Crisis of Identity

Miles shifted his focus to the journalist. ‘What research did you undertake before running that article?’

Her hands fidgeted on the table. ‘Mostly internet archives from the period the young boy went missing.’

‘And what did these inquiries reveal?’

‘Mostly background about the case… I wasn’t aware of the case, so I needed to research it further.’

‘And what evidence did you find from your internet research that convinced you to run with Mr Dawes’ outrageous assertions about my clients?’

‘It wasn’t just one thing…there were a number of things that corroborated the information provided by Mr Dawes.’ The journalist lifted a digital recorder from the table. ‘I have the full interview recorded here… I can play it for you, if you like.’

Miles lifted a hand. ’We’ll get to the recording later. Right now, I want you to tell me about your research.’

She returned the recorder to the table. ’I asked Mr Dawes, based on his years of experience as a Detective, if he was of the opinion that his evidence would sustain vigorous challenges and cross examination in a court trial.

’He told me that it was a lock. Those were his words, not mine. He said it was so strong you could put your house on it…’

‘I hope for your sake, you didn’t take Mr Dawes’ advice…’

The journalist’s face tightened, but she ignored Miles’ apparent flippancy.

‘Wait… Can I ask something…?’ I interjected. Miles’ frowning glare shifted to me. I lifted a reassuring hand.

‘It’s OK… I just want to clarify something.’ Miles extended a hand towards the journalist and sat back in his chair.’

‘When I spoke to Dawes about the article you ran, he claimed you misquoted him… He said that you were taking notes and you obviously misreported what he said…’

I flicked a finger at the digital tape recorder on the table. ‘But you said you recorded the conversation with Dawes…’

She placed a hand on the tape recorder, as if drawing energy from it. ‘That’s Correct.’ She now spoke with confidence. ‘I recorded the conversation, but I also took notes as well…’

‘Was Mr Dawes aware you were recording the conversation?’ Miles asked.

She scoffed openly. Her narrowing glare flicked to Miles. ‘Of course he was… I asked and received his permission, before we commenced.’

‘Just to be clear…’ I said, continuing. ’I asked Dawes if he told you that he believes I am that missing kid and it was my parents who took me and brought me to WA. He said he told you he had his suspicions… But denied he said anything about his evidence being conclusive. He said what you wrote in that article was not his fault... you misquoted him.’

Her lips tightened. ‘That’s very interesting…’ the journalist said.

She lifted the recorder and pressed a series of buttons to fast forward through the recording, stopping at various points.

After briefly playing some audio, she continued to fast forward, a process she repeated until she found what she was searching for. She played an excerpt from her interview with Dawes.

While the audio played she sat back in her chair and tightly crossed her arms. Her face wore a smug ‘believe me now’ expression.

The recording was surprisingly crisp and clear. That was unmistakably the voice of Dawes on the recording.

Just as the journalist earlier told us, in the recording she clearly asked Dawes if he was of the opinion his evidence would sustain vigorous challenges and cross examination in a court trial.

In a typical Dawes reply he said, “It is a lock… This case is so strong you can put your house on it…”

I was stunned, but not surprised. Dawes lied to me. The recording clearly proves the journalist accurately quoted him. It doesn’t justify what she published, but it does prove Dawes was equally responsible.

When an extended silence ensued from my lack of any further response, Miles continued. ‘Apart from your internet inquiries, Ms Gould, did you make any other inquiries about my client, Mr Miller?’

‘No.’ Her arms remained tightly crossed, as if waiting for an apology for doubting her.

‘No?’ Miles said in feigned surprise. ‘For a journalist, I find that astounding.’ He lifted my birth certificate from his briefcase and slid it across the table.

’If you had made, what I would suggest were the most basic of journalistic verification inquiries, you would have found that document.’

The journalist slowly unfolded her arms and lifted the document. She perused it in silence. Her boss leaned in from the side.

‘What you are holding is a birth certificate—A government record, the contents of which can easily be verified… You will note that it records that my client, Mr Kade Ross Miller was born in Karratha, Western Australia on 16 January 1991 to parents, Vicky Gayle Miller and Ross Murray Miller.’

The Journalist didn’t lift her eyes from the record. Her boss however rolled his eyes as he slumped back in his chair. He ran a hand across his balding head. Miles continued. ‘If you had that record, would you still have opted to run your article…?’ Miles’ question was clearly rhetorical.

Her eyes remained fixed on the birth certificate whilst the Managing Editor responded. ‘Clearly not. Look. I—’

Miles held up a hand. ‘I haven’t finished.’ He removed a number of family photographs and one-by-one, he slid them across the table to our hosts, who by now were squirming in their seats. ‘Those are family photos from the Millers’ —my clients’—family photo albums…’

While they perused the photos, Miles continued. ’You will note there are photos of my client as a new born in his father’s arms. There are also photos of him as a young infant with both his parents…You wrote in your article, Ms Gould that my clients, Vicky & her late husband Ross, unlawfully took… kidnapped, if you will, Kade when he was three years old.

‘I’m sure you will agree with me that these photos of Kade Miller clearly depict him with his parents at a much younger age than three. Which suggests they had their son long before young Jayden went missing from Queensland…’

The journalist held out the photos to her boss for him to look at. He waved a hand at her.

‘So my question to you, as a Journalist representing the West Australian newspaper is… given the evidence in front of you… How can my client, Kade Miller, possibly be Jayden Evans, the young boy kidnapped in Queensland in 1991, when he was born to Vicky and Ross Miller in WA…?’

The journalist didn’t respond. Her defeated eyes remained on the gathering of records in front of her. She now avoided any eye contact, which to me was a sign of embarrassment and acceptance of her error.

‘Had you conducted your own inquiries and contacted my clients to give them the right of a response, you would’ve found those records and prevented this entire embarrassment on my clients and in turn, your newspaper.’

Her lowered eyes welled with tears. I resented the journalist for writing that article, but even I started feel a tinge of sympathy for her.

To use a boxing parlance, we were deep into the last round and the journalist could no longer defend herself from Miles’ verbal beat down. This fight needed to be stopped. It was over. The white towel need to be thrown in.

The Managing Editor obliged. He scooped up the evidence and passed it back to Miles. ‘Mrs Miller… Mr Miller…’ he began in a defeated tone.

’On behalf of the West Australian newspaper, please accept our most sincere apologies for any harm or embarrassment we have caused to you and your family from the article we ran.

‘It was never our intention.’ He glared at his journalist with eyes that screamed disappointment. Her eyes remained lowered. ‘It is more than evident the newspaper was remiss when it published an article that contained inaccurate and incorrect information about your family’s involvement in the Jayden Evans case from 1994.’

Miles removed a copy of his defamation letter from his brief case. Gary held up a hand to Miles. ‘Look… I understand your position from your letter, but I was hoping we could settle this in a more amicable fashion.’

‘What do you propose?’ Miles said.

‘We will run a complete retraction of the article, along with a full apology to the Miller family. It won’t be one of those little apology articles sitting in the corner of a page… This will be a half page apology and retraction…’

‘Before we agree to anything, I reserve the right to sight the article, before it is published…’ Miles said.

‘Absolutely…’

‘And there’s a matter of costs…’

‘Of course. The newspaper will be prepared to pay an agreed amount of compensation to you both for the hurt we have caused you…What figure did you have in mind?’

Miles looked to mum & me for further instruction. He knows our position on compensation. Mum responded on our behalf.

‘We are not seeking financial compensation from your newspaper, Mr Dent…’ mum said. ‘All we require from you is an unreserved and heartfelt apology for getting it wrong and for the hurt and embarrassment your newspaper caused to our family and our reputation.’

‘Absolutely, Mrs Miller. That will be the least of what I am prepared to do…’

Miles continued. ‘There is a matter of legal costs involved in pursuing this matter. I’m sure my clients would be prepared to accept the newspaper covering their legal fees …’

‘Absolutely, Mr Davis. Please… Send us your invoice. We will absolutely cover these costs. It is, after all, the least we can do for you being so reasonable...’

‘I will require further instructions from my client, however I am of the understanding that if you publish the retraction and apology, as discussed,’ Miles looked to mum and me. ‘I suggest we will withdraw our civil action against the newspaper.’ I gave a single nod in agreement.

Once the meeting was over, Gary escorted us to the reception foyer. No further words were exchanged during the stroll through the building, only empty handshakes at the front door.

I can’t speak for my mother but a substantial weight lifted from my shoulders during the stroll back to our car. All we need now is the published retraction and apology and we can start to mend the damage caused by Dawes.