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Whom indeed?
A former Perth brothel madam was told she would "end up like Shirley Finn" if she refused to help vice squad chief Bernie Johnson fabricate evidence against another policeman, an inquest into Ms Finn's 1975 murder has heard.
Linda Watson said she entered the sex industry in Perth in 1979, four years after Ms Finn was killed.
The infamous brothel madam was shot four times in the head and her body was found at Royal Perth Golf Course just two days before a tax hearing where she had been threatening to blow the whistle on illicit dealings by politicians, businessmen and police.
Ms Watson told the court she was paying the police under an "informal containment policy" to run her brothel, Man International, which she opened in 1980.
She said before opening her establishment, she had met with two vice squad detectives, Niven and Wicks, who outlined the rules to her and told her she would need to pay them $100 per girl per week.
With 20 girls registered on her books, she said that amounted to $100,000 a year, but she agreed because there was a "lot of money to be made".
Ms Watson told the court despite the fact she believed she was paying for police protection, her brothel was constantly raided, so she complained.
But when the raids continued, she said she stopped paying police.
Some time later she said Mr Johnson visited her at her home, when he asked her to implicate an officer in illegal activity.
"He was hoping I'd help take down a copper," she said.
'He had the evil eye'
Ms Watson said she knew the officer — someone she had been in a relationship with previously — so she refused.
The mysterious life of Shirley Finn
"He had the evil eye look, my hair stood on end.
"He wasn't just saying it, he really looked at me, I believed he meant it."
She told the court she was fearful for her life and went to the police, telling them everything she knew about the corruption over a 40-hour period.
She said soon after, a man punched her in the face while she was closing her brothel and told her it was a message from the police.
Ms Watson said she went public the next day, airing her story on commercial TV.
Inaccuracies questioned
Counsel for the Police Commissioner David Leigh pushed her on inaccuracies from previous statements.
He told the court that in a record from 1981, she said Mr Johnson had been with another detective the day he threatened her, and had only told her she'd never work again if she did not help him.
Mr Leigh also asked why she had insisted in previous statements that she had never paid police.
But Ms Watson told the court her lawyer had advised her to say that at the time.
Twenty years ago Ms Watson opened Linda's House of Hope, a rehab centre for women involved in drugs and prostitution.
In 2013 she was nominated as a local hero in the Australian of the Year awards.
The inquest will resume next year.
2013 WA Local Hero Nominee
Linda Watson
Town: Perth
State: Western Australia
Women's advocate
Linda Watson knows from experience how difficult it can be for women to leave prostitution. A former prostitute herself, Linda was determined to help other women get out of prostitution, and escape the cycle of exploitation, drugs and abuse that she had witnessed over a 20-year career in the sex industry. With the support of the Catholic Archbishop of Perth, Barry Hickey, Linda founded the House of Hope in 1997 to help women leave prostitution. There, women have a secure home, are provided with meals and receive the support needed to change their lives. No time limits are set, they can stay for as long as they need to. In its first year, around 200 women were helped through Linda's House of Hope and demand is so great that Linda is now looking for larger premises. By bravely speaking out to expose the dangers of prostitution, Linda herself has been subjected to abuse and attack. At times the refuge too has been shot at, fire bombed and vandalised. Undeterred, Linda continues to provide a safe haven for vulnerable women, helping them heal and restore their dignity and honour.
House of Hope
Rev Peter Abetz
I first met Linda in late 1997. It was a lunch time meeting in Perth. I was one of the handful of church leaders involved in the fight against attempts to legalise prostitution in WA. We had been invited to meet Linda.
The meeting organisers saw Linda as 'God - sent' in this battle. She could be our 'howitzer' among the rifles! She had been in the sex industry for nearly 20 years. She knew most of the key figures in the WA sex industry. She had worked in many of their establishments. No one could accuse her of being naive, or ignorant of the way the industry operated! If anyone could counter the sex industries attempt to sell itself as a loving, caring industry, necessary for the well being of society, Linda could!
She had started out as a 'working girl' when she was a single mother to get some extra cash for 'beds and a fridge' as she told me earlier this year. She only intended to do it for a few months. But the huge sums she was earning became addictive. From earning $2000 a week (big money 25 years ago!) she progressed to being a 'madam' - running her own highly profitable brothel.
But now she had had enough. She had quit. Just weeks before. She told us she had become a Christian. ( She told me later that her mother had prayed for her all the years she was in prostitution, and she saw her conversion as God's answer to her mother's prayers.)
As I listened to her story, I was worried: Would the attraction of the money lure her back into the world she knew so well? Or would she remain faithful to the Lord she professed to serve? Only time would tell.
Linda was a wounded person. She hardly dared look at us when she spoke. But she expressed her willingness to help us expose the real nature of the industry. She shared her dream to help other prostitutes leave the industry.
It was Roman Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey who eventually helped Linda's dream become reality in Aug 1999. He provided her with a modest house in suburban Perth, and a small monthly budget to help run her ministry. He saw helping Linda as a means of involving the church in a much needed ministry, which the church could not do without someone who had been 'there'.
On the day that 'Linda's House of Hope' was officially opened, Channel 9 ran a very brief item on the 'Today' show. This resulted in Linda being inundated with phone calls. When Compass (ABC TV) featured her in a story on the sex industry, she received 836 calls as a direct result!
They came from all over Australia. Tragically, Linda's ministry has no real counterpart anywhere in the country.
Since starting her ministry, she has helped hundreds of girls leave the industry. But she has also had to turn many away. She can only have up to 4 recovering girls live in the refuge but she supports about 60 others as they try to re-adjust to 'normal' living. But the 'success rate' is far higher among those who are in the refuge, where Linda can have daily contact.
Prostitutes who come to Linda usually bring nothing with them. They have earned lots of money in the past, but it has all been spent � on drugs, gambling and high living. 'We feed them. We clothe them. We give them a home for as long as they need one.' says Linda.
As I visited the refuge with Linda recently, it was clear that the girls relate well to her. Like so many of the girls who come to her, Linda had a Christian upbringing. And like 85% of the girls she deals with, she was sexually abused in childhood. Linda says 'The experience of abuse teaches girls to 'dissociate' - they can mentally be somewhere quite different to where they are physically. To survive as a prostitute servicing up to 12 men per shift, 6 days a week, you have to dissociate, or you would go insane. But even then, most turn to drugs to dull the emotional pain.'
While God has graciously blessed Linda's ministry, and many girls are deeply appreciative of the help they have received (see separate article), there are also others who want to silence Linda. While helping those caught up in the sex industry, she also has a bigger picture perspective: She wants to make a difference by influencing our legislators.
Linda has been quite outspoken about the damaging effects of prostitution on the women and the men who use them. She has spoken to the South Australian MPs. She has addressed public meetings opposing protitution as far away as Toowoomba.
Those seeking to legalise the prostitution industry in WA see her as a major threat to that goal.
Linda has had many abusive phone calls, and numerous death threats. Rough looking men have come to her door and warned her to stop her rescue ministry. Since Oct 2001, there have been five attacks on Linda�s House of Hope. These have ranged from attempts to break in, tampering with the alarm system, to a fire being set and a fire bombing of the refuge.
The years in the sex industry have taken their toll on Linda's health. The stress of a hectic pace in her ministry, coupled with the need to be vigilant at all times, continue to take their toll. She has just needed to take a lengthy holiday. Linda still struggles to feel really at home in a church. Many churches have asked her to 'move on' because some families don't want their children exposed to ex prostitutes.
As a church community, we are trying to support Linda pastorally, and have welcomed her to worship with us. Our deacons have provided financial support. One of our ladies has made contact with girls Linda is supporting. The girls need 'ordinary' people to befriend them.
I pray for Linda regularly. And I pray that her ministry might be multiplied in other parts of our nation.
We asked Linda what our readers could do to help:
I met Lara at the refuge. If you sat next to this attractive looking young lady in church, you would never guess what she has been through. I asked her what it meant to her to have been able to come to Linda's House of Hope. This is what she wrote:
My name is Lara. I was a prostitute for over 6 months. It was my darkest hour. My life was in a whirlwind of confusion. I was earning more money that I could ever imagine and drowning my soul in doubt and hatred. This was the irony that faced my downward spiralling future if I had stayed on the game of prostitution. Until I came across a wonderful lady by the name of Linda Watson, who specialises in directly dealing with women who are trying to get off the game.
The help I received from Linda and her staff, has been truly unconditional. My hope for life, love and happiness has been returned to my soul, and most importantly, my faith in God has been restored. I have a wonderful house to live in and a place, where I can collect my thoughts and find my passion for something that brings me back to life. My heart is healing slowly from the abuse and torment I have suffered in such a falsified industry. I would like to encourage anyone out there, who feels they can contribute to Linda's House of Hope and to the rehabilitation of women, who have been led into this addictive, self destructive and abusive work.
Awareness is the key to make society as a whole recognise and understand that being a prostitute will not only kill you physically, but mentally torment you for the rest of your life. It is the money that entices and preys on innocent hearts that crave real love and intimacy.
Lara
A former Perth brothel madam was told she would "end up like Shirley Finn" if she refused to help vice squad chief Bernie Johnson fabricate evidence against another policeman, an inquest into Ms Finn's 1975 murder has heard.
Linda Watson said she entered the sex industry in Perth in 1979, four years after Ms Finn was killed.
The infamous brothel madam was shot four times in the head and her body was found at Royal Perth Golf Course just two days before a tax hearing where she had been threatening to blow the whistle on illicit dealings by politicians, businessmen and police.
Ms Watson told the court she was paying the police under an "informal containment policy" to run her brothel, Man International, which she opened in 1980.
She said before opening her establishment, she had met with two vice squad detectives, Niven and Wicks, who outlined the rules to her and told her she would need to pay them $100 per girl per week.
With 20 girls registered on her books, she said that amounted to $100,000 a year, but she agreed because there was a "lot of money to be made".
Ms Watson told the court despite the fact she believed she was paying for police protection, her brothel was constantly raided, so she complained.
But when the raids continued, she said she stopped paying police.
Some time later she said Mr Johnson visited her at her home, when he asked her to implicate an officer in illegal activity.
"He was hoping I'd help take down a copper," she said.
'He had the evil eye'
Ms Watson said she knew the officer — someone she had been in a relationship with previously — so she refused.
The mysterious life of Shirley Finn
"He had the evil eye look, my hair stood on end.
"He wasn't just saying it, he really looked at me, I believed he meant it."
She told the court she was fearful for her life and went to the police, telling them everything she knew about the corruption over a 40-hour period.
She said soon after, a man punched her in the face while she was closing her brothel and told her it was a message from the police.
Ms Watson said she went public the next day, airing her story on commercial TV.
Inaccuracies questioned
Counsel for the Police Commissioner David Leigh pushed her on inaccuracies from previous statements.
He told the court that in a record from 1981, she said Mr Johnson had been with another detective the day he threatened her, and had only told her she'd never work again if she did not help him.
Mr Leigh also asked why she had insisted in previous statements that she had never paid police.
But Ms Watson told the court her lawyer had advised her to say that at the time.
Twenty years ago Ms Watson opened Linda's House of Hope, a rehab centre for women involved in drugs and prostitution.
In 2013 she was nominated as a local hero in the Australian of the Year awards.
The inquest will resume next year.
2013 WA Local Hero Nominee
Linda Watson
Town: Perth
State: Western Australia
Women's advocate
Linda Watson knows from experience how difficult it can be for women to leave prostitution. A former prostitute herself, Linda was determined to help other women get out of prostitution, and escape the cycle of exploitation, drugs and abuse that she had witnessed over a 20-year career in the sex industry. With the support of the Catholic Archbishop of Perth, Barry Hickey, Linda founded the House of Hope in 1997 to help women leave prostitution. There, women have a secure home, are provided with meals and receive the support needed to change their lives. No time limits are set, they can stay for as long as they need to. In its first year, around 200 women were helped through Linda's House of Hope and demand is so great that Linda is now looking for larger premises. By bravely speaking out to expose the dangers of prostitution, Linda herself has been subjected to abuse and attack. At times the refuge too has been shot at, fire bombed and vandalised. Undeterred, Linda continues to provide a safe haven for vulnerable women, helping them heal and restore their dignity and honour.
House of Hope
Rev Peter Abetz
I first met Linda in late 1997. It was a lunch time meeting in Perth. I was one of the handful of church leaders involved in the fight against attempts to legalise prostitution in WA. We had been invited to meet Linda.
The meeting organisers saw Linda as 'God - sent' in this battle. She could be our 'howitzer' among the rifles! She had been in the sex industry for nearly 20 years. She knew most of the key figures in the WA sex industry. She had worked in many of their establishments. No one could accuse her of being naive, or ignorant of the way the industry operated! If anyone could counter the sex industries attempt to sell itself as a loving, caring industry, necessary for the well being of society, Linda could!
She had started out as a 'working girl' when she was a single mother to get some extra cash for 'beds and a fridge' as she told me earlier this year. She only intended to do it for a few months. But the huge sums she was earning became addictive. From earning $2000 a week (big money 25 years ago!) she progressed to being a 'madam' - running her own highly profitable brothel.
But now she had had enough. She had quit. Just weeks before. She told us she had become a Christian. ( She told me later that her mother had prayed for her all the years she was in prostitution, and she saw her conversion as God's answer to her mother's prayers.)
As I listened to her story, I was worried: Would the attraction of the money lure her back into the world she knew so well? Or would she remain faithful to the Lord she professed to serve? Only time would tell.
Linda was a wounded person. She hardly dared look at us when she spoke. But she expressed her willingness to help us expose the real nature of the industry. She shared her dream to help other prostitutes leave the industry.
It was Roman Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey who eventually helped Linda's dream become reality in Aug 1999. He provided her with a modest house in suburban Perth, and a small monthly budget to help run her ministry. He saw helping Linda as a means of involving the church in a much needed ministry, which the church could not do without someone who had been 'there'.
On the day that 'Linda's House of Hope' was officially opened, Channel 9 ran a very brief item on the 'Today' show. This resulted in Linda being inundated with phone calls. When Compass (ABC TV) featured her in a story on the sex industry, she received 836 calls as a direct result!
They came from all over Australia. Tragically, Linda's ministry has no real counterpart anywhere in the country.
Since starting her ministry, she has helped hundreds of girls leave the industry. But she has also had to turn many away. She can only have up to 4 recovering girls live in the refuge but she supports about 60 others as they try to re-adjust to 'normal' living. But the 'success rate' is far higher among those who are in the refuge, where Linda can have daily contact.
Prostitutes who come to Linda usually bring nothing with them. They have earned lots of money in the past, but it has all been spent � on drugs, gambling and high living. 'We feed them. We clothe them. We give them a home for as long as they need one.' says Linda.
As I visited the refuge with Linda recently, it was clear that the girls relate well to her. Like so many of the girls who come to her, Linda had a Christian upbringing. And like 85% of the girls she deals with, she was sexually abused in childhood. Linda says 'The experience of abuse teaches girls to 'dissociate' - they can mentally be somewhere quite different to where they are physically. To survive as a prostitute servicing up to 12 men per shift, 6 days a week, you have to dissociate, or you would go insane. But even then, most turn to drugs to dull the emotional pain.'
While God has graciously blessed Linda's ministry, and many girls are deeply appreciative of the help they have received (see separate article), there are also others who want to silence Linda. While helping those caught up in the sex industry, she also has a bigger picture perspective: She wants to make a difference by influencing our legislators.
Linda has been quite outspoken about the damaging effects of prostitution on the women and the men who use them. She has spoken to the South Australian MPs. She has addressed public meetings opposing protitution as far away as Toowoomba.
Those seeking to legalise the prostitution industry in WA see her as a major threat to that goal.
Linda has had many abusive phone calls, and numerous death threats. Rough looking men have come to her door and warned her to stop her rescue ministry. Since Oct 2001, there have been five attacks on Linda�s House of Hope. These have ranged from attempts to break in, tampering with the alarm system, to a fire being set and a fire bombing of the refuge.
The years in the sex industry have taken their toll on Linda's health. The stress of a hectic pace in her ministry, coupled with the need to be vigilant at all times, continue to take their toll. She has just needed to take a lengthy holiday. Linda still struggles to feel really at home in a church. Many churches have asked her to 'move on' because some families don't want their children exposed to ex prostitutes.
As a church community, we are trying to support Linda pastorally, and have welcomed her to worship with us. Our deacons have provided financial support. One of our ladies has made contact with girls Linda is supporting. The girls need 'ordinary' people to befriend them.
I pray for Linda regularly. And I pray that her ministry might be multiplied in other parts of our nation.
We asked Linda what our readers could do to help:
- Pray for safety for Linda, her family, and those working with her.
- Pray for her health
- Become a regular contributor to her ministry (Donations are tax deductible and can be posted to PO Box Z5640, Perth 6831)
- If you live in Perth, donate clothing, food, household goods, Christian literature
- Send $10 to $20 food vouchers for Coles /Woolworths
----------------------
I met Lara at the refuge. If you sat next to this attractive looking young lady in church, you would never guess what she has been through. I asked her what it meant to her to have been able to come to Linda's House of Hope. This is what she wrote:
My name is Lara. I was a prostitute for over 6 months. It was my darkest hour. My life was in a whirlwind of confusion. I was earning more money that I could ever imagine and drowning my soul in doubt and hatred. This was the irony that faced my downward spiralling future if I had stayed on the game of prostitution. Until I came across a wonderful lady by the name of Linda Watson, who specialises in directly dealing with women who are trying to get off the game.
The help I received from Linda and her staff, has been truly unconditional. My hope for life, love and happiness has been returned to my soul, and most importantly, my faith in God has been restored. I have a wonderful house to live in and a place, where I can collect my thoughts and find my passion for something that brings me back to life. My heart is healing slowly from the abuse and torment I have suffered in such a falsified industry. I would like to encourage anyone out there, who feels they can contribute to Linda's House of Hope and to the rehabilitation of women, who have been led into this addictive, self destructive and abusive work.
Awareness is the key to make society as a whole recognise and understand that being a prostitute will not only kill you physically, but mentally torment you for the rest of your life. It is the money that entices and preys on innocent hearts that crave real love and intimacy.
Lara
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