The mother was rattled by his relentless questions about the dieting, until she finally cried out, ‘Kendra was never anorexic when she lived with me! Is that what you’re trying to make me say? She wasn’t!’

Woodburn turned to the jury then and raised his eyebrows. Gilbert Woodburn was seventy-two but in his facial expressions, in the way he held himself, it was possible to visualise the sixteen-year-old he had once been: the smarty-pants third speaker on the debating team at a posh school. Back then, and still, he believed he was the cleverest person in any gathering.

As he continued to bully Kendra’s mother on the stand, reducing her to tearful, stammering replies, Anita checked the reaction of the jurors. For many of the twelve, at least half of them, their faces were twisted into looks of disapproval, uncomfortable about watching the defence barrister humiliate and demolish a bereaved woman. Woodburn had misread his audience. He’d fucked up. Which was hugely satisfying.

As the trial days rolled on, Anita’s loathing of Gilbert Woodburn, Justice Burke and John Santino held her in a state of constant simmering anger. That anger was strangely welcome. It was bracing, invigorating enough to keep despair at bay.

Pileris continued Kendra’s story through testimony from friends she’d made in her early days in Sydney: a flatmate, the photographer who took her acting headshots, colleagues from various jobs. Each witness added scraps that formed a coherent portrait of Kendra as an energetic, kind-hearted, naive, determinedly optimistic young woman.

A former assistant manager from John Santino’s Darlinghurst bar described Kendra’s first shift working there. Santino had spotted the new, pretty twenty-one-year-old serving behind the bar and he’d ‘swooped’ on her, ‘serving up all his charm’.

The next witness, Kendra’s friend Damien Ross, was expected to be on the stand for at least two days, possibly more, so Anita was especially curious to watch him sworn in.

Damien Ross was twenty-four, tall, slender, with a stylish haircut and clothes. His strawberry blond hair and overall creamy paleness—eyes, skin, even his eyelashes—gave him an unusual kind of beauty.

Irene Pileris guided him through the standard who-are-you bit. Damien explained he’d grown up in Perth, completing an arts degree there before moving to Sydney. He began attending part-time acting classes the same day Kendra Bartlett enrolled at the drama school. These days, he was having some success as an actor, with several television roles so far, as well as performing in fringe theatre. To supplement his acting income, he worked occasional shifts in a call centre for a wine merchant.