Deborah Richardson

I also a number of times would stand on the corner thinking, God, I hope no one I know drives past me because I was like, you know, I don't want them to think I'm doing something that I'm not really doing.

So it was a very strange scenario to be in as a very young woman.

I was.

I was.

And so I graduated from the streets of St Kilda very quickly into the massage parlours.

And very quickly after the massage parlours, I went into the escort agencies, which were really where the true crime was happening.

So I applied for all of the jobs.

I got every job that I applied for.

Then I would leave and then we would come back and affect the arrest.

Well, Sarah, I think, you know, I was wearing a wire.

So you've always got to be conscious of someone sitting in the car listening, thank goodness.

But you are conscious of that wire and you need to make sure that people aren't aware that you've got anything on you.

You know, I used to carry a little handbag with my little five-shot Smith & Wesson gun in it.

And, again, you would just have to be aware.

But I created a persona.

And I look back at that time and I had my own undercover story that I knew if I was asked enough questions that I could give sufficient answers.

And I played a role.

I had a situation, Sarah, where I came into work one day and how we would decide to target these places.

Sometimes we would literally look in the yellow pages or the truth newspaper in those days for people that were advertising.

And then I would normally just sit in the squad room and make a phone call and apply for a job.