News Corp journalist Cindy Wockner recalls the day Schapelle Corby was arrested

OPINION: This is the moment News Corp journalist Cindy Wockner discovered Schapelle Corby had been arrested in Bali. It was an unforgettable phone call.

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THE day that Schapelle Corby was arrested at Bali airport my local fixer Komang called me from Bali. I was in Jakarta.

The conversation went something like this:

Fixer — An Australian woman has been arrested in Bali, her name is Scapel.

Me — What is her name again?

Fixer — Scapel, skapelle, shapellie, sarpel something.

Me — Are you sure, can you spell it for me.

Me — So what, she was arrested for bringing drugs to Australia? How much?

Fixer — No, no, she was coming to Bali from Australia. It’s 4.2kg.

Me — What kind of drugs?

Fixer — Marijuana.

Me — Hang on a minute, go back a step. Her name is Schapelle and she was caught bringing marijuana from Brisbane to Bali? Are you sure? That can’t possibly be right. Are you having a joke with me?

News Corp journalist Cindy Wockner, right, during the Schapelle Corby court case in Bali. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

Fixer — Yes, it’s all true. There’s a press statement with her name printed on it and all the details. And there’s photos of the marijuana. It’s a big bag of it. She’s at the police station now.

So I caught a flight from Jakarta to Bali, still pondering if any of this was right.

Someone bringing marijuana into Bali, a tourist haven where you can buy the local “ganga” as it’s called, on any street corner, for a comparative pittance.

Now, 12 years and eight months later, this soap opera like chapter of the Schapelle story draws to a close and a new chapter will open on May 28 when her flight touches down at Brisbane airport in the pre-dawn darkness.

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Schapelle Corby in front of her cell in the women's block of Kerobokan Jail in Bali. Picture: Lukman S. Bintoro

The correct pronunciation of Schapelle is now a household word. In the Indonesian press she has long been known as the “Ganga Queen”, the beautiful Australian woman with the piercing eyes.

Over the years the story has had so many twists and turns, so many weird and wonderful characters, it was hard to keep track from one day to the next.

Like this conversation.

Fixer — Schapelle’s new lawyer is called Hotman.

Me — What is he called again? Hot Man?

Schapelle Corby is accompanied by her translator Eka Sulistiowati. Picture: Getty

Fixer — Hotman Paris Hutapea. He’s famous here.

Just what we needed. Another character to add to the cast. Thousands of words were written about the celebrity Jakarta lawyer who played the hero rescuing the damsel in distress. It didn’t hurt that he was famous for many things, among them his enormous diamonds, the guns he wore on his hip and ankle, his Humvee, his glamorous model clients and his penchant for talking openly about his indiscretions.

Now, as the press camps out near her Kuta home while Corby remains holed up inside, the almost 40-year- old is pondering her return to a home and lifestyle she will barely know.

And times have changed. Once, during the height of her trial and then her conviction and 20-year sentence, up to 90 per cent of Australians polled were on her side. They thought she was innocent. And they had nought but contempt for the Indonesian system which had condemned her to Kerobokan prison. After all, as one commentator famously said, the Judges didn’t even speak English, like monkeys in the trees. They didn’t to speak English but they could all speak at least two to three languages.

Schapelle Corby in pictures

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But now more people than not think she was probably guilty all along but that she’s done her time.

How times have changed.

All these years later there’s one question that I still get asked on a regular basis: Did she do it?

Many of the Indonesians involved in the case over the years said this to me when I recently revisited them: “Only God and her know the truth.”