A LOYAL WIFE WHO BECAME A VICTIM

"Julie" is a passionate, articulate and fiercely independent woman. That is
why she cannot understand how the criminal justice system has reduced her to
a nobody, now dependent on her husband to survive.

Her husband was a secret police witness, who spent three years gathering
evidence on one of the biggest drug rings in Australia. He was so secretive,
in fact, that he didn't tell her he was risking his life and the family's
security.

Now Julie is on the run. She has lost her job, home, country and peace of
mind and she believes she will never get them back.

Her husband is E2/92, the man who infiltrated the amphetamines network of
John William Samuel Higgs. He was told he would never have to testify - and
then they changed the rules.

Her husband had infiltrated the Higgs syndicate as part of a long-term
police investigation codenamed Operation Phalanx. It was to last eight
years, result in 600 intelligence reports, 16 separate taskforces, the
arrest of 135 people and the destruction of the country's most sophisticated
drug syndicate.

When police finally moved on Higgs they seized $371,000 in cash, $415,000 in
counterfeit US currency, farms, cars, guns and eight tonnes of chemicals
capable of producing amphetamines then valued at more than $200 million -
and now worth $400 million.

But the arrests left E2/92 hopelessly exposed so he, and his family, had to
join the witness-protection scheme and move overseas.

Julie was perfectly happy with her life in Melbourne until it was stolen
from her and what galls her is that she didn't see it coming.

IT BEGAN in 1993 when Julie noticed her husband was beginning to associate
with some rough-looking characters. She had returned to study, was
developing her own social circle and felt her husband was entitled to his.

Life was good. She had just bought a cottage in a countrified area of
Melbourne and had just planted a rose garden. After having lived in many
countries, had several jobs and endured a financial roller-coaster with her
charismatic, and at times erratic husband, she finally had what she wanted -
security.

This was to be her time. She was in her early forties, her two sons were
teenagers. Sure, she found it difficult to be civil to some of her husband's
new friends, but they were not intrusive and a couple had a touch of rough
charm about them.

When she queried him about the group - "we had terrible rows" - he would
snap that she had some objectionable friends that he had to tolerate. "There
was some truth in that."

He said it was all part of his business and he was selling these men
second-hand cars and making a good living from it.

She said she wasn't going to try to pick her husband's friends. "Just
because you are married to a guy doesn't mean you have the right to try and
change someone into what you want them to be."

Julie returned to study and embraced university life with gusto. Still
deeply in love with her husband, she started to explore her intellect and
broaden her horizons. She had met him when she was 18 and living in Adelaide
and watched him develop a business pattern of financial boom-bust.

"He is actually a brilliant businessman, a fantastic negotiator and has a
gift for putting deals together. He would set up a business until it ran
well, become bored and then take to all-night card games. He would neglect
the business, go back to selling cars and then move back into management."

She wanted financial stability so she bought her own house, a cottage in
outer Melbourne where she planted a new garden. "I would tell him, `I can
imagine myself as a 90-year-old here'."

She feared she was uncomfortable with her husband's friends because she was
a snob. But she didn't know her reservations were well based. The group
included drug dealers, bikies and a convicted murderer.

Even though she was worried about her husband's new friends, she found Higgs
to be polite, and at times charming. "Even now I can't say I dislike him."

But she remains frightened of one of Higgs' heavies. "He was an animal, I
don't think he had any boundaries. He was capable of anything."

One day in early 1996 she was driving with her husband when he started to
talk about moving to England to start a new business career. Julie was
horrified. She had lived overseas for years and really wanted to stay in
Melbourne. "I was having a great time and was more settled than at any other
time in my life."

But she began to think that she was being selfish. "He was working six days
a week until 10 at night. I started to think about where we were going. I
didn't say anything to him and I hoped it would all go away. It didn't, of
course."

He had planted the seed. A few weeks later he mentioned that he had been
doing some work for the police. "I thought he must have been selling them
cars."

He drip-fed his wife information over a few weeks, culminating in the
admission he had been working on Higgs and the family might have to move.
Typically, the salesman sold the move as an opportunity, saying police would
help set them up with enough money to establish a new business.

They met Sharon Stone, then a senior detective in the drug squad, in a
Greensborough hotel. Julie was furious with her husband and hostile to the
police who had dragged her into a complex and dangerous investigation
without her knowledge.

"We wrote a list of what we wanted. Everything we said we wanted they wrote
down. Nothing would be too much trouble. I said I wouldn't go anywhere
without our dog and they said there would be no problems."

Julie was to find that despite her strong character, tertiary qualifications
and financial independence, she had been reduced to a chattel.

Her future would be decided by police she had not met because of actions her
husband had taken without her knowledge or approval. She was told the family
had to move. She was given no choice. She was told her husband might be
killed if they stayed.

She was also told the authorities would look after them and no expense would
be spared. Four years later, she says those promises were never kept.

She was now a dependent - subordinate to the wishes of her husband, and
facing virtual deportation from her own country.

"How could this happen? Do these people just get so caught up in what they
are doing, chasing criminals, that they just don't care? We have been
manipulated and I feel betrayed."

MORE than three years after entering the witness-protection scheme, she sits
in a bad bistro in an outer suburban 24-hour pokie venue and picks at a
chicken salad. Wordly and bright, she still has no understanding of how
police investigations work. She cannot grasp the reality that police can be
ruthless when chasing major criminals and sometimes innocent people get
hurt.

She cannot understand how her life plan has been ripped from her. To the
authorities she is not an individual; she is just someone's wife.

It was late last year when she slipped back to Australia to see some old
friends for a few weeks before Christmas.

Few of them know her story. They are envious that she is able to live
overseas."They think I am the luckiest person alive." They are hurt she does
not invite them to visit.

A friend breaks down and confides that her husband is having an affair.
Julie is unmoved: she can't help but think that if only her husband had
betrayed her with another woman, rather than jumping in bed with detectives,
her life would be much easier.

Julie says they have made new friends overseas. She knows that at times she
says things to punish her husband for what he has done. "They must think I
am some sort of spoilt bitch, but I can't tell them the truth of why we are
there. "I need to learn to manage my anger. I feel as though I can no longer
trust him. Every time he walks out the door I don't know what he will bring
back."