"The day that changed my life forever is as fresh in my mind as if it were only yesterday. I can remember every single, stark detail of Tuesday, 2 September 1986."
So begins the shocking story of Kirstyn Austin who, as a young school girl, was brutally attacked and left for dead by notorious career criminal Fred Many. At the time of the attack Many was out on parole, seven years short of a twenty-two year sentence for armed robbery and other crimes.
What follows is a tale of breathtaking injustice. Austin's remarkable composure and bravery led to her attacker's conviction and a twenty-year jail sentence, yet Many remained not only unrepentant but vengeful. From his jail cell, he put out a contract on his young victim's life and that of her mother, a crime for which he was never charged.
Much of this book was written from the inside the top secret Witness Protection Program where for the next eleven years Austin and her mother lived in hiding, every link to their former lives completely obliterated.
From the time Many went back into jail he began to manipulate his way towards an early release by becoming an informer for the very people who were protecting Austin and her mother. His cunning paid off, and the public outcry which surrounded his early release was thought by many to have contributed to the downfall of the then NSW Liberal state Government.
Eventually Austin's fear was overcome by her anger and an overwhelming desire to reclaim her life and expose the injustices she had suffered. Here she tells the whole story of how two innocent people leading average suburban lives became entangled with death threats, corrupt cops, prison informers, drugs, bribes and some of the most notorious criminals in the country.
It is a story that defies belief.
