* RADIO: In 1980, New Zealand, with 94 countries, signed the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Its principles are legally binding and call for equality in all fields. But the prime minister says that it won't happen because the Convention's too divisive. - I would hope that these women's groups who are making statements for the present time would accept that fact. (TENSE MUSIC) - RADIO: ...already been issued to all national candidates for this year's general election, which have been issued on the presumption that the government will ratify the Convention. (LOW, TENSE MUSIC) - Hi, Melanie. (GRUNTING) (GRUNTS, GROANS) (WOMAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) (TYRES SCREECH) (DRAMATIC, TENSE MUSIC) (UPBEAT NEWSCAST MUSIC) - ...on the morning of the 2nd, and this is Morning Report ` the news. - The police in Auckland who warned against people taking the law into their own hands. - This follows a group of women allegedly attacking a man last night, after luring him to a meeting. They chained him to a tree, and he's later complained of assault, which detectives are investigating. The women who carried out the attack have threatened to do it again to other men. - The year that six women kidnapped and beat up a man, I became a cadet reporter at the Auckland Star. For women to carry out a violent attack was and still is extraordinary. Some men were scared. Some women were thrilled. The group's actions would polarise the country and lead to social change. But the mystery of who the women were and why they attacked the man they did remains unsolved. - I think it's amazing that whoever those people are, they've kept... that secret, and it's stayed secret for a long time. (CROWD CHANTS) (PENSIVE MUSIC) - With the resurgence of feminism and the rise of call-out culture, I started to wonder if I'd missed an incredible story that was right under my nose. See, the man who was kidnapped was a drama lecturer named Mervyn Thompson. And my mother was in the thick of it. - In 1983, I did the diploma of drama at Auckland University, and it was probably one of the best years of my life. And Mervyn Thompson was head of the Diploma of Drama. - Camera in the dressing room, camera in the dressing room. - Boo! What the hell is going on? - It opened my eyes up to so many things ` feminist politics, social issues around women, disempowerment of women. I think he genuinely did see a lot of the issues surrounding women, truly see them in a way that other men didn't. - He was a staunch socialist, and I'm not sure that men can be feminists, but for that time I think he was a fellow traveller feminist, you know? I think he tried to promote women in his plays and his writing and his teaching. - I've given an awful lot to the feminist movement. There was optimism, there was hope, and there were battles to be fought, but a few individuals like myself happened to get caught right in the middle of the firing line. (APPLAUSE) - Now it's Olwyn Williams from Logan Park. Hello, Olwyn. How are you? You're going to make a wonderful wife for somebody, aren't you? - # This is # the happy house. - You can dress a dummy to be just about any woman you like. When advertisers get their hands on the real thing, they can see only dolly bird or hysterical housewife. - Women were shown, featuring matching tits and teeth. - ...in my happy house. (CROWD CHANTS) - Central to their displeasure is the advertising, tagging it for men only. - Women can babysit, while Hubby comes out to have a bit of fun. - Then we're having to do stuff that we wouldn't normally think we would do to have a voice, to actually head space in this world. I will admit, I have thrown a few bricks through sex shop windows. - Protest has turned into a daily slanging match between pro- and anti-abortion groups. - We had to fight for reproductive rights, like the abortion bill. We only won that bill by one vote. We fought hard for that bill. - Auckland's Queen St was brought to a standstill today as pro- and anti-abortion groups clashed. - You know, we had to fight for everything. (INDIE ROCK MUSIC) - Order. - In the early 1980s, antiquated laws and lawmakers are failing to protect women. There's no recognition of sexual harassment. It's even legal for a husband to rape his wife. The world's a dangerous place for women. - Rape and other crimes of violence have worsened significantly in Auckland. - Police revealed there's been a 30% increase in the number of rapes reported so far. - A week after the brutal rape of the schoolgirl, there's still no sign of her attacker. - Police say he tried to rape the woman and cut her about the face with a knife. - Two housewives were abducted at knifepoint. - She was raped several times. - ...a particularly violent assault. (SUBDUED MUSIC) - Yes, this is the police. Just calm down a minute, please. - There was a whole period of break-ins and rapes. The police were warning all women to stay inside, lock your windows, lock your doors. I had always been really, really nervous at night on my own, and I began sleeping with two knives under my pillow. - This man has attacked twice that we know of. He's attacked two women already in this area. - Sexual violence was rife. What should we do? How do we plan to defend ourselves? For me, it was.... something that had to be dealt with. (CROWD CHANTS) - What do we want? - CROWD: Safe streets! - When do we want it? - Now! - What do we want? - CROWD: Safe streets! - When do we want it? - Now! - What do we want? - No longer were women being quiet about the abuse. No longer where we being quiet, full stop. - Yes means yes, and no means no! - We were given a permit to march tonight, because the last weekend, the night march, apparently the officials didn't like it because women weren't ladylike. - The rising up of women, it's the last thing that we can do. Otherwise, we turn around and we die. But the women I come from, they take a step forward, and they confront. - I'd had 10 years in martial arts. (MAN GRUNTS) Julie taught about 10 different ways of getting rid of a gun in my back. As a burgeoning young feminist, I thought that's not very practical. - No. - look, I gave you a good time. What about giving me a good time? - No, Malcom, no. - What about date rape? - Chrissake. - (GRUNTS) (SPLASH!) - (GRUNTS) - These are the kind of practical things that I would like to figure out self-defence for. So the bit that you make contact with is... the bit where your knuckledusters are, eh? It's one good use for wedding rings. And this is serious. And I began plotting my eight-hour women self-defence course. (LOW, BOLD MUSIC) And the Peeping Tom Crush is the old thumbs on, poking in. If they've got contacts, fantastic. (ALL EXCLAIM) I estimate I was teaching around 200 women a week, maybe 200 courses a year. Quite a few women who do come in to the course have been raped, have been beaten. They want to... right the wrongs. There was a lot of quite radical feminists around who were talking about the need for vigilante action. - Central to Richmond Car 1. - Roger. - We have a report of a 1640 in Westmere, informant on-site. - Roger, 10-2. (LOW MUSIC) - The story was so... strange, unique, in a way, but certainly off the planet. I was incredulous at what we were getting reported to us. - I got a phone call from a woman who called herself Melanie. She said she wanted to do one of my courses... and wanted to meet me at Western Springs by the zoo. I pulled up beside her, and she waved out to me. Someone launched at me from the driver's side. (GRUNTING) Within seconds, there seemed to be four or five in the car, punching and hitting out. (THUMP!) - Shut up! - I was shouting out things like, 'What are you trying to do to me? 'Is it money you want? If you want the car, take it.' They weren't saying anything. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) Someone was trying to strangle me, and someone was doing something to my right arm. I thought they were sticking a needle in. (GRIM MUSIC) - Shut up! - (SCREAMS) - I began to fear that they wanted to murder me. - Just drive. Move it! (GRIM MUSIC CONTINUES) - At some stage, the car began to move. (TYRES SCREECH) It felt like it was out of control. (GROANS) (TYRES SKID) - Bastard. (OVERLAPPING CHATTER) - The blindfold was mainly on, but I kept getting glimpses. Where am I? What have I done? And I realised that they were all women. - Stop moving. - What are you doing? Have I done something to you? I started crying out, 'Have I done something to you?' (TENSE MUSIC) I was struggling, but they got me across to a tree. - Shut up, you pig! - (GROANS) (LOW, GRIM MUSIC) - Tighter. Hold still. I said hold still. - I saw these girls had sticks of some sorts, and some appeared to be batons with wire between them. I thought then they might cut off my balls. - Shut up! They told me to shut up, or they'd hurt me. And then another woman said... - We'll hurt you anyway. - Another one said... - Not long now, and it will all be over. (TENSE MUSIC BUILDS) (SIRENS WAIL) (GRIM MUSIC) - It looked like a scene out of a horror movie, where they were doing, like, a sacrifice. Worshipping Satan ` it's like a cult. I was 13 at the time. We were at home, just chilling as a family. Just hear someone screaming, yelling for help. Me and Dad jumped in the car, we drove down there, and as we drove in, Dad hit the spotlights. - Hey! What are you doing? - Help me. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) They pretty much disappeared into the bush. (PENSIVE MUSIC) He'd been shaking and sobbing, and he's just saying, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you. You saved me, you saved me. 'They were going to kill me.' I just thought, 'What the heck? What had he done?' (EERIE MUSIC) (AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC) (MYSTERIOUS MUSIC) - It wasn't until the police arrived and I went back to my car that I realised why I had been attacked. (SOMBRE MUSIC) - Of course, my first reaction was, 'Are you?' 'No, definitely not.' (ALL CHANT) - The planet doesn't know which stuff you're doing just because you can't say no. So start at the bottom of your list and cross a few things off. * (PENSIVE MUSIC) - The day after the vigilante attack, the six women issue a statement. They say they're a neighbourhood watch group of women, including housewives, professionals, Polynesians and Europeans. The man they've targeted is a white-collar rapist in a position of authority over his victims. They issue a call to action ` Women should take the law into their own hands if the justice system is letting them down. Then they vanish. (BOLD ELECTRONIC MUSIC) I'm trying to find the six women who kidnapped Mervyn Thompson in 1984. - She told me that she then organised what happened afterwards. She was part of the lynching group. She did it. - It was a group of hardcore radicals. - It's not who people thought it was. - It's actually women from a Maori lesbian sports team. - Two people said that they'd heard you say that you were involved. - No. - And I'm` - No, absolutely no way. - I know one of the women. I'll ask, but I doubt she'll talk to you. - I'm pretty sure a couple of his drama students were in the mix. - I would've thought it was very unlikely that she would've been involved, but maybe she was. - I don't think they're accountable to anybody, actually. - I have nothing to say. Do not contact me again. - Since I started researching this story, there's been a lot of pushback Nobody wants it revisited. - I had that reaction when you first talked to me about it. I had to really think about it in my head and go, 'Look, what's wrong with telling the story now?' - All through the community, since you... broached the topic to so many of us, we've questioned why you would want to make a documentary about feminism and spin it around Mervyn Thompson. The importance of the action is more important than the person. - Why did you agree to be interviewed? - Because I think it's really important that if we're given a microphone, we're not afraid to speak our truths. (BASSY MUSIC) - Auckland University, where Mervyn Thompson is lecturing in the early 1980s, is a powder keg. Conservative academics and students are clashing with a new wave of feminists known as uni fems. (INSTIGATORS' 'HOPE SHE'S ALRIGHT') - # Went to work tonight... - I was living in Ponsonby in a house where there was eight lesbians. - # What the hell? Put make-up on... - There were various communal houses. It was... non-stop partying. - # ...in that lonely place. - All our friends were in bands. - # I'm waiting for my baby. # She's late, but then just maybe # she won't be coming home tonight! - It was also an era of a lot of activism. - # Phoned the parlour, # close on 10. # They know she hates her job, # fucking men. - I ended up as editor of the university newspaper. It was called Craccum. We did an entire issue that was only written by women. - # I'm waiting for my baby. # She's late, but then just maybe # she won't be coming home tonight. # Hope she's all right! # - One of the campaigns that was floated around sexual violence at the time was ` all men are rapists. I thought it was a brilliant campaign because that's just how women experience the world. Every woman who was being followed on the street at night thinks that that person is a potential rapist. There were some complaints that Craccum was a small vocalised minority. Women make up 43% of the general population here. I don't think there's anything wrong with being a voice for a minority. There was a campaign to get rid of me, and they brought it up at a referendum. - What I quite really I wanna say... - Thousands of students came out to vote, and I won. It was awesome. 75% plus support from the students at yesterday's meeting shows me that we're doing something right. - I arrived in 1983 from Sydney University. Campus wasn't the boring, quiet little place that I was assured it would be. Things where, um, yeah, really heating up. - How do you feel about this one? - What's going on here? Something seems very extreme. I saw it as really quite dangerous ` a smouldering hysteria. - About? - Um, well, anti-men. (BROODING MUSIC) - Student politics always is kinda messy, you know ` full of ideals, and everybody's... so right when they're 22. You know, that does tend to make for, sort of, a seething mess of disagreement and conflict. But at that point in time, it was massively around gender and sexual violence. (INDISTINCT WHISPERING) - A lot of my social network was mostly people identifying as feminist. We spent a lot of time on campus in Womenspace, which was, like, one room that was, you know, allocated for women. (TUTS) Gosh, a whole room. But there's lots of anger about whether or not we're allowed to have rooms, basically. (ROCK MUSIC) - There were women screaming and they smashed up things. You know, it was an attack on Womenspace. - It was pretty bad. Men were threatening to rape the women's rights officer. In fact, I was a bodyguard to the women's rights officer because of those threats. So this is the milieu, in a university sense, of that era. (BROODING MUSIC) - They were sexual harassment problems. There are people who had reputations of various... kinds. - There was a story going around that there were 50 men on a hit list at Auckland University. There were members of the English department, the English faculty. They were accused of sexual harassment, sexual inappropriateness. - Did you think Mervyn's name would have been on the hit list? - Possibly, yeah. - Why? - He could be touchy-feely, which was part of the dramatic... you know, that's part of the dramatic world. I never saw him touch or lay hands on another student, if that's what you're asking me. - There was a vigilante feel at the university. They were waiting. They were waiting for someone. If it wasn't Mervyn, it would've been someone else, someone else from the list. I don't think it mattered who it was, as long as it was a white, middle-class male, to make their point. (UPBEAT GUITAR MUSIC) - Hey, sis. Off the ciggies, on the vape. You're halfway there! - I know you've tried so many times to give up smoking. - And this is the one that stuck. - You're looking so good now. I can see that glow on your face and in your eyes. - Good on ya, girl! - You're a strong mana wahine. - Keep going. I'm with you all the way. - Keep up the mahi. (BOTH CHUCKLE) - Let's go. - (LAUGHS) - Quitting smoking is the best thing for your health. Vaping is way less harmful and can help you get off the smokes. * - I'm not a self-declared radical. (LAUGHS) I'm self-declared lesbian feminist, yes. For some people, lesbian means radical, but I don't think that I'd describe myself as a radical. I'd describe myself as a reasonable person. (CURIOUS PIANO MUSIC) - Renee is one of the cool teachers at my high school, Long Bay College, when she writes her first play, Setting the Table. It will later have a surprising role in the downfall of Mervyn Thompson. You've never done an interview on camera about it before, have you? - No. - Why not? - I'm still... angry about it. And here we are, still talking about it, you know, and you can hear the anger in me. I was cast on everyone's mind as this stroppy lesbian feminist who went off like a rocket at the drop of a hat, which is probably true. (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC) This determined woman who had this idea of writing plays that put women centre-stage. - Renee leaves teaching to focus on writing and work for the Broadsheet Feminist Collective. Broadsheet is more than a magazine. Its office is a hub for feminist activists and political action. - We were regarded, for a few years there, anyway, as subversive, I suppose. You were under surveillance when you were on the Broadsheet Collective. And that probably sounds overly dramatic and stupid, but we were. We had a lot of fun. We laughed a lot, as well as talked about grave and serious matters like rape. There were people who argued that we need to do something directly; we need to attack the attacker; we need to use violence as a weapon; we need to show men that they can't do this and get away with it, cos they very often do. But I was arguing against it. I don't approve of violence, whoever does it, It's not the answer. There was no theatre in this country that dealt with stuff like this. And so I wrote Setting the Table. It's about a group of women in vigilante justice. Mervyn was the director. He was very good with the script. He seemed to understand it. - Near the end of the course, Mervyn came to us with this play. It was a story about a group of women working in a refuge. - Bitches! You move, and she gets it. - In one scene, the women are forced to defend themselves against a violent intruder. - You fight back, and you go against. Understand? - Yes. - (GRUNTS) - (GROANS) - The women then talk about whether it's right for them to use violence against men as retribution. - We all despise the way the courts deal with rapists. Even if they reported and charged a few, a very few get jailed. I think if we all decided that violence was not going to be our thing, we'd find other ways because we'd have to. - The eye of the eye mentality` - Eye for an eye. My character didn't believe in the violence. I just thought it was a really important subject to talk about. We knew the violence was happening out there. I think it really spoke to a lot of women. We seemed to get really positive feedback, particularly from the women at university. - There's a scene in it where one of them goes out at night, and she's abducted a man at knifepoint. - Ties him to a fence, sticks a sign 'rapist' around his head, pulls his pants down, and I think stabs him. - Three months after we did the play, Mervyn was kidnapped in uncannily similar circumstances, right down to where it happened. (SOLEMN MUSIC) This is Setting the Table. This is exactly what we've just finished performing. - Oh my God. That's... That's crazy. Obviously, the attack on Mervyn is a direct reflection of what happened in the play. - I got a call from Mervyn. Well, he said on the phone, 'It's like the play,' but I didn't take it in. It just didn't seem real. His voice sounded dreadful. He was hugely upset. And he said, 'Did you know anything about it?' And I said, 'No, of course not.' (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC) Did you ever regard Renee as a suspect? - Yeah, we kind of... thought about that. - Everything started happening. People started thinking I had something to do with it. (KNOCKS AT DOOR) Bernadette went to the door and said, 'There's a Detective Basham who wants to see you.' I thought... it was a joke, but it wasn't. Asked me if I knew anything, and I said no. Well, I wrote a play. That's all I did. I didn't have anything to do... with attacking Mervyn Thompson. - End of story. Nothing. - I got a call from the police to come in to the Ponsonby Police Station. He asked me ` if I knew who'd done it, would I tell him? And my first thought was, 'Oh my God.' I didn't believe it, but it might have been some of my close friends, and I thought, 'They wouldn't do it. 'But, God, I don't know. I really don't know.' And I said, 'I'm not sure.' - Somebody rang me and said, 'Police are looking for you.' I'm not hiding. - Why were they looking for you? - Because it was in the play. Only because I was in the play, so, of course, the police had gone, 'Who would you look at?' You'd look at the people involved in the production because it's so tied to them. It's... The link's there. - Well, they closed up shop. I'd always say, 'I want to speak to you about Mervyn.' 'I'm not saying anything. 'Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you.' They're all actors, all giving Oscar performances. And how the hell do you judge who's telling you the truth or not? (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC CONTINUES) - I went to Broadsheet, and they were ecstatic. They were almost jumping up and down with pleasure. And I said, 'I don't believe in vigilante justice. 'I just don't like this sort of thing.' - Who do you think did it? - I don't know. I still don't know. If the women kept their secret, who else was going to be in the gun? There was only me. I mean, there are people now who still believe that I did it, that it was me. Those women dropped me in it. It was like feministic together, support each other ` yeah, right. (COMPUTER BLIPS) (PHONE RINGS) (PHONE CONTINUES RINGING) (LID POPS) (QUIRKY PIANO MUSIC) (BICYCLE BELL RINGS) (ALLURING PIANO MUSIC) (BIRDS CHIRP) VOICEOVER: How far will you go to make a little me-time? * (SPRAY CAN HISSES) - MAN: Oi, you! - After Mervyn Thompson was attacked, you kind of feel, like, ` somebody fighting back, that's quite exciting. Not everybody seemed to have that reaction. (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC) Lots of men on campus, lots of staff were scared and angry at being scared. Gosh, these poor white, middle-class men are now (GASPS) at threat. How terrible (!) (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC CONTINUES) It was known that it was someone in the English department, but at that point in time, it wasn't publicly known that it was Mervyn. (LOW MUSIC) There were rumours within my community of feminist friends about who had been attacked. (STEADY ROCK MUSIC) We wanted to name him. So there we were, running around campus in the middle of the night with our pots of paste, (CHUCKLES) gluing up these posters. (LOW, BROODING MUSIC) - (SCOFFS) - Morning, girls. (WOMEN WHISPER INDISTINCTLY) (LOW, BROODING MUSIC CONTINUES) (LOW, BROODING MUSIC INTENSIFIES) - There were stickers all over the university, saying, 'Mervyn Thompson is a rapist.' Well, everywhere, everywhere. - How many of them? - Oh, thousands. - I, myself, was putting up posters supporting the six women. I was a law student, and I was actively involved in the feminist movement. I do not have evidence that he did, in fact, rape. But why shouldn't I take that big leap of faith? Rape complainants were not only not believed, but they were blamed. So I chose to believe this woman. - Silence in the court. All right. - The law is there to provide justice. If it fails to provide justice in a massive way, sorry, doesn't deserve to be respected. - It's shocking that they can publish something like that, and there's not one piece of evidence, that if we go and talk to this person, they'll tell you that he raped them. There was... No one came in and said, 'He raped me.' We had quite a few people saying, 'No, he wouldn't be doing that. He's quite a nice guy.' - Mervyn Thompson kept boxes of personal archive ` letters, diaries. There's even an unpublished memoir. (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC) He doesn't seem to be a man who kept skeletons in his closet. - It was a tough childhood, and I know where I spent most of it was a pretty tough place to. My mother having constant nervous breakdowns and being carted off to mental hospitals, and the kids being taken off to welfare homes. My mother's fate was to be sexually molested when she was about 12 and to be dead in her early 30s. She suicided. I ended up down the coal mines, and eventually my father came to work there as well. We would say hello in the morning and so on, but basically we have no contact whatsoever. - Our father... (CHUCKLES) Our father said, 'You'll never make anything, you know? 'You'll never be anything.' I think it strengthened his resolve. He put himself through university, and he put himself through, you know, teaching college, founded the Court Theatre. He really wanted a voice for New Zealand theatre, a true voice, and all these plays that he did were about injustices that needed to be told. So he was a champion of the downtrodden, I guess, in that sense. (FRANZ SCHUBERT'S 'AVE MARIA') - To be branded a rapist was simply the most dreadful thing that could have happened. I'd sooner be accused of murder. (DARK MUSIC) I feel very strongly that my way is to simply tell the truth as I see it and live the truth as I see it. I mean, if I had been what they said, I'd have said so. - You tell him not to go public, don't you? - Yes. - Why? - Because I thought that was the best way to kill the story. 'Mervyn, shut up and keep your head down.' - I have never raped anyone in my life. In the whole catalogue of crimes, I find it difficult to think of one more abhorrent. What I encountered on that night in February was not anger, but hatred. I have been gang-bashed by a group of extremists who have not even taken the trouble to get their facts straight. My present symptoms are those of one who has been raped. (LOW MUSIC) * - Auckland University drama lecturer Mervyn Thompson has outed himself as the man accused of rape by feminist vigilantes. - What do we want? - CROWD: Women's voices! - When do we want them? - Now! - Wellington's feminists picketed the Listener offices. They urged a boycott of the magazine after this week's issue ran Mervyn Thompson's story. - He got a three-page spread. We were incensed. I was outraged, regardless of the truth of his account. - He presented himself in the article as if he had been raped. I guarantee that if you got a group of women who actually had been raped and asked them would they prefer that to happen to them or what happened to Thompson happened to them, they'd all go for the Thompson experience. But to equate that with rape is really what got under a lot of feminist skin. - They say the Listener has supported Mr Thompson by omitting the feminist viewpoint, in spite of there being no proof of any rapes by Mr Thompson. So just because somebody believes that somebody has been raped, they're entitled to go out, chain them to a tree, intimidate him, question him and vandalised his car. - The chances of convicting a white middle-class rapist are awfully remote. And I think in that case, women have to use the channels that are available to them. - We then got involved in discussions about the appropriateness or otherwise of Thompson's plays being staged in Wellington. A group of feminists met with a group of actors associated with the Depot. - We'd been cast; we'd rehearsed, and then we had this big meeting. Oh, the fucking place was full. It was packed. There was at least 100. Masses of people, lots of these women's groups, all surrounding us. And there was a lot of pressure on the actors to pull out and not do the play. Tell me why. What's the story? And no one, apart from saying he's a rapist, told us what the story was. We don't want questions; we don't want critical rigour; we just want you to go along with us because we're the goodies. And then it got time to us voting. - CROWD: Aye. - And they're putting their hand up. 'We don't want to do it. Don't want to do it.' I voted against it, but the decision was made. (LOW MUSIC) You accuse someone of rape, that's going to stick. You can kill a man over dinner parties, you know, over wine. 'Oh yes, Mervyn Thompson. Didn't like his plays very much. 'Yes, he molested young women.' (SUBDUED MUSIC) - In the months that follow, Mervyn Thompson's plays take a hit. (INDISTINCT YELLING) If not cancelled outright, they're boycotted or picketed. - We're suffering, Jesus! - Mervyn is given police protection. - I wept every day for 18 months, and I was doing things like falling over in the street, My legs would just give way from under me. I just didn't seem to have the motivation to keep going. - He was never the same. No one comes back from an experience like that. What they did to Mervyn was violent, was horrible, was disgusting. Who were they, and why are they hidden behind their... little mask of secrecy for so long to kidnap someone, to batter someone? No, no, they're criminals, and they should pay. - Well, the judges are set. We're all ready, so let's meet the girls. - # She was some kinda priestess. # She really turned me on. # She's so fine. - The images that we see of women on our TV screens,... (MUSIC WINDS DOWN, STOPS) ...they're just not working any more. - Having that really naked feel. - Yeah, I see what you mean. - In the 1980s, Sandi Hall was quite the force in the feminist movement. She's an advertising executive, writer and member of the Broadsheet Collective. By 1984, she's founded a New Zealand women's political party and has taken on a formidable challenge. She's standing against the prime minister, Rob Muldoon, in the surprise snap election. - It doesn't give her much time to run up to an election, Prime Minister. - Doesn't give my opponents much time to run up to an election, does it? - Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker. - Order. Order in the house. - I knew Mervyn Thompson had been identified as someone who, in modern parlance, would be a sexual predator. And there was a discussion about what to do about him. - Were you involved in the attack? - I was in favour of it, but I wasn't there. If I'd been asked to join in, I would've. But I was busy making politics. - So you know some of the people involved. - I do. - Who kidnapped Mervyn Thompson? - Lesbians, lesbians, lesbians. Very few heterosexual women are in favour of direct action. - The gays are on the march. - # I am the worst of your nightmares. # I am the devil. - Marchers took to the streets in their thousands to counteract opposition to homosexual law reform. - It's lesbians who have the courage and the awareness to be active at a direct level. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) - The lesbians were at the forefront of a lot of the protests, because we feel it. - ...that demonic spore that is in you. - Your bloody heterosexual spirit... - You destroyers! - # You've got a home that's nowhere. # You've got nowhere to go. - Being a lesbian and being out there, and we're talking '70s, '80s, so the amount of shit you used to get thrown at you... - Hymn-singing and flag-waving accompanied the 800,000-signature petition. It urges parliament not to go ahead with the bill, which decriminalises homosexuality. - Do not vote to legalise sodomy in this country! - You become quite resilient and quite fearless. (ROCK MUSIC) - Anne Speir is a lesbian activist who I met 20 years ago when she was an editor at Television New Zealand. I didn't know then that Anne had been a separatist, one of a group of radical women trying to create worlds without men. (GLASS SMASHES) - Probably was less than 10 of us, to begin with, lesbian separatists, and then we recruited. The main rule was no men past the boundary, full stop. I remember having to talk to my brother over the gate cos he couldn't come in past the gate. - Who were the leaders in that? - There weren't allowed to be any leads, because, of course, we were trying to overthrow the patriarchy. Leadership was a patriarchal concept, so everything was collectively driven. Everything was lesbian-centric and out to change the world. - What do you know about the Mervyn Thompson attack? - I remember someone coming around, going, 'Oh my God, you won't believe what has happened.' And then the jungle drums were really beating. - And were you involved? - No, I didn't get used to get called to every rumble. - Anne points me to a notorious lesbian separatist, Sue Smith. I'm told I'm lucky that Sue agrees to an interview, especially as I'm straight. Why did you agree to do this? - Oh. I have no idea ` one of those stupid things that I do every now and again. - The 1980s, Sue. - Oh, fuck yeah. What did people call you? Meanest bitch in the world. (CHUCKLES) (ROCK MUSIC) I was very angry at the world. I was very violent. - How violent? - Really violent. Knives, guns ` violent. I grew up very rebellious. I had a lot of depression, cos there was something different about me, but I had no idea what it was. And I kept having these fantasies about other girls, and I thought, 'There's something wrong here.' (LOW MUSIC) They decided to put me into the psychiatric hospital to cure me of this... problem I had... with shock treatment. It's barbaric and does nothing except wipe your memory. (ELECTRIC CRACKLING) There was a lot of rape of lesbians in those early days, cos all we needed was a good man. And I was raped by seven soldiers in a Land Rover, cos all I needed was a good man, and I'd no longer be a lesbian. In any rape cases, what happens? The woman is degraded. It's her fault. She must have done something, What was she wearing? How much did she have to drink? How many times did she have sex with men? Why do women not charge rape? That's why. - Do you know about the Mervyn Thomson incident? - The what? - The Mervyn Thomson incident. - No. No. - If lesbian activists had kidnapped Mervyn Thompson, I would've thought Sue Smith would know about it and who they were. * I'm not the first person to hit brick walls trying to get to the bottom of the Mervyn Thompson kidnapping. In 1984, journalist Carroll Wall investigated the attack and radical feminism for Metro magazine. - People have refused to talk. They've withdrawn statements, begged me not to reveal their names. Nevertheless, I've learnt a great deal about them and their kind. - It reads like a David Attenborough documentary, you know? She journeys, as this, sort of, fearless anthropologist, you know, into the land of the lesbians. She spots them in their manner shirts. You know, she discusses their haircuts. Every rape story needs a monster, you know? Those are the ones that really sell. Well, who is the villain, then, in that story about Thompson? It's got to be those violent lesbians, those, sort, of man-like, supposedly knife-carrying, man-hating lesbians. It's actually a hilarious article, you know, when it's not enraging. - It made us mad, and then we went to the Metro offices, and the editor got really upset that we were there and called the police, and we had to leave. - I heard that there were used tampons and sanitary pads sent to Metro. - And I think that there were tyres that were slashed. - As a result of the backlash, Carroll Wall changes her name. One thing the story does reveal is that the focus of police enquiries is a house in Ponsonby. It's the flat where Louise Rafkin is living. - Someone told us there's a group of fairly radical feminists living in that house. They'd heard that they were involved. - They probably knew that, you know, there were a bunch of little rabble-rousers in that house. - We asked the criminal intelligence section for some photos that they had. And they were known to be feminists, and perhaps these could help. (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC) Two or three of them, he said, 'That one there was there.' - So, Louise, were you involved? - I think it was incredibly brave. I couldn't have done it myself. But it wasn't completely out of the realm of thinking at the time. And I didn't know who did it, and I didn't want to know who did it. (JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS' 'CRIMSON AND CLOVER') - Another woman on the police radar is an activist named Sharon Alston. Sharon is one of the first women in New Zealand to speak out about being lesbian. - It's strange, social gatherings. We find we have to, sort of, pretend and hide under a facade of heterosexuality to get by, mainly because people get very uptight. - In the 1980s, she's a designer and illustrator for Broadsheet. - # And when she comes walking over, # now, I've been waiting to show her... - She lived her life as a dedicated lesbian, feminist activist. - # Over and over. - Because she wasn't afraid of taking direct action, she was a natural person for the police to immediately think, you know, 'Usual suspect.' (UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC) - A lot of people think that gay men are the only ones that get threatened, but that's not true. We get threatened ourselves. - She had herself... experienced rape. That was, I think, the culmination, or coalescence, actually, of her feminism. She thought, 'I'm not fucking putting up with this any more. I'm going to do something about it.' - Did the police question Sharon after the Mervyn Thompson attack? - Yes, they did. She and I were flatmates, and they came to talk to her about something, but they left, and she wasn't arrested. - The main difficulty was that there was no identification of the offenders, because when we did get someone and say, 'Right now, are you sure of that? he'd turn around and say, 'Oh, not really.' (CHUCKLES) And he changed it every time we talked to him. - In the middle of this, you've got Mervyn Thompson said, 'Can you please clear my name?' - Yes. I was saying to him, 'Mervyn, we are not investigating you for rape. 'We're investigating what happened to you. Got it?' He can't defend himself. Mervyn claims he's an innocent victim of a misguided political action, but it's hard to believe he would be the target if there's no truth to the allegations. - Who knows? I personally would really like to know. It burdens me. It's still not laid to rest. It's never laid to rest. * (SUBDUED MUSIC) Mervyn was always claiming to be a romantic. His first marriage was in the '60s, actually. Jane, she was an actress. That didn't last. Then in the '70s, he married Anne, and Anne was also an actress, and he was unfaithful to her. He was a philanderer of the highest rank, and he had relationships all over the place with various women and actresses. - When I applied for the course, Mervyn suggested he interview me in a wine bar. He told me then and there I was in. Then I received a letter, asking if he could take me out. I wrote back, 'No. While you're my teacher and I'm your student, we won't be going there.' I made sure I was never alone with him after that. - He said, 'Look, I need to have a one-to-one rehearsal with you. We went back to his flat. He gave me some wine. He made some suggestion that he would like to have sex with me. I was sort of frightened, really, and I said, 'I want you to take me home now.' - I was only 19, and I was at his flat to rehearse when he forced himself on me. I was really scared. He was actually slobbering and quivering. I managed to get away. And as I left, he cursed me for bewitching him. I felt like it was my fault. - Did you ever see Mervyn behaving inappropriately towards women? - Yup. To me, absolutely. We were doing a show, one that he wrote ` O! Temperance! It was strangely about women's suffrage. And he called me into his dressing room and just said, you know, 'Oh, can you come here for a minute?' And I go in there, and he's just in his undies. And then he said, 'Oh, my neck's really sore. Could you massage my neck for me?' And I was like... This really made me feel uncomfortable. And that was it, and I was out the room, and I was at the room, and basically didn't get acknowledged for the rest of the year. - Did you tell anyone? I don't think I mentioned it to anybody in the course and I think my reasoning behind there was I dealt with it. I've dealt with it. - Like, we said to people, 'What can you tell us?' (BROODING MUSIC) We were flooded with lots of different accounts. He used his status to manipulate people to get what he wanted, and on a number of occasions, the things that he wanted was sexual interaction of various kinds. That's bad. - In Mervyn's archive, I found some revealing documents ` lawyer's letters about an assault by Mervyn on a theatre reviewer who critiqued his work; abusive letters that Mervyn wrote; personal notes detailing a tortured long-term love affair with a married woman. - Mervyn was having a relationship, a very intense relationship, with someone who was an artist. Mervyn was obsessed, besotted. And you couldn't say that you knew Mervyn if you didn't know that. - And we all knew it was volatile. Everybody knew. There'd been scenarios, apparently, where they'd been thrown out of the theatre for throwing glasses and things at each other. - I'd seen him in a rage. (GLASS SMASHES) He staggered out with a crate of beer bottles. He was totally past furious. (SMASH!) He had just totally lost it. (CRASH!) (BROODING MUSIC) I'd never actually seen anyone lose control quite that... badly. He was very frightening. - He could protest his innocence for as long as he liked, and the more he protested, the more difficult it became for him. That was partly why I tried to persuade him not to do the Genevieve Westcott interview. And I kept saying to him, 'What do you think you're going to get out of this, Mervyn? Do you think she's out there to clear you? But what he was hearing from me was, basically, I suppose, 'You're fucked. Whatever you say, you're fucked.' - Five, four. Roll C. Two, one. On air. (UPBEAT NEWSCAST MUSIC) - Mr Thompson, you do admit that you have a reputation, as a playwright, as being somewhat of a womaniser, some would suggest perhaps even a philanderer. How do you feel about that? - I went through a period at one stage in my life in which I... Yes, I think I used women as sexual objects. I think that is true, and it's true of a lot of men. - The women accused you the next day through the media of committing three or four rapes. Is that true? Have you raped anyone? - No, I haven't committed any rapes. - If you say you have not raped anybody, when you search your own mind, what incident might have sparked it? - There is an incident that occurred in December ` a misunderstanding with a woman. - Was she somebody from your theatre circles? Was she one of your students? - She was a former student. And I will admit that I displayed some insensitivity that night. We did have sex. (UNSETTLING AMBIENT MUSIC) - It turns out that the woman Mervyn refers to was my mother's classmate, and two months before Mervyn was kidnapped, my mother received a call from her in the middle of the night. - She sounded distressed. She was crying. The first thing she said to me was, 'He raped me.' And I think I went into a moment of absolute shock. I told her I thought she should call the police. But at the same time, I understood it was tacitly agreed that going to the police with a rape call was not going to achieve anything. - Through my mother, I find out who the woman is and ask her if, after 36 years, she's ready to tell her story. VOICEOVER: Your spare pair, your glare pair, the flying-through-the-air pair. We could all use a second pair. (WHIMPERS) At Specsavers, get specs and shades for $169, including single-vision lenses. * So, what's made you decide to talk about this after all these years? - It has been a long time, but there are probably still people out there who still think that Mervyn was a completely innocent man. - Do you want just your first name used? - Yeah, that's fine. I can be Jenny. I was a Jenny then. - And you're comfortable with me using the photographs of you at that time? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think I was a different person, and I'm not interested in being defined by something from so long ago. Nobody will recognise me now. (SHARON O'NEILL'S 'WORDS') # Let me out # like the new blood at the slaughter. - 1983, I decided that I would go into the drama club, because I was very into theatre and acting. It was a fantastic course. - # And I can't for the life of me # think of any place I'd rather be. - Well, at the start of the year, I would have been 22, and I was living in town ` very handy to the university. - # Words just a breath away from my hand. - I used to strive through Albert Park at all hours without batting an eyelash, and I probably was pretty fearless, to be honest. I was pretty focused on the acting. We wanted to pursue that. I know Mervyn was someone that talked about people leaving their identities and embracing a new identity and getting in touch with your emotions. (MUSIC FADES) It was very intense. It was probably a little bit removed from reality. (ACTORS GROWL) (SIGHS) You sort of see it to some extent when people go find religion, and they become book-reading Christians. I had a great year until, yeah, it ended. (LOW ELECTRONIC MUSIC) - With Jenny's permission, I'm able to access police files and records of what Mervyn told police the night he was attacked. - So, why you? - I had a student last year called Jenny, and we became very friendly. Some of the things she would say to me were come-on comments. (LOUNGE MUSIC) Sometime in December, I took her out to dinner. We were fairly drunk. Afterwards, we went home to my place. I may have called my lover. She's a very possessive woman. After... Jenny and I kissed, I asked her if she wanted to go through to the bedroom. She agreed. One thing led to another, and we ended up having sex. As a matter of fact, we had two bouts of lovemaking that evening. There was absolutely no suggestion or issue of being forced. Later, I called her, and... she said that she was shocked and hurt by what had happened that evening, so I went round to see her because I was worried that she said she felt that way. (SOLEMN MUSIC) - I obviously called him on it, told him what I thought, which is no doubt why he then nominated me for an interview with the police. - It's astonishing that Mervyn actually gave you the name of a woman who would accuse him of rape. - And the first thing we said to him is, 'Well,... is she the one you raped?' You know, put it in a positive frame. (CHUCKLES) And of course, 'No, no, I never raped her. 'It was, you know, conceived that we were friends.' I said, 'Yeah, but when we marry it up with the name 'rape', she's the first person you said. (BROODING MUSIC) That's why I... Number one I wanted to do was talk to her. And of course, I got a different story. - It was pretty unexpected and not very pleasant. I felt like I was some suspect. - Are you happy to read from the statement that you made to police? - Yeah, sure. We went to Ponsonby Fire Station, which was a fairly swish restaurant at the time, and he ordered French champagne. I was probably flattered by his attention, but I certainly didn't see myself as being on any kind of a date. I recall that it was to talk about publicity for a play or something along those lines. (BROODING MUSIC) He said he had to be at home to make a phone call at 10pm. He had a cup of coffee, and he made his call. (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC) He was very strange and seemed to have changed completely. He said things like he wanted me and he had to have me. I struggled and yelled out. We talked, and I felt he was calming down. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) But he came at me again. - Stop. Get off me! Mervyn, I said stop it. Get off me. Mervyn, stop it! Ow, you're hurting me! Mervyn, stop it! Mervyn, please! - Keep still, or I'll hurt you. - Please stop it! - Stop fighting, you little bitch. - Stop it! Stop it! - Stop it! I'm gonna fucking have you! - (SOBS) - I'm gonna fuck you. - I couldn't fight him. - Hold still. - And I knew I couldn't make the door. I really resigned myself to what was going to happen. (GRIM MUSIC) - Please. (SOBS) Please. - (GRUNTS) (GRIM MUSIC CONTINUES) (PANTS) - It was like he had become this sort of animal, this maniac. - (GRUNTS REPEATEDLY) (GROANS) (GRIM MUSIC CONTINUES) (AMBIENT MUSIC) - I waited until he seemed to have calmed completely. I then asked to be taken home. I remember being in a complete daze. (AMBIENT MUSIC CONTINUES) (WATER TRICKLES) (MIRROR SQUEAKS) When you're on your own and emotional and in shock, you're just thinking about... getting through that moment, really. Was there something that I did? Did I give the impression that I was up for this? And I probably, despite everything, felt some kind of attachment still to Mervyn. I was also aware around that time that nobody believed anybody about anything. There were just so many factors that had me thinking, 'I'm not going to pursue this.' (SUBDUED MUSIC) - I talked to her, and then it was a matter of saying, 'Right, we'll make a formal complaint of rape.' And that's when she backed off. - Did you want her to press charges? - I thought that that was the correct way to go, but she would have come into some severe cross-examination in the court. - Jenny is not the only woman to accuse Mervyn of violence. In the police file, there's another allegation. - 14 of the third, '86 ` two years later. He was charged with threatening to kill... a female friend. He was arrested. But then, again, it wasn't taken through court. See, you would be relying on her to give evidence. She's had a change of mind. (CONTEMPLATIVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC) - Just like with Setting the Table and the attack on Mervyn, there is another parallel between the stage and real life. - I brought you a present. - What is it? - Mervyn goes on to write a semiautobiographical play called Lovebirds, which appears to be based on his own tortured long-term relationship. - Get stuffed! Fuck you! (SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY) - Respect! - I won't be treated... Let go of me! You have to calm down. - In Lovebirds, the male protagonist threatens to kill his lover. - You stop playing games with me, or I'll fucking murder you! - MAN: You fuckwit. You get seven years for this. - Just like Mervyn, he's arrested, and the woman drops the charges. - Look, I know I've got problems, but I'm prepared to work on them, and so is she! - Lovebirds paints a picture of a violent man who doesn't take full responsibility for his own actions. - But if once, just once, you are prepared to say, that something, anything was your fault. (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC) - To assume guilt in a person who's never convicted of a crime is a dangerous thing. Mervyn Thompson protested his innocence right up until his death from cancer in 1992. But they were good reasons to believe Mervyn Thompson was sexually violent. - We all thought he was harmless. But in fact, he was a violent, aggressive narcissist. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) (TENSE MUSIC) - Genuinely, when this happened, it was a complete shock. But my assumption was that I was the catalyst. I suppose I told enough people to ensure the word got out. That was me taking back some power and getting it out into the world to see what would happen. And, well, something certainly happened. But to this day, I really have no idea who attacked Mervyn. Hello, New Zealand. I'm here to remind you that Jenny Craig works for weight loss. This could be you. I've lost 28 kilos with the help of Jenny Craig. I can honestly say that I've loved every moment of being on the program. The food was tasty, the variety available to you is great. VOICEOVER: On Rapid Results... Start today and save $30 on your first weekly menu on our Rapid Results weight loss plan. Start today, New Zealand! Call Jenny Craig now. It works! * (CONTEMPLATIVE MUSIC) - After almost two years of research, I've been told I'm as close to the truth as I'm ever going to get. I feel I've probably spoken to some of the vigilantes, but I can't be sure. Women have closed ranks, offered to talk, then pulled out. This story has stirred up real fear, sadness and some shame. When we started researching this, a few people said, 'Oh, Bidge will know who did it. - No, I don't. I know lots of people thought I did it. And there's a part of me that would love to know, but there's a part of me that just really likes the fact that it's... just now kind of part of our mythology, you know? But there was, yeah, one woman, Lee Lee, who I wondered about. She was quite staunch at the time, you know? - Oh, that's very... The nerve. I know Bidge, and she has never told me that. (CHUCKLES) Well, it doesn't really worry me what people think, but I can say that... I wasn't involved. - So were Maori women part of this? - There were other races involved, not just Pakeha women. I felt a sense of glee. I thought, 'My God, these women have taken back power.' I wasn't involved in it. - Well, actually, in 1984, I was living in Japan, But I did hear about it. I wasn't surprised. Yeah, good on them. - Do you have any idea who they are? - No. - Despite offers of anonymity and legal protection, I've only been given the name of one woman, Sharon Alston, but Sharon died of cancer in 1995 and took her secrets to her grave. So I've been told that Sharon was there. - Oh, well, then I don't need to say so, do I? - It wouldn't surprise me, wouldn't surprise me if our Sharry was right in there. (LAUGHS) Look, what can you say? I mean, girls know a lot. - So I'm going to play you something that might jog your memory. - Police in Auckland have warned against people taking the law into their own hands. This follows a group of women allegedly attacking a man last night after luring him to a meeting. They chained him to a tree, and he's laid a complaint of assault,... - Oh, the tree! ...which detectives are investigating. The women who carried out the attack have threatened to do it again to other men. But Chief Superintendent Brian Wilkinson says they'd better think twice. - I'm sure we did think twice and three times and four times and still did it. (LAUGHS) - What? - We probably did think twice and three times and four times, and then still did it. - You remember it now? - Yes, I do. I just didn't remember the name. The name is not important. His name is so unimportant. What was your intention to do to him? To... make it known. And the best way to do that is tie the fucker up so somebody finds him. - What did women hear that provoked this? - That he was a rapist? There was an incident that many of us knew about, and that's all we needed to know. - So you'd heard about one attack, or were there more? - Well, rape is very seldom 'do it just once', if they get away with it, and he got away with it. Well, until then. (CHUCKLES) - Can you tell me if Sharon Alston was there? - It sounds like something that Sharon would do, mm. - And Speir? - Tall Anne Speir. Oh, yeah, she'd be capable. She'd be capable. - Oh, yeah, I was capable, but I wasn't there. (LAUGHS) No, I wasn't there. Sue's just being mischievous. (AMBIENT MUSIC) There's some pride around women that we did it. (CHAINS RATTLE) It takes a lot of courage to do an action like that. It was a political action for women, by women. They were some seasoned activists, and there were some women who were just at the end of their tether. They were a disparate group who came together with one purpose ` to actually wake people up to men's power over women. (SUBDUED MUSIC) For the first time, women take that power in a way that wasn't expected. Is violence the answer? For women to get some cut through at that moment, it was. (SUBDUED MUSIC CONTINUES) - For one moment, that man experienced the lack of power, the feeling of being degraded and helpless and so on, that millions of women around the world for years have felt. It sparked a conversation in the community. It made things leap forward, in terms of examining sexual violence and rape, and that's a very good thing. (TENSE MUSIC) (BASSY MUSIC) Captions by Michaela Cornelius Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2021 (GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)