:31This woman's been abducted.
08:32Can you get yourself over to Isle of Capri?
08:34It could be serious, but we need public's help.
08:37But when I got the call out and I found out who it was, I was really upset.
08:42I also knew fairly from high school, we weren't close, we weren't best friends, but the fact
08:50that she could be hurt or possibly worse.
08:54You sort of hope that it doesn't turn bad, but you always kept that in the back of the
08:59mind that, you know, she could end up being dead.
09:00I just thought, you know, this is terrible.
09:04All the while, whilst knowing it was going to be a big story.
09:07There are a few new clues today over the disappearance of Gold Coast singer Fairleigh Arrow.
09:17Police fear she was abducted by an obsessed fan.
09:20It was big news, yeah.
09:22Especially for the Gold Coast.
09:23It was big news for the Gold Coast.
09:24This time I'm playing to wear.
09:28The 27-year-old singer had arranged dinner with friends yesterday afternoon.
09:32They arrived at her home last night to find she had gone.
09:35All the footage of her singing was just perfect for television.
09:39Television needs pictures, so if you've got all these things of her, which also speak
09:43to an attractive young woman who has a career and it's an entertainer and suddenly she's
09:50been taken from her home.
09:52I think we realised very early on that it was going to be a national story.
09:56When the story broke, it broke from Queensland.
09:58I was in the Sydney office of National Nine News where I worked, but it still made the
10:05lead bulletin in Sydney.
10:06It was a story that had major news potential.
10:10The fact that she'd been taken from her own home, that was terrifying for women.
10:15Anything to do with any woman being abducted, assaulted, raped.
10:23There was a number of well-known rapists running around in Sydney, the North Shore rapists,
10:29the Eastern Suburb rapists.
10:31So attacks on women were big stories.
10:35I do distinctly remember sitting on the bed watching TV going, oh my God, what have we done?
10:42Fairleigh Arrow's disappearance sparked one of the biggest police investigations on the
10:46coast.
10:47Police still believe Fairleigh Arrow is alive and is being held against her will.
10:51I don't know what I expected, but it was almost like, oh my God, now everybody knows.
10:56I do remember thinking, Dad's going to be so mad.
10:59I had met her parents when she was in high school.
11:02They were looking after Fairleigh's two-year-old and they were worried sick.
11:06Her family, her husband was very distressed over the whole thing.
11:11Just put her on the phone for 10 seconds or put a tape or something in the mail or where
11:20to go, really.
11:21So it was very difficult for those people.
11:24In a way, as I'm saying it, it almost sounds a little bit selfish, but I was thinking of
11:30me, I was thinking of my son.
11:33Oh, the police were great.
11:34I mean, they took it seriously.
11:36They put a lot of resources around trying to find her.
11:39We actually had some of the Homicide Squad people come across.
11:42We had additional computer terminals installed.
11:45We spent a lot of hours, a lot of overtime trying to find a suspect.
11:50At least they were doing something and they were taking her serious.
11:53That's exactly what she wanted to happen.
11:55Then they take her serious and so she doesn't get stalked anymore and she doesn't feel threatened
12:00anymore.
12:00I remember walking into an incident room at Broadbitch Police Station and they had a whiteboard
12:05on the wall where they had various bits of information written up about this particular
12:08case with Fairley Arrow.
12:10I couldn't help but notice Bob Deering's name there and I just remember saying to the detectives,
12:14I thought, you're kidding.
12:16Bob, he's like the Fonz.
12:18He doesn't have to abduct a female.
12:19He just clicks his finger and they come running to him.
12:21I actually remember saying to Bob, you know exactly where she is, don't you?
12:25When they asked me where she was, I said, right now, I don't know exactly where she is.
12:31And what I meant by that was she could be in the room, she could be out in the yard, she
12:35could be across the shops.
12:36He immediately just went so red in the face and stuttered and didn't know which way to
12:42look but didn't admit to it.
12:51So Bob shows up and he's now panicking a bit.
12:59I came back that night to pick her up, take her back to the police station, tell them that
13:02she actually faked the kidnapping so the police would start looking.
13:07So, yeah, the plan, I need to come back, it leads to look legitimate.
13:14How does that look legitimate?
13:16Bound and gagged on the side of the road.
13:21Yeah, we're driving along.
13:24I had my sisters hand me down.
13:26Mariah?
13:27No, it was brown, actually.
13:28It was, I can't say it, but it was a brown corona.
13:32The floor was pretty well rusted out, but it was a car and it stopped us having to cycle
13:35everywhere.
13:37So the road we were driving down was a big, long, straight road coming down onto this
13:42floodplain area.
13:43And I've seen this thing out of the corner of my eye, it looked like someone lying on the
13:46side of the road.
13:47And I've said, there was someone on the side of the road back there.
13:49And he's gone, no, it wasn't, it was kangaroos.
13:51I said, no, no, no, I'm pretty sure it was someone lying there.
13:53And so turned it out, pointed the headlights of the high beams at the shape.
14:00And literally as we pulled up and she's come into the full beam of the lights, I knew who
14:06it was, like straight away.
14:08I remember one of them saying, oh, that's her.
14:10I've just found a woman that's been missing for four days lying on the side of the road
14:14and I'm freaking out.
14:15And she had a bandana around her neck like she'd been blindfolded.
14:19Her hands were tied behind her back and the rope that had it tied just basically fell
14:23apart on her hands.
14:24I do remember this feeling of embarrassment.
14:28So back in those days, we were able to hear the police radio and we heard that a felly
14:38had been found on the side of the road.
14:40Well, the initial feeling is total relief.
14:42We've put the effort in and this woman's turned up.
14:45And from what initial assessments showed that she was in totally good health, that's a great
14:50outcome.
14:50We went to the police station and they're asking me, I don't know, 10 questions per second.
14:56I certainly had not prepared for that.
14:58I had no idea.
14:59I made it up on the fly.
15:00Well, it all seems a bit far-fetched.
15:05While she was captive under the house, she apparently refused to eat.
15:09However, we found the strong smell of garlic on her breath, which is very odd.
15:15I mean, I was not very creative.
15:17Things like when you took her to the toilet and her hands were tied behind her back.
15:21And then later in the interview, she said that she flung her hands up and touched his
15:26face and felt a beard.
15:27I don't know how you're going to do that if your hands are tied behind your back.
15:29So it sort of stank right from the start.
15:38After she was found, there was a media call.
15:41The police were holding a press conference.
15:43One of the police officers did say that, look, the media is downstairs.
15:47You can talk to them.
15:48So, of course, me being 18, I went, all right.
15:51My friend Nick, he saw her, or saw something, said, turn around, it's a person.
15:55So I turned back around.
15:57He hopped out of the car and just said, go get the police.
16:00I remember being jealous that he got in the news.
16:02You know, why didn't I get five minutes of fame on a TV thing about a kidnapping?
16:06The detectives really pushed hard for me to go out and make a statement to the press.
16:13Fairley was quite open to go and do a media conference, and that was at 2 a.m.
16:18We kept getting told that Fairley was going to come down and talk to us.
16:21It was absolutely unprecedented that police would put a kidnapping victim in front of a
16:29media conference at 2 o'clock in the morning.
16:30This girl has been abducted and tied up for days.
16:33She's going to come down and talk to all the media.
16:35That is completely unheard of.
16:37I remember something about, you owe them, or you have to go in front of the press.
16:42The senior inspector who was the regional duty officer that night basically said to me,
16:48we wouldn't normally put anyone up in front of the cameras, but we think she's faked the
16:56whole thing, so we need to grill her.
16:58And I was totally, totally gobsmacked.
17:02I actually remember feeling amused.
17:04I remember almost laughing, and I'm like, this is the Gold Coast.
17:08I was standing out there in front of all these cameras.
17:24I didn't know whether I should smile.
17:26I didn't know whether I should look down, look away.
17:29I didn't know how to act.
17:31At that stage, there was a genuine sense of relief that she'd been found and she was
17:35okay.
17:36I certainly felt it.
17:37He didn't hurt me.
17:39He just tied me up on a bed and just sat there for the majority of the time.
17:46Turn the TV on, wait for her to come out and say, wow, I faked my kidnapping, which I
17:52thought was a great idea.
17:53I faked my kidnapping because I want everybody to take it serious, blah, blah, blah, blah.
17:57So what happens?
17:58She walks in this great big smile on her face, smiling like a cashier cat, and she was lying.
18:03He didn't talk.
18:04All he said, the only things he ever said was the same thing over again, that I gave
18:09you a chance.
18:10Because I'm completely making it up.
18:13You're not supposed to be asking me all this.
18:15This wasn't in the plan.
18:17There was something that didn't feel right.
18:20Her demeanour did not match a person who had been subjected to such terror.
18:27She almost seemed to be enjoying the attention.
18:30She just spoke rather peacefully, like she was reading a storybook to a child.
18:34She just did all the talking, and then probably after 15, 20 minutes, she got up and left the
18:38room.
18:38What are you going on?
18:39I think I felt so guilty that I probably sunk myself.
18:44And I don't know, I'm guilty, right?
18:46I am guilty.
18:47I thought that it was a crock, but we had to follow through and confirm that.
18:54So I stayed neutral.
18:55I mean, can you imagine if we didn't take it seriously and the person took her again?
19:01Police say they are still pursuing the alleged abductor, but have expressed surprise at how
19:05well the young woman came through her ordeal.
19:08Well, fairly quickly, there was a feeling that all was not right with this story.
19:13It was too clean, too good of an abduction.
19:18Things didn't add up.
19:19Speculation quickly grew.
19:21There were police officers talking out of turn, not going through the official channels,
19:26giving information that they shouldn't have been giving.
19:28The words, basically, to the journalist was, look, we're not totally sure what's going on here.
19:33And a senior policeman who I knew up there told me, he said, we're not finished with this story yet.
19:39We're keeping an open mind.
19:41In other words, it was a set-up.
19:44Queensland police are tonight closely checking details of the bizarre alleged abduction of Gold Coast entertainer Fairley Arrow.
19:51But I do remember somebody calling me and told me there was a whole bunch of press.
19:57And I remember looking out, peeking out the blinds and just going, oh, my God.
20:04Gold Coast singer Fairley Arrow has suddenly become famous.
20:08Today, she was fending off suggestions her disappearance was a publicity stunt.
20:12Trust me, this is not, I mean, I can think of a lot easier ways to run a publicity stunt than this.
20:18Yes, I definitely had the idea that it was a hoax.
20:21But it hadn't been confirmed, and I'm prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt.
20:27But she was brazen to be going on national television,
20:32even to the point where she was getting asked, was it a hoax?
20:36And she was just bluffing it out and enjoying it, appearing to enjoy it.
20:41So you emphatically reject publicly any suggestion that this was a stunt?
20:47I do, totally. I think it's disgusting that they could even bring it up.
20:50You know, for what it's worth, this is not what I wanted to get out of this.
20:54I don't want to talk to press.
20:57I want the police to take me seriously now because I want them to think that he committed a crime.
21:02I don't know what the newspaper people wanted.
21:05I feel like they would have been happier if I'd have turned up dead or turned up belted up or something.
21:11But because I came back in one piece, they can't come to terms with that.
21:15We had people come forward from the Town and Country Motel after seeing her on the television.
21:28She ordered room service a couple of times, and one time the cleaner was taking some towels,
21:35and she saw fairly and gave her the towels.
21:37And that pretty much set us on the track that this was definitely false.
21:42I get a call saying, look, we know what you did.
21:47It was proof that I'm screwed.
21:49But there was also a sense of relief.
21:53That's when she put her hands up and said that, yes, she did stage it all.
21:57He said, I would like to come and get you first and get you out of the house so, you know, the press don't go crazy.
22:06I remember him not taking me out in handcuffs, just taking me out into the car, and we went to the police station.
22:14So she said in the interview, I believe, that she planned everything to do with it and had Bob assist her,
22:20and she accepted full responsibility for that.
22:22Yeah, I felt embarrassed that I was actually able to be scammed.
22:28I just need to tell the whole story legitimately, and so maybe you will understand what's going on.
22:37I remember the worst part of it was George was furious.
22:45I remember having to walk home from the police station because he was so mad at me.
22:52I took off.
22:54Can't blame him.
22:55I'm not blaming him.
22:56Behind the scenes, of course, husband was not very happy.
22:59There's no question Fairly Arrow's husband is upset and hurt over her kidnap hoax.
23:05We had the most incredible row.
23:08I was so enraged, I don't even remember.
23:12But yes, I do remember that there was a fair bit of tension there.
23:16I just remember a lot of people yelling at me.
23:18It's kind of like everyone was yelling at me.
23:20The full extent of the hoax is now coming to light, and Miss Arrow is not looking so lucky.
23:26Of course, I saw her subsequently on television shows and things after the fact of her admitting that it was all a lie.
23:34Fairly Arrow emerged from her Sydney safe house today, bored with hiding from the media.
23:38She was making the most of her 15 minutes of fame, which I found really distasteful.
23:44A Gold Coast entertainer is expected to be here for at least two weeks.
23:49Her full story will be published in a women's magazine.
23:53Her first motive was to get attention.
23:55So that side of it worked, but there was a cost.
23:58And of course, very quickly, she became the butt of jokes.
24:02The nickname was born fairly quickly, wasn't it?
24:04They started calling her Fairly Obvious.
24:06Yeah.
24:07Fairly soon after the event.
24:09Fairly stupid Arrow.
24:11Fairly bullshit Arrow.
24:13Did you really believe you could get help by proving that you were a deceitful person, by destroying your credibility?
24:19I didn't try.
24:21That's not what I thought I was doing.
24:23Yeah, there was very much a pile on.
24:24It was very much a pile on.
24:26They were mean, man.
24:28They were just, oh my God.
24:30Can you understand that there is still a suspicion that you are enjoying every living second of this, because you set this up from start to finish?
24:40She was grilled, which to her credit, yeah, I don't think I would have survived some of those brutal interviews.
24:46And then, you know, kind of part of you is like, well, I guess I deserve it.
24:50Very hard to know who to believe in this story, isn't it?
24:52Yes, very much so.
24:53I think that women were often berated in the media at the time.
25:00I do think that they felt she was fair game and, you know, there was possibly a bit of sexism going on there.
25:07She was naive.
25:08She was just a young woman who craved major publicity.
25:12That was it.
25:13So you think you bear a stigma here in Australia?
25:15I think people here, it'll take them a long time to forget or to forgive what I've done.
25:23It's horrible to be hated and to have people make fun of you all the time.
25:29Okay, I did something stupid, but there were real reasons for it, and that's not what's interesting.
25:38I think I wish she had apologised more.
25:42I understand people make mistakes.
25:44I feel like they should be able to move on from them.
25:47But she was never, in my estimation, very contrite.
25:50Maybe I should have fallen on my sword, but I couldn't do it.
25:54I just couldn't, I couldn't do it.
25:56I wasn't sorry I did it.
25:58I don't know what would have happened if I didn't do it.
26:00I don't know if she'd ever had a stalker.
26:02I don't know if she'd ever been stalked, and that's not for me to say.
26:05But how could anyone think that doing that was going to help?
26:09It just doesn't make any sense.
26:12But there was no, I tell you what was really interesting, there was no stalker for a while.
26:16I don't know if there was too much heat or what, but there was, that was, that was kind of, I think, that was the end of it.
26:23It never happened again.
26:25Wow, that's right.
26:26Oh my God, yeah, it never happened again after that.
26:31Well, once it's gone public that it's fake, we have a responsibility then to try to recoup the money that was spent on that investigation, which was false.
26:39Charged with making a false complaint to police, the singer faced a possible jail sentence.
26:44Instead, the magistrate hit her hard in the pocket, fining her $5,000 and ordering her to pay $18,500 to cover the cost to the public of her hopes.
26:55And in 1992, like, that was a lot of money, and I had nothing.
27:01George was not ponying up any money for this, so I was on my own.
27:07So then the wheels are turning, like, how am I going to pay $20-some thousand dollars?
27:12Fairley says she wants to resume work as an entertainer to help pay her legal expenses.
27:18Steve Barrett, National 9 News.
27:21At that time, I was on the editorial side in Penthouse.
27:25Often we were accused of working at Penthouse and you exploit women.
27:28I would always rebutter this, no one's breaking the law.
27:31Somehow, Playboy and Penthouse started to get involved.
27:35This stuff that came out of nowhere, you know, I was like, what?
27:39Oh, I simply remember reading the paper and thinking, I suppose, like, a lot of young men at the time, they thought, oh, she's pretty good looking.
27:47And when you look at a 20-something-year-old, very attractive young woman, I wonder what she looks like without clothes on.
27:52And the story had come out there that she needed to repay the debt, and so there was this sort of like, oh, well, this will work for everybody.
27:59You know, when you're faced with, oh, you know, could I go to jail if I'm not paying the restitution and that right?
28:06So I kind of really didn't have a choice.
28:08The art director at the time was quite a cheeky and had a wicked sense of humour, so why don't we tie her up?
28:13They said, do you mind if we tie your hands up?
28:17Kind of like you're kidnapped.
28:19Like, do we really have to do this?
28:21Blindfolded, tied up to the bed, held captive, and it was done with a sense of fun.
28:25I remember them really going above and beyond, trying to make me feel comfortable, because they knew I wasn't, and they were really good to me.
28:32I think we just happened to hear later on that she'd done the centrefold of the magazine.
28:36We thought, oh, okay.
28:37I don't know if I actually saw the magazine.
28:39I swear I never, ever bought one of the magazines.
28:43I never bought it.
28:43No, I never bought it.
28:44No, no.
28:45Refused to buy one.
28:46I was so pissed off at what you did.
28:47Well, you were 17.
28:48You probably weren't allowed the adult version.
28:49Probably wasn't allowed the adult version.
28:50I do remember when we got first week sales figures in there, the editor was happy, the owner was happy, and so everyone started talking about it, it's a winner, boys, it's a winner.
28:58I was told it sold more magazines than any other one so far.
29:02If it wasn't the best-selling edition, I can guarantee it was one of the best-selling, on the top two or three, because I've never seen people that happy.
29:09Oh, I think there was judgment that she did the shoot.
29:12The fact that she was a mother.
29:13Yeah, I think a lot of people thought, how could you do that?
29:16Your son's going to, like, see that magazine one day, you know?
29:18Like I said, it was a sexist time.
29:20You said that they would be tasteful, tied to a bed.
29:24Well, that's a matter of opinion.
29:26But in some ways, it made a mockery out of the hoax, didn't it?
29:30People took it so personally that it was like a slap in their face that, to them, I got off scot-free, which, believe me, I did not.
29:39And then I went and slapped everyone in the face again by being in a layout of Penthouse magazine.
29:45Again, I thought, is this the way you want to represent yourself?
29:50And I'm not talking about photos, nude or otherwise.
29:54Talking about the fact that you played a hoax on the whole of Australia about being abducted and having that sort of unwanted attention.
30:02And your response to it is to be on the front of Penthouse magazine.
30:06I just didn't really care about anybody else.
30:09My parents and my son.
30:11Everyone else was, like, at this point.
30:14Whatever.
30:16And then next thing you know, she's gone to America.
30:18She totally left Australia behind and started a whole new life in the United States.
30:23Is it a case of being run out of town?
30:24I think to a certain point.
30:26I mean, it's my choice.
30:27I'm leaving.
30:28But I don't have a lot of option at this point but to leave.
30:33It played out like we thought it would.
30:35She'd get charged.
30:36She'd be humiliated.
30:38And then she went and lived happily ever after somewhere else.
30:41And the media found something else to be the headline story.
30:45So at that point it sort of fizzled away.
30:47There's really nothing else to say.
30:49I think this story is unique in that I don't think we've ever seen something like this prior to that.
30:57And I'm not sure we have seen it since.
30:59Because how often do you hear about people faking their own abduction and non-kidnapping?
31:03How often do you hear about that?
31:05I wasn't expecting to be still telling the story, what, 30-something years later.
31:10It's a classic story.
31:11It's a good yarn.
31:13It's a ripper yarn.
31:16It's never gone away.
31:17Jobs, career moves, I lost my record deal.
31:22You just Google my name and all this stuff comes up that you wish you could just bury but you can't bury it.
31:31Thank you internet.
31:33I really do think that the reasoning behind Fairleigh's actions were to get fame.
31:41It was all about she needed to sell more tickets to the show.
31:44She knew that a beautiful looking girl like herself being abducted would make news.
31:51People do just anything to get their name and lights.
31:54I don't know.
31:54I think it's a little bit more nuanced than that.
31:56I think it's probably, it more, it began as something else and whatever it started out to be, I don't think it's what it ended up being.
32:03To give her the benefit of the doubt, perhaps these instances of the breaking headers may have actually occurred.
32:12There might be some truth to what she said.
32:13She probably did have a stalker.
32:15I did say it was happening.
32:16She was freaking out.
32:17She didn't think about the consequences.
32:19She was just must have been in a position where she was so desperate to be taken seriously about being stalked that this is what she chose to do.
32:27Why do we find it so hard to believe women?
32:31Sometimes they are just put through hell and I don't understand why it's not believed when something happens to women.
32:42You can't go making false complaints and having huge expense over an investigation that doesn't need to happen.
32:51And it also takes away possibly the credibility of those other people that are really suffering.
32:56It's like the boy that cried wolf.
32:58It happens all the time and this is why most women don't come forward because we get put through hell.
33:04But it just puts that question mark over it.
33:08Is this credible or is this not?
33:11Yes, I lied.
33:12I did.
33:13If I have any disappointment, I'm disappointed that I felt like I had no other choice.
33:17I don't know what else I would have done differently.
33:21I don't know what else I would have done differently.
33:51I don't know what else I would have done differently.
33:59I don't know what else I would have done differently.
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