Kate McClymont AM has always been fearless. In a recent interview with ABC's One Plus One, she recalled spending her Saturday nights as a university student in Sydney's Kings Cross district, charging strangers to argue with her for cash. Kate could make up to AU$17 an hour in this venture, charging extra to dish out abuse. It was here Kate flirted with Sydney's darker side, and her intrepidness earned her a cadetship at The Sydney Morning Herald in 1985. 

In the years since, Kate has worked her way through Sydney's criminal, political and corporate underworlds, holding the powerful to account, often at risk to her own personal safety. The multiple award-winning Investigative Journalist has exposed corruption, bribery and murder across New South Wales. Her work has earned her a long list of accolades, including a Gold Walkley Award in 2002, an induction into the Media Hall of Fame in 2017, and an appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2020 for her services to investigative journalism. 

Kate shares her experience as a woman in the world of crime journalism for the first in Telum's Women in Crime (Reporting) series. The series, featuring the experiences of prominent female crime reporters across Australia, will run across several News Alerts in the coming weeks. 

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Tell us about getting your start in crime reporting. 
I was an accidental adventurer into this area, only tumbling into crime reporting when I managed to turn the safe occupation of a society chronicler into one which attracted death threats. In 1986, as a fresh-faced young Cadet at The Sydney Morning Herald, I was dispatched to do a rotation at the now-defunct Eastern Herald, the paper's Bondi Junction outpost. My job was to write a gossip column called Chums. It was beyond tedious. Every week I had to attend society functions and then try to make them interesting.

In early 1986, Chums decided to cover a wedding at Kincoppal School in Sydney's Rose Bay, because crime figure George Freeman and his wife, Georgina, formed part of her sister’s bridal party. Their three-year-old son Adam, decked out in a miniature white tuxedo, walked down the aisle carrying the wedding rings on a lacy pillow. 30 years later, young Adam was behind bars for drug importation.

Under the headline, "The bride wore sequins, the bodyguard a tux..." I noted that the bride, Georgina's sister Julie and her attendants were wearing sequins. I suggested that due to the presence of Freeman, this was "the closest fashion accessory to armour-plating." We also ran a photo of the underworld figure's bodyguard, a huge hulk of a man. The accompanying caption - "I could be so good for you..." - was a play on the hit series, Minder, which featured the antics of a small-time English criminal and his faithful bodyguard.

For some inexplicable reason, George Freeman failed to see the humour in my story. I started receiving threats at my home, with anonymous callers informing me that I had gone too far and that "Mr Freeman was not happy." My flatmates insisted I call the police. The police organised to put a tap on my phone. I never received another call.

And so, inadvertently, I started my life of crime reporting.

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What are some highlights and challenges of being a woman in crime (reporting)?
During my time at The Sydney Morning Herald, I was also sent to cover the Supreme Court. Being a Court Reporter proved to be a fantastic training ground. It also provides you contact with police who are running high-profile cases, as well as solicitors and barristers who are endless sources of good stories.

I don’t know whether being a woman has helped or hindered. In some ways, I feel that criminals are more dismissive towards, and less threatened by, women. Sometimes this makes them talk more. Other times, they might have been happier to talk to some of the male crime reporters who drank with them. That is one thing I never did.

Tom Domican, who over the years has been charged with one murder, one attempted murder and five conspiracy to murders, and acquitted of the lot, once had a message delivered to me. If I was a man he would have broken my jaw by now, he said.

On another occasion, after copping a lengthy suspension because of my Jockey Tapes stories, Jim Cassidy spat at me saying: ‘‘You f*cking b*tch, you’ve ruined my life.’’ Would he have done something else if I was a man? Not sure.
 

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What is the most memorable story you have covered in your career?
Crime and corruption permeate every aspect of our society, from sport to business, to politics. I won a Gold Walkley for uncovering a massive salary cap rort which saw the Canterbury Bulldogs league team go from the top of the table to the wooden spooners, and my investigations saw union boss, Michael Williamson, jailed for five years for stealing millions of dollars from his union.

But perhaps my most memorable story has been covering corrupt politician, Eddie Obeid, and certain members of his family. They had me followed, they harassed me, and they sued me. But my decades of chronicling their corrupt pursuits proved not to have been in vain when, last month, Eddie Obeid and his son Moses, were found guilty over their involvement in a rigged government tender. They are likely to be jailed. For Eddie, this will be his second time behind bars.

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What has been your relationship with PRs as a Crime Reporter?
With regard to PRs, they don’t tend to be great sources of information about crime and corruption. I recently got sent a PR release about a restaurant opening in London. Why waste their time and ours?

Answers submitted by Kate McClymont, Investigative Journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald.