Footage of Schapelle Corby on plane home0:30
Footage of Schapelle Corby on plane home. CREDIT: TODAY/Channel 9
Schapelle Corby: Unanswered questions about her return to Australia
- How Schapelle was caught out
- The shocking parts of Schapelle’s trial
- Why Schapelle Corby was spared death
- The decision Schapelle couldn’t handle
- ‘The truth will come out’
- Schapelle’s extraordinary life on parole
SCHAPELLE Corby’s return to Australia has raised more questions than answers about her whereabouts, if she will do a media interview and her future.
Her “bodyguard to the stars” John McLeod, who counts the Dalai Lama, Lady Gaga and Roger Federer among his clients, has been tasked with protecting her from the media.
These are the questions that need answering:
WHAT’S HER CONNECTION TO THIS MISSING CHILD?
Schapelle has just posted after picture of a missing child. First it was William Tyrrell, now it’s Hayley Dodd.
In a photo on Instagram she wrote: “This is Haley Dodd who has been missing since 1999. Haley was just 17 years old. Please check out her Mothers IG @forevertaken1999
There are so many missing children in Australia, more awareness needs to be raised. #missingchildrenawareness #haleydobb #DanielsLaw”
Her interest in this case or connection to it is unclear.
WHO IS THIS MAN NEXT TO SCHAPELLE?
This man was standing next to Schapelle when she revealed they were all holed up in a secret room watching the wild car chase unfold from Brisbane Airport on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program.
While the photo’s picture caption mentions McLeod, their bodyguard, and a man named “Tom” who organised their cars to carry out the wild goose chase, it’s unclear who this man is and what his role in the operation is.
WHERE WAS SHE WHEN VIDEO WAS POSTED?
The Corby sisters shared the same video on Instagram mocking the media coverage of her sneaky arrival back in Australia.
The convicted drug smuggler on Monday posted footage from Channel 7’s Sunrise which claimed to show the convoy Corby was travelling in from Brisbane Airport.
In the video, Corby and her entourage were watching the coverage on a hotel or motel TV. If the TV coverage was live, it would mean Corby was not in the motorcade as it was being pursued by media.
The video panned to Schapelle, looking coy and with her arms crossed, as her sister Mercedes said: “There’s the convoy. ’Pelle’s being chased by helicopter. In that car, but there we are.”
Corby managed to avoid the media throng as she swapped her flight at the last minute and left the airport via an underground exit.
HOW MUCH IS HER BODYGUARD BEING PAID?
John McLeod, the director of the Australian-based personal protection company Tora Solutions, has worked with musicians, sports stars and leaders.
He was with her when she left her Kuta villa and came back to Australia. He is a former Queensland police officer. Also on Schapelle’s team is Eleanor Whitman. She addressed the media when she landed in Brisbane. She is an ex-army officer and works for McLeod’s security firm.
It’s unclear how much he is being paid and for how long he will remain with the Corby family.
WHO PAID FOR THE INDONESIAN POLICE CONVOY?
On the day of her deportation, Bali’s Governor Made Mangku Pastika and local parliament members instructed officials not to give Corby any special treatment.
But the extra measures they took to get her out suggested the opposite.
More than 100 police were involved, four police cars lead and shadowed her convoy from home to the parole office to the airport, dramatic rehearsals were held earlier in the day.
He said the overwhelming response by authorities for Corby was at the behest of the Australian Government in Bali.
Governor Pastika also said that her safety must be protected at all times during her departure from Bali. An extra 30 personnel were also called in to work at the Parole Office in Denpasar where there are usually two people working on a weekend.
As to who may have footed the entire bill for the high-level operation is unknown.
Large police entourage escort Corby to parole office0:13
Schapelle Corby is escorted to the parole office as she makes her way back to Australia. Video: Cindy Wockner
WHO PAID FOR HER TRIP HOME?
Corby had business class seats booked on Virgin Australia and Malindo Air to Brisbane. These don’t come cheap. On Virgin Australia, they are around $1500 each and on Malindo they are around $650. She had a boarding pass issued with Virgin and she had provided it to authorities.
But at the last minute she told them she was on a Malindo Air flight to Brisbane instead.
The Malindo flight left 10 minutes ahead of the Virgin flight and boarded at the next gate. Meanwhile more than 40 members of the Australian media were booked on the Virgin flight, hoping to accompany Corby home. While she missed the bulk of the media, we wonder who paid for these flights and was able to get the airline to ban passengers from taking photos of her.
Schapelle Corby makes way to Bali airport0:10
Schapelle Corby is escorted by Bali police as she makes her way to Bali airport for her flight back to Australia. Video: Cindy Wockner
HOW DID THEY GET VIP PLANE TREATMENT?
Fellow business class passenger Garbrielle Amies said Corby, her sister and bodyguard John McLeod were driven to the plane in a private bus and boarded before anyone else.
“Until she got on the aircraft they wouldn’t let other people on,” Ms Amies said.
“She was laughing, she was having a great time.”
Ms Amies said everyone was blocked from getting off the plane so Corby could leave first, with crew telling them a “special guest had to be cleared”.
Fellow travellers were also told not to take photos of Corby. Her last-minute plane switch also delayed passengers on the flights.
WHERE DID SHE GO AFTER SHE LANDED?
The Corby family had media chasing them all over the place once they got to Australia.
When Mercedes and Schapelle arrived into Brisbane, a convoy of vans believed to be carrying them quickly left the airport and split up to take different routes, with one group pulling into Brisbane’s Sofitel hotel and another stopping at KFC at Ormeau, en route to the Gold Coast.
We have seen no evidence of her at either locations. Or her mother’s home either in Longlea.
Her mother, Rosleigh Rose says she doesn’t know where her convicted drug smuggler daughter is. When the family matriarch returned to her Loganlea home, south of Brisbane, from a trip to Beenleigh Shopping Centre, she told waiting media the 39-year-old was actually in Cairns. “Didn’t you know? She caught a flight yesterday to Cairns,” Ms Rose said.
WHO PAID FOR HER CONVOY?
The 39-year-old and her sister Mercedes were escorted from the plane and into a waiting convoy comprising nine black vans, who then led a string of media on a wild-goose chase through southeast Queensland. It’s unclear who paid for all the fuss.
IS THERE A MEDIA DEAL?
No media outlet has come forward to claim they have the first exclusive tell-all with Schapelle yet. One television executive told The Australian, speaking on condition of anonymity: “You don’t technically buy the interview, you buy the circus around the interview.”
The executive said the speculation was that the Corby family wanted security for the first couple of weeks after her return to Australia, “So they bartered it by giving access to a security firm,’’ the source said.
“The firm films it either on their own or using a production company and then a network buys that material off them.
“You buy the production and vision of how she got out of Bali. A figure of $250,000 has been touted. And you get the interview with Schapelle as well.’’
For now, we know the Mercedes and Schapelle have celebrated her return with expensive Veuve Clicquot Champagne. Her aunt Gen also came to her mother’s house with a bottle of Vodka.
WHAT’S THE WILLIAM TYRRELL CONNECTION?
Schapelle first emerged from her villa in Kuta with a scarf around her head, dark sunglasses on her eyes and she was carrying a handbag with a picture of missing Australian boy William Tyrrell. He disappeared at the age of three from Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast in 2014.
But him did she choose his photo? The connection between her and the missing boy is also unclear.
WHERE DID THE BIZARRE INSTAGRAM PICTURE COME FROM?
Schapelle posted a picture of a painting on her new Instagram account today, where she is depicted riding a mythical rainbow-coloured creature.
The artist is unknown, and it’s unclear if she painted the image herself at some stage.
IS SHE REALLY PREGNANT?
According to Woman’s Day today, sources have claimed they ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if Schapelle fell pregnant before she left Bali and is said to be devastated over being forced to leave her boyfriend Ben Panangian behind.
“Schapelle is very much in love with her Balinese boyfriend Ben. She wanted to remain with him in Bali,” a source told Woman’s Day.
There is no truth to these rumours, certainly no confirmation from anyone in the Corby family. While in Kerobokan jail, she was rumoured to have boyfriends and had to face pregnancy rumours. None of it was true, but she was forced to take a pregnancy test. She took the test after getting sick of the rumours. The test was negative.
WHERE WILL SHE LIVE AND WORK?
For now, her future is uncertain. While still in hiding, she does not appear to have a fixed address she will move into permanently. She also does not seem to have any work lined up.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO HER DOGS?
Schapelle has already indicated she will miss her dogs Luna and May. But will her boyfriend keep them, or will they be sent to Australia as well one day?
Originally published as Schapelle’s new mystery Instagram post