When Schapelle Corby steps out of Kerobokan prison a free woman, I hope those shoving cameras and microphones in her face remember their humanity:
I hope she is given a fair chance to start again.
I hope she is judged on her behaviour and merits from here on in.
I hope she is able to somehow reconcile the last nine years with the love and support of those she truly trusts.
I hope she is given the space and time to allow a semblance of healing to occur.
But I know for a fact that none of this will happen.
I know that the paparazzi will set up permanently outside her sister’s house in Bali, where she’ll be serving out her parole for the next 3 years.
I know that we’ll be seeing her on the front cover of every magazine and website, and that her bikini body will be scrutinised.
I know that we’ll be invited to share in the joy of her wedding, her baby, her post-baby body bounce back, her divorce, her toy boy-lover, her love child, her plastic surgery disaster, her weight gain, her weight loss, her spiral into depression, her bounce back from depression, her nude photo scandal, her sex tape, her stars without make-up spread… and on it goes.
When Schapelle Corby was arrested on 8 October 2004 at Ngurah Rai Airport with 4.2 kg of weed in her boogie board bag, a national obsession began. It has endured nine long years and shows no sign of abating.