A CONFESSSION IT AINT

As a person who has long believed that Schapelle Corby was guilty of trying to smuggle a boogie board of marijuana into Bali – even if her sentence was manifestly excessive – I could be expected to say today ‘I told you so’ after last night’s revelations by long-time former family friend Jodie Power.

After all, the promos and commercials for Today Tonight made it sound like the current affairs programme had nailed her. Exposed her for a litany of lies.

Not so. If you tuned in to the Seven Network you could easily have thought it was Schapelle’s sister Mercedes incarcerated in an Indonesian jail.

True, Power’s story made a mockery of the Corby family’s attempt to come across as The Brady Bunch who thought pot was something you found in the saucepan cupboard.

But a lot of that wasn’t new. Back in 2005 the Weekend Australian newspaper had a detailed expose about the Corby Clan under the headline: ‘Meet the Corbys. A dad with a drug record, a brother in jail, and a former bankrupt who wants 50% of the action’.

The story said that 5kg of cannabis was seized from a  property next to her father’s place just one month before Schapelle Corby’s arrest.

That doesn’t make him or his daughter guilty.

Jodie Power’s most damning allegation last night was that – as a frequent visitor to the Corby household she had seen a marijuana-filled vacuum sealed bag, identical to the one found in Schapelle’s bodyboard bag which led to her arrest and incarceration.

She also said she had seen an identical bag, like the one filled with Marijuana in Schapelle Corby’s possession at Denpassar Airport.

Power also claimed she had been sounded out by Mercedes Corby about a year earlier about taking drug to Indonesia and claimed Corby had told her she had smuggled a small amount of  compressed drugs internally.

Then there is the money angle. Jodie Power got paid for the interview.

She reportedly also started a fund to raise money for Schapelle Corby.

Corby’s book has already been a big-money bestseller. Supposedly the profits will go to her sister to avoid the profit-from-crime laws. Will any of it find it’s way to the convicted drug smuggler?

How much of her story in the book My Story is fiction. I mean how guilty is guilty.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2007