Web diary

This morning we went to visit Charlene. Charlene is a very rare human being. She is completely passionate about helping people especially women who have been abused and raped. She is dynamic and funny and very, very smart. After about an hour of talking she offered for us to attend and film one of her survivor’s lunches. She said she has never allowed these events to be filmed before, but felt that because of my situation and the fact that my mother had been attacked, she would be able to make an exception. The next lunch is on Saturday 12 October, and we are invited!!! We will take the camera and she will talk to the people who will be present.

The second surprise came following a series of phone calls she made regarding the case. She spoke to Andre Neethling, head of the Jo’burg Sexual Offices Unit. He said he will track down the case file and will meet with us this week. She also rang a friend called Dave (van Heerden –we got his surname from Charlene’s book) who is an ex-cop and helped her with tracking down the man who raped her. He is now a private investigator. She asked him if he knew Jan Van der Mescht, the investigating officer of Laura’s case back in ’98. He knew him immediately. Dave said he would track down the file and make some enquiries, discreetly. Within half an hour he had rung back with some quite astonishing news. He said the file was missing from Norwood Police station (which we knew) but that it could be reconstructed, and that Van der Mescht was willing to take part in the reconstruction of the file. Dave had spoken to him – today – and he said he remembered the case well and that the suspect had been overseas when he was investigating the case and that’s why the case was dropped. Anyhow, I am so glad that he still remembers the case and is willing to participate in the reconstruction of the file. This is a major break through. Having Charlene as an ally on this case will clearly cut though the red tape and save us days if not weeks of tracking people down.

Charlene is willing to be in the film but doesn’t see that she is a major character.

After lunch we had our first production meeting with our crew (Tony and Mashodane) and mapped out a rough schedule for the next two weeks.