‘Is this about what happened on Australia Day?’ she said. ‘Have those pricks done this to someone else?’

Wozza took the lead. ‘Kara, I’m so sorry this was pushed under the carpet. Can you tell us what happened that night?’

She looked from Wozza to me like she was about to protest, to say she’d said it all before, to ask what use it would be to repeat it, but then her shoulders slumped a fraction and she nodded. A look of resolve crossed her face and I imagined her on a netball court shooting for a goal, or about to take on an opponent in a martial arts fight. I knew that look. The fighter’s look.

‘When I told the police about what they did to us,’ she began, ‘and we weren’t believed, I said to DeeDee—’

‘She’s the other girl?’ I said.

Kara nodded. ‘I said to DeeDee, “You just wait. They’ll do this again.” I suppose that’s why you’re here.’

‘If it’s okay, we’d like you to tell us what happened that night,’ I said.

Kara took a deep breath then nodded. ‘There’s this big holiday-let place down the coast a couple of kilometres. Some blokes rented it for the summer and it was a bit of a party house. Anyhow, they hosted an Australia Day barbecue lunch. You know, sausages and eskies full of beer. A couple of our friends were going and they asked us. Me and DeeDee went together because the guys we were dating at the time …’ Her voice trailed off for a moment; I deduced the relationships had not survived the allegations. ‘The guys worked on a fishing trawler down the coast. They were working the long weekend so me and DeeDee went to the barbecue together.’

‘How many people were there?’ I asked, taking notes as she spoke.

‘Heaps,’ she said. ‘It was meant to be just a daytime thing, but some blokes and a couple of us girls stayed.’

‘How much had you had to drink?’ asked Wozza.

Kara looked defensive. ‘We had a few! And that was used against us when we reported what happened. It’s like once a girl has a couple of drinks, anyone can do anything to her and it’s okay because she’s drunk! People are like, “What did you expect?” But you know what I expected? To feel a bit seedy the next morning, that’s what I expected. Not gang rape.’

Wozza turned a shade of deep red. ‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ he spluttered. ‘I just wanted to understand how … how clear-headed you were.’

The fight went out of Kara. ‘Sorry, Woz,’ she said with a catch in her voice. ‘Look, we probably had half-a-dozen coolers over the day, but it was hot and this would have been over five or six hours. We weren’t drunk.’

‘Can you tell us about the assault?’ I asked.