But they’d dropped the ball, which you could see when Rumple asked this lady, ‘When was the last time an officer from your department paid a home visit to Snow Delaney?’ She had to say in 2004, and he said, ‘So nobody from your department had visited Delaney House for seven years?’ And she had to admit that was true.

I’ve already told you that I basically didn’t speak. I saw what you said about that: ‘Snow didn’t take the stand lest she incriminate herself.’ What rubbish, Jack. The way you wrote that, you made it sound like if I opened my mouth, everyone would immediately see that I was guilty. But the reason I didn’t speak was I could see it was a farce. They were going to find me guilty whatever I said. And so I just let them do whatever, until that Friday in April when I was asked to stand, and the foreman, or in my case the forewoman, Miss Sucked-on-a-Lemon, also stood up.

The judge said, ‘Have you reached a verdict?’

Ms Pinched-Face said, ‘We have, Your Honour.’ And the way she said it, I knew that they’d found me guilty.

The judge said, ‘And what is your verdict?’

Ms Pinched-Face said, ‘We find the defendant guilty, Your Honour’ – and again, it was in that smarmy voice, with all the emphasis on ‘guilty’, like Little Miss Sucked-on-a-Lemon was suddenly so important.

I couldn’t help it, I snorted. The newspapers the next day reported that snort as my ‘contempt’ of the court. ‘Snow Delaney let out a snort of derision when the verdict was delivered,’ was how the Sydney Morning Herald put it. Was it derision? Maybe it was, but maybe I was snorting at how smug they all looked, passing judgement on me. And what was I supposed to do when the verdict came down? Start crying? What good would that do? Look shocked? But wouldn’t that have been a bit fake, to be shocked at a verdict I’d expected all along?

And it’s what everyone expected. It’s what newspapers like yours pretty much demanded. Don’t try to deny it. Why do you think that old juror in his moth-eaten brown jumper had it in for me before a skerrick of evidence was offered? Why do you think Miss Face-like-a-Slapped-Arse was staring so filthily at me, before I’d even been asked to say whether I wanted to plead guilty or not? It’s because they’d already determined that I was guilty. And why did they think so? Because they’d read all about the case in newspapers like yours, and because they’d seen all the ridiculous headlines, and they had watched footage on News Tonight and they’d made up their minds before they got there. And because they were hearing reporters like you going on about how my sister was missing, and about how Beth had been found in the yard and that was such a coincidence, wasn’t it! Snow must have something to do with it! Let’s not worry that there’s no evidence that Agnes is even dead! That I’ve not been charged with anything to do with her going missing! That’s why they found me guilty. Trial by media, that’s what it was.