characters > cathy henkel

Cathy Henkel’s story

"Making the film has helped me learn about the healing process."

• Before the film
• The genesis of the film
• Cathy returns to South Africa in 2001
• Cathy returns to Australia with bad news for Laura
• Second South African trip - 2002
• Cathy confronts the suspect
• Cathy helps Cecily and Michael understand how their reactions hurt Laura

Before the film

Cathy Henkel is the younger of two children. She grew up in South Africa and, after a career in the theatre, followed in her father’s footsteps and became a filmmaker. She moved to Australia in the early 70s, where she later met her partner in life and love, Jeff Canin, who also spent a large part of his childhood in South Africa. Together they have a daughter, Sam Lara.

Cathy’s filmmaking career was in its early days when she got a call from her mother’s neighbour, Cecily, telling her that her mother had been viciously attacked and sexually assaulted in her home in Johannesburg.

"It was Christmas Eve and she told me that something terrible had happened. My mother was in hospital. I completely underestimated the extent of the trauma, and it took me a couple of months to put my life on hold and my stuff in storage and get over to Johannesburg, not knowing how long I’d be there."

When Cathy arrived in Johannesburg in early 1989, Laura was out of hospital, the iron cage (for her jaw reconstruction) had been removed, and she was putting on a brave face.

"Not long after my arrival, she let me film her doing a tour of the house," said Cathy. "We were sizing each other up, not knowing how to deal with the situation. She wanted to appear as if she was coping, but the camera became a grim voyeur."

Her mother soon fell to pieces. Cathy spent seven months in Johannesburg, trying to support Laura through her rage and depression, several face operations and suicide threats, while trying to organise Laura's move to Australia.

Eventually Laura agreed to move to Australia, her emigration was approved, and Cathy sold the house, packed her belongings and made arrangements for the trip. Laura said goodbye to the world she had come to completely mistrust.

The genesis of the film

In 1989, Cathy shot some footage after Laura’s attack, but the idea of making a film did not crystallise until 12 years later, when Cathy realised the power of documentary in using the personal and particular to illuminate wider, universal issues that affect us all.

It was actually another documentary film that helped the idea take shape. In November 2000, after her involvement in the highly successful and critically acclaimed documentary, LOSING LAYLA, Cathy began actively developing THE MAN WHO STOLE MY MOTHER’S FACE.

"The statistics for sexual assault in Australia are unacceptably high, and yet they represent only a portion of actual occurrences. One reason why this crime remains so hidden is the extremely small percentage of successful prosecutions in these cases, as well as the feelings of guilt and shame associated with this type of crime. Many women fear they will be blamed, or not believed, when they report this crime and if they do, they will undergo a traumatic experience in the justice system with little chance of success. So sexual assault remains the most hidden and fastest growing crime worldwide. I hope in this film to expose this situation through my mother's case and to suggest some reasons why this is occurring. I hope that the answers will resonate beyond the South African example and shed light on this complex problem for people around the world."

Seeing her mother shut herself away for all those years, she felt as though she’d lost her, and nothing she could do would bring her back. Finally, in desperation, Cathy proposed going back to Johannesburg to try and get the case re-opened.

"It was becoming clear that without some form of justice, she would never get over it," said Cathy.

Laura thought it was futile at first, but later agreed it was worth a try.

Cathy returns to South Africa in 2001

When Cathy returned to South Africa in 2001, she was reminded of the atmosphere of fear that pervaded her growing up and which she re-encountered after her mother’s attack in 1989. On this trip, she couldn't see beyond the barbed wire and security gates.

"I hadn’t been back since I’d taken Laura away after the attack, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. My attitude coloured everything. All I could see was a city living behind razor wire and locked doors. To me it was a 'City of Fear'. Even my mother’s house in Hope Road had become just a brick wall."

Cathy’s first stop was to see Cecily, Laura’s former neighbour and close friend.

Next, she visited Norwood police station, which handled her mother’s case back in 1989.

Superintendent John Miles was now in charge, and he advised Cathy that Laura’s docket (evidence file) was missing. He speculated about the reason: "The file was, according to the investigating officer, submitted to the public prosecutor who declined to prosecute. And it’s been destroyed."

However, this later proved to be incorrect. The docket had actually mysteriously "disappeared".

The previous investigating officer, Jan van der Mescht, had since retired from the police force but John Miles contacted him on Cathy’s behalf.

She wasn’t allowed to film the conversation, but Van der Mescht told Miles that he did remember interviewing an accused and taking the case to the public prosecutor for a decision.

Cathy believed the information from Van der Mescht was a great break through, and asked John Miles to set up a meeting for her. But when Van der Mescht heard that she was back in town, and making a film about the case, things changed.

"He didn’t turn up for our arranged meeting and he evaded me for five days. Finally, van der Mescht told me by phone that he was going on an extended hunting trip and didn’t know when he’d be back.

"My time in Johannesburg was running out, and it was clear that I was not going to be able to meet him. I wanted to scream with frustration. It was at this point that I realised that, without his cooperation and the original case docket, getting justice was going to be very difficult."

And then, just days before Cathy was due to leave Johannesburg, she met Charlene Smith, a high-profile journalist, who was raped in 1999 and made her story front-page news.

"Her message for Laura was to be a turning point for me."

Charlene told Cathy that if she wanted justice, she was going to have to fight for it, and the fight could be very traumatic.

Cathy returns to Australia with bad news for Laura

When Cathy arrived back in Australia, she felt like she’d achieved very little on her trip to South Africa. But Charlene’s message - along with Laura's buoyancy at being believed and listened to for the first time - encouraged Cathy to keep going.

"Encouraged by Laura’s tentative steps and with Charlene Smith’s words about the need to fight for justice, still echoing in my head, I went back."

Second South African trip - 2002

"On this second trip, I was feeling more optimistic. I made the decision to try to find something positive from what had happened to Laura, and to look at the country through new eyes."

When she arrived and prepared to travel beyond Johannesburg’s more affluent suburbs, Cathy’s brother Michael warned her about the dangers.

"Michael’s warnings made me realise that I was unprepared for the potential dangers of this city, and that I should take some precautions."

Cathy hired a personal bodyguard and driver, Moshodane, who becomes her constant companion and friend.

Armed with a firearm, Moshodone took Cathy to places she would otherwise never have visited. One such trip was a night out on police rounds, when Cathy learnt from first-hand experience how dangerous police work is in Johannesburg.

"I found [police officers] Arnold and Ferdi’s world very stressful. It reminded me too much of the bad old days of the apartheid era, even though they were now looking for rapists, not political activists. But they wanted me to see the battle ground they worked in."

Police officer Arnold Boonstra also arranged for Cathy to meet the elderly volunteer police reservist, Myra Carel, who’d worked on Laura’s case back in 1989.

Finally, the police managed to set up a meeting with Jan van der Mescht, who had evaded Cathy on her previous visit. Van der Mescht also agreed that Cathy can film the meeting, as long as she just rested the camera on her knee.

Unfortunately, Van der Mescht denied everything he told Superintendent John Miles over the telephone one year earlier.

"My frustration at this point hit a high note, but I didn’t get much support from Arnold. He wasn’t interested in uncovering whether an ex-police officer was lying or not. He just wanted to track down some hard evidence."

But, several weeks later, Arnold still couldn’t find the fingerprints, and Laura’s case had stalled.

"I realised that if I wanted things to move faster, I would have to take action myself. I found a private investigator who agreed to help me, for a fee."

The private investigation company was very quick to deliver results. They tracked down the suspect’s home and workplace.

"It seemed to me now that my best option was to bite the bullet and confront the man my mother had identified with a hidden camera and find out what he had to say."

First, Cathy visited a lawyer to reassure herself that confronting the suspect was both legal and ethical.

The lawyer advised Cathy that, should she want to use the video of the confrontation as possible evidence, she should not reveal her intentions to the police beforehand.

Soon after, Arnold telephoned her to advise that he was going to interview the suspect within a couple of days.

"[Up until then] fear and anxiety were holding me back from doing what I knew I had to do: confront the man my mother had identified. It was now or never."

Cathy confronts the suspect

"That morning I awoke with a sick feeling in my stomach. But I had come this far, and this time I had to see it through. I still didn’t know if I’d be in any danger, and there was that awful, nagging doubt: what if it was the wrong guy?"

Confronted, he denied the assault and that he ever known or met Cathy’s mother. Visibly shaken, he told Cathy that he had to call his father and invited her to follow him into his office. He even hands over the phone to Cathy so she could speak to his father. The father was angry and abusive and Cathy left with the man still denying that he had committed the crime.

After Cathy showed Laura the footage in which she confronted the attacker and spoke to his father, Laura said, "His father has gone ballistic. I can well imagine it. Because his father probably thought, 'My god, thank god - you know I got away with it'. And he’s been - and now to be suddenly confronted with this - he’s - sure, he would go ballistic. I can well imagine."

Cathy said the confrontation left her shaken and confused. Afterwards, she realised how naïve she’d been to hope that he would confess. And yet she was partially satisfied because the way he reacted just didn’t make any sense.

"He didn’t ask even the most basic questions, other than 'How did you find me?' and 'What was I wearing?'. And why did he immediately go and ring his father?"

Cathy urgently needed to de-brief, so she consulted a psychiatrist, who told her, "I’d say that even getting to speak to his family, getting to speak to him, has done a lot to frighten him very badly - maybe even more than coming in front of the police. I think that you’ve got a lot of justice by going there. A lot of justice done, because you’ve terrified him. He’s not going to be able to live with himself. He knows that somebody knows who he is. He knows that you know. He knows that this is going - you’re going back to Australia and people know. He’s not going to be able to live with himself as easily as maybe he’s lived with himself, which he probably hasn’t managed easily."

When Cathy told the police what she’s done, they didn’t object. To the contrary, they took a copy of the video of the confrontation as part of the evidence.

The suspect responded by hiring a lawyer, and refused further contact with Cathy.

By this time, Christmas was fast approaching, and Cathy needed to go home to Australia. But there were still some things she wanted to resolve, so she returned Hope Road.

Cathy helps Cecily and Michael understand how their reactions hurt Laura

When Cathy explained how Cecily’s comments had hurt Laura, Cecily apologised and admited that she’d dismissed Laura’s identification of the suspect as wrong, because she knew the boy.

Cathy also filmed parts of a lengthy, three-hour argument with Michael. It was a pivotal moment when Michael realised how his words had hurt Laura, and he also apologised.

For Cathy, Michael’s journey and empathy was the most wonderful surprise of all. Just before her departure, Cathy introduced Michael to the police and was grateful that her brother now supported her fight.

Find out more...

 Mini-doc transcript - Cathy's story