True Crime Tonight: To Catch a Predator

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Warning, this is a True Crime Segment and not suitable for children. It contains references to sexual violence and suicide, which some listeners may find distressing. If you need support, you are not alone. Contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, or visit lifeline.org.au for 24 hour support.

**Ruby Bartzis** (0:17)
We're in a rush for the battle.

**Meshel Laurie** (0:20)
It's a voice that will send shivers down your spine.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:25)
Stabbed 19 times. The suspect lured the victim into the water.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:29)
Biggest legal dramas in Hollywood. Today is a major win to show what the system can do.

**Matthew Tankard** (0:34)
This is True Crime Tonight.

**Meshel Laurie** (0:37)
This is True Crime Tonight. I'm your host, Meshel Laurie, and I'm here with my producers, Matthew Tankard.

**Matthew Tankard** (0:42)
Hi, Meshel.

**Meshel Laurie** (0:43)
And Ruby Bartzis. Hello. Oh, good evening. Because it's Sunday night, that's why we're here. From six till seven, every Sunday night, we bring you a True Crime Book Club, and we talk about documentaries, we chat with our listeners, and we interview some really interesting true crime kind of people.
Don't forget this is a true crime show, so it's not for kids. Okay. Coming up later this hour, we'll talk to Kayla Brantley, who is a journalist, an American journalist. She's based in New York City. So can you imagine?

**Matthew Tankard** (1:10)
We can imagine that. What else do you need to hear?

**Ruby Bartzis** (1:11)
Oh, and I think she works for Daily Mail.

**Meshel Laurie** (1:14)
I know she does, mate.
Yeah, enough said. You're so right, Ruby. Enough said. And she's talking about The Murdaugh Murders, which a lot of you will be going, oh God, I know exactly all about this. And if you don't, you're going to love it. But up next, we hear from a listener.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:31)
Hey guys, love the podcast. Last week's episode with Belinda Bates was so, so good. And I would love to hear a case about a relationship that's also been formed in a jail, but maybe it didn't work out.
It was just so good last week hearing Belinda and how she met Pete while she was working at the jail. That would be awesome.

**Meshel Laurie** (1:53)
I couldn't agree more.

**Ruby Bartzis** (1:54)
I also couldn't agree more.

**Meshel Laurie** (1:56)
Yeah, I thought, I felt almost guilty. I thought, I don't, for those of you who can't remember or maybe haven't caught up yet on the last couple of episodes, you've got lovely Pete Bates and lovely Belinda. Gorgeous couple and their focus is on talking to people about coercive control and patterns, recognizing patterns in relationships that can become dangerous and all those things. But where they met was in jail because Pete was in jail, he was serving time for murder, and Belinda was working in a drug rehab center in the jail. I should also say that Pete wasn't a patient, he was a mentor. He was working.

**Matthew Tankard** (2:30)
This is on his last few years in prison, I think. He's gotten off drugs and-

**Meshel Laurie** (2:33)
Sort of working in the program as well. So it's like they were workmates, except Pete wasn't allowed to go home at the end of the day or he was home.
Yeah. I'm jealous. I'm very jealous of their relationship. He seems like the best guy I've ever heard about in my life. And then I think, I know, right? Then I said to Belinda, but if you and I were friends, if I was your sister, you would go, what are you doing? It's not happening, mate. There's no way in the world you are having a relationship with a bloke who's been in jail for murder. I'm not having it.

**Ruby Bartzis** (3:02)
Well, imagine going into your family and being like, I am dating this guy and he's in jail for the next four years.

**Matthew Tankard** (3:10)
And her family, her dad was a prison guard.

**Meshel Laurie** (3:12)
Look, on paper, it's crazy, but it has worked out. But I did think like our caller here to the True Crime Hotline, as I was talking to both of them, I thought, I can't encourage people to pursue relationships like this. I feel like this is a miracle one-off. We did an episode, I spoke about it to both of them. I know the episode's called The Wags of True Crime, Meet the Wags, that's what I called it, thinking I was very funny at the time. Meet the Wags is the name of the episode of Australian True Crime, so you can dig that out.
It was with an author, a lady who had written a book with a number of these women, women who had married guys in jail or guys who just got out of jail. I have to say, I think without exception, they'd all gone terribly wrong.