‘I needed my job because I felt very alone’: Sandra Sully recalls gunpoint assault

It was her ‘most vulnerable’ moment. Now, Sandra Sully has opened up about the lasting impact of a violent assault at gunpoint nearly three decades ago.

Stellar: You’re celebrating 35 years with 10 News, which is remarkable. There’s a time-capsule component when a big part of your life has been visually documented, isn’t there?

Sandra Sully: Exactly. I see many of those images and think, what was I thinking? Did I really think that looked good? I remember I was called in [to meet] the station offices’ executive team, and they were trying to work out – these three elderly men – how they could make me look older. One of them, who was head of finance at the time, said “Hmm, a French roll would be very elegant. Why don’t you try that?”

Stellar: Did you? I don’t think so. I remember thinking, what would you know?

Sandra Sully: Is there still something that kicks in when you’re about to go to air? A hit of adrenaline … or nerves? Not so much nerves anymore, but a conscious realisation that this is live television and there is no safety net.

We’ve had a running gag for 25-plus years – occasionally I’ll say, “Chookas, break a leg” or squeal, “I’m not ready!”

Not that you want to read that first story smiling and giggling, but you’ve got to get your energy levels up. There’s a performance element to what we do – you need to be very switched on and focused.

Listen to the full interview with Sandra Sully on Something To Talk About:

Picture: Daniel Nadel for Stellar

Listen to the full interview with Sandra Sully on Something To Talk About:

Stellar: In 2017, you spoke to Stellar, 20 years on from an assault when you’d come home from doing the late news and were knocked to the ground by a masked assailant who held a gun to your head and pulled the trigger twice. The gun didn’t go off. And you said you were screaming so loud that it may have saved you, because he suddenly stopped and fled.

Sandra Sully: It did save me. I really believe that. I had a dream as a young woman about a really frightening experience: that I would be trying to scream and nothing would come out. At the time, I remember screaming and I was shocked that it was coming out.

I found out within a day or two that the people next door had called the police because I didn’t stop screaming despite him pistol whipping me.

He ran off. That was the only thing that saved me. I was lucky. Because he had a gun, balaclava and handcuffs. So he meant business.

Picture: Daniel Nadel for Stellar

You went back to work following the attack. We didn’t understand trauma at that time, even in 1997, as we do now. Do you think you gave yourself enough time to process it?

I needed to get back to work. I think I had a couple of weeks off, three or four. Because I was doing night shifts, I couldn’t be home alone. I had a security detail for 10 years every night when I got home and that gave me real comfort.

My marriage broke down not long after all of that, which was life’s sh*t sandwich, which happens sometimes, [but] you’ve just got to work it out.

I needed my job because I felt very alone and very vulnerable, and it was the one steady thing in my life that I could rely on – as much as you can rely on being a journalist at a TV network [laughs].

‘[Work] got me through when I was my most vulnerable!’ Sandra Sully has recalled the aftermath of being assaulted at gunpoint in 1997. Picture: Ten

Listen to the full interview with Sandra Sully on Something To Talk About:

But you could, because you’re here 35 years later.

Yes, but I didn’t know that at the time. I knew I had to just work really hard and turn up. But it got me through it. It got me through when I was my most vulnerable.

Watch Sandra Sully on 10 News First Sydney weekdays from 5pm on Network 10 and 10 Play.

Listen to her on Something To Talk About here – or wherever you get your podcasts.

See her full shoot in Stellar today, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).

Originally published as ‘I needed my job because I felt very alone’: Sandra Sully recalls gunpoint assault