The Good Bloke by Charles Staunton

Author:Charles Staunton [Staunton, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Autobiography, History, Australia, True Crime, Canada
ISBN: 9781760787455
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 2019-09-14T14:00:00+00:00

15

THE CHANGING GUARD

The scene was set, and the following morning, with legal team in tow, I fronted the Royal Commission. It was very brief and cursory.

I refused to answer their questions, and within minutes, Justice Woods, the royal commissioner, sent me out a back door, and down the stairs, where I was bundled into a car and taken across the road to the Supreme Court. There I was charged with contempt. From there, I was taken to Long Bay Gaol, where I was to remain until I answered the questions and purged my contempt.

On the way, as we drove down Anzac Parade, a main road leading out of the city, a road that I had travelled thousands of times in previous years. I had my fingers crossed that this whole matter might somehow blow over in the very near future.

We arrived at the Remand Centre at Long Bay, a place where I had been many, many times before, except in a very different capacity. This time I would be staying. There was the usual booking in at reception, the strip search and receiving the prison uniform, all greens.

There were familiar faces on both sides of the fence, and general acknowledgements. I was taken through to a cell complex and directed to a cell on the first floor. I had been there before more than a decade earlier during a prison guard strike, back in the early eighties, and I had been assigned to that very block.

Not much had changed in 15 years, certainly not the décor, and on entering the cell it appeared neither had the bed linen. The cell door closed behind me and as I sat it re-opened and a young, fit prison guard appeared.

‘Staunton, you had better come closer to the post. You have just been on every television channel and the other inmates are taking an interest.’

He explained that there was a cell next to the guard’s post, and that it would be safer for me to be there. I assured him that I had nothing to fear and that I knew several inmates and that they would certainly look after me if necessary. He shook his head at me, as if to say I was a fool, and moved me anyway.

I had missed dinner that evening, and the cell door was locked behind me. I lay on the bed contemplating life, as you do, when the guard opened the door and asked me if there was anyone I wanted to ring. I said if I could ring my sons, that would be appreciated. He took me out of the cell and to his post where he made a reverse-charge call to Kim, who was still legally my wife even though we had been separated for some time.

Tim, my youngest, answered the phone and was very excited for a seven-year-old. ‘Dad, I just saw you on the television!’

‘I know, son. Timmy, I want to explain to you and Danial what it’s all about.’

‘I know, I know, Dad.

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