‘How creepy is that!’ Anita exclaimed. ‘It’s like he wheeled Brooke into a hairdresser, taped a photo of Kendra to the mirror and said, “Make my new one look like my old dead one.” And Rohan reckons the previous girlfriends—including the one who took out an AVO—they look like this too.’

‘And the pregnant woman, Brooke—how is she going?’ asked Paula. ‘She comes to court with him every day?’

‘Every day. Arm in arm. Makes my flesh crawl to see him paw at her and parade her in front of the cameras.’

‘Jesus … the poor woman. Who’s going to look after her once she has the baby?’

‘Don’t know,’ Anita said. ‘Santino’s sister Marina hovers around outside court, fussing over Brooke. So I guess we have to hope his family will take care of her once he’s in jail.’

On the afternoon of his second day on the stand, Damien Ross spoke about the many occasions he had witnessed Santino’s flares of temper and the times Kendra had showed up at class with injuries. As her confidence eroded, she dropped out of acting school and gradually withdrew from her friends. Because Santino was enraged by men staring at her, Kendra was allowed out of the apartment less and less frequently. When Damien did manage to see her, he saw the bruises and burn marks.

The day after Damien Ross confronted Santino about the abuse, he was cut off from all contact with Kendra. John Santino phoned to say, ‘She doesn’t want you in her life anymore.’

Within a twenty-four-hour period, Damien discovered Kendra’s phone number had been changed, all her social media accounts deactivated and the couple had suddenly moved to a new apartment at an unknown address. In desperation, Damien went to the police and expressed his fears for her safety. Officers spoke to Kendra but she declined to make a complaint.

Paula sat in her consulting room after her last appointment of the day, closed her eyes and imagined the next patient to walk in the door was Kendra Bartlett, presenting with three broken fingers or hot liquid burns to her thighs or a deep knife laceration to the cushion of flesh below her thumb.

Paula knew from court reports that Kendra had gone to medical centres with each of those injuries. She had always offered an explanation, joking about her own clumsiness.

‘Oh, my hand slipped when I was lifting a kettle of boiling water.’

‘I tripped and I guess I landed with my fingers scrunched up in a stupid way.’

‘I was cutting up sweet potato and the knife slipped.’