by Fleur Beale
The sense of responsibility weighed on Israel. It seemed it was up to him to make sure his sisters had food in this strange new world where meals didn’t automatically appear three times a day. He worried that there would be nothing for them to eat the next day, or even at the next meal. He accepted that his stomach pains were part of this new life.
Phil, knowing that the best thing he could do for his children was to give them back their mother, threw all his energy into making sure this second attempt to get her out would succeed. She’d been so upset by the worldly influences that he felt it would be best if they could live away from the outside world.
Accordingly, he put an ad in the paper seeking to rent a bach in an isolated part of the upper Marlborough Sounds. A Christian couple, Wes and Ellen, replied, and when they heard his story told him he could have the bach rent-free. They were his miracle.
There were many more obstacles to overcome, but Phil was extremely focussed; he would solve the difficulties one at a time. He made lists, ticking off each item as he achieved it.
Wes and Ellen took him and the children up to the Sounds to see the bach. It was ideal because the only access was by water which meant nobody could creep up on them. The drawback was that Phil now needed a boat, and he’d had no boating experience. He needed money to buy a boat and he had none. He added the boat, the boating know-how, and the money to his list. He took a course and got his marine certificate, ticked that off. Did a first-aid course and ticked that off, too. Making the money to buy a boat was the easiest of all. He knew how to make waterbeds so that was what he did. He set up a workshop in the lounge, and in the evenings he made the beds, getting the children to help with the assembly. The children loved helping; they thrived on having him around and doing things with him. It was exciting, too, because they knew that all this effort was to get their mother back.
The suppliers Phil had dealt with when he was in the community knew his story and helped him by giving him the mattresses for nothing. He would finish a bed, put an ad in the paper, and sell it the following day. By the end of March he had $20,000.
Meanwhile, he wanted his kids to keep in contact with their mother and would drop them off for weekend visits at the community. In effect, Phil was saying to his father, You can’t stop them seeing their mother and if you try holding on to them you know what I’ll do. What he would have done was go straight to the media and blast the whole story across every front page in the country. Both men by now were well aware of the power of the media and Phil knew his father clearly understood the amount of negative attention that would be generated if the community were to be involved in such publicity.
Eight-year-old Israel was terrified during those visits to the community. It was wonderful seeing their mum again, and all of the children looked forward to being with her each weekend, but he was old enough to be aware of the tense undertones of the visits. He knew from Neville’s preaching that outsiders were evil, wicked people, and now he and his sisters were the outsiders. All the time they were in the community, he felt people were looking at them, thinking how bad they were. He knew that this was the place they’d had to escape from, so the people here must be evil, even though he’d never heard his dad say so, and their mum had come back there to live, so how could they be? It was very confusing for a young boy with such a keen sense of responsibility.
Neville put a stop to the visits, telling Phil that it was too hard on the kids. Phil knew it wasn’t about the kids; this was just another chapter in the battle between him and his father. His determination equalled his father’s. His children were going to see their mother whether their grandfather liked it or not.
The following weekend he dropped them off out the front of the community, telling Israel, ‘Go in and tell Mum you’ve come to see her.’ Then he drove away.
Neville came out to meet them, bringing Sandy with him. He took one look at his five grandchildren standing hand-in-hand in front of him and launched into a tirade. Their father was evil. He was wicked. He had wrecked his children’s lives by forcing them to live outside in the full wickedness of an evil world with him, their Godless father.
Israel was terrified. Dawn just wanted be with her mother and she tried to shut out her grandfather’s shouting by clinging to her. Justine, Tendy and Crystal were too scared and too young to make sense of the outburst. They cried as Sandy held them while Neville repeated over and over: ‘Your father is evil. He’s wicked. Isn’t he, Sandy?’
It was clear Sandy was torn between being Neville’s obedient, humble servant, and protecting her children. The only way she could do so was to hold them and nod in response to Neville’s ranting. She was careful not to verbally support what he was saying, and when she was alone with her children she never repeated any of his accusations against Phil. But the entire weekend was tainted. None of them could relax, even when Neville wasn’t around, and they were frightened to let Sandy out of their sight.
When Phil picked them up two days later they were a mess. He loaded them into the car, but before he could get in, Neville came out with the men and surrounded him. With the children cowering in the car, Neville gave the order, ‘Gather round, men. Let’s cast the demons out of this guy.’
Above the melee of shouts and shaking fists, Phil heard one of the men yell, ‘Why don’t you get down on your knees and beg forgiveness?’
‘If that’s what it takes,’ Phil said, ‘then I’ll do it.’
They laughed.
He drove away, knowing that in the eyes of the community he was unforgiven and unforgivable.
All the way back to Christchurch he worked at reassuring the children: ‘Everything’s going to be okay, kids. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go back there again. Don’t worry, we’ll get your mum out. We’ll get her out.’
Neville’s diatribe didn’t change the way the children felt about their father. Israel remembers his calming presence in the car on the way home. They could relax. They were with their conquering hero, their rescuer, their dad.
Phil never took them to the community again, but he was more determined than ever that Neville wasn’t going to win. He would get Sandy out and the children would have their mother again.
He bought a boat for $15,000. Next he enrolled the children in the Correspondence School, had suitably modest clothes made for Sandy, and set the bach up. Everything was ready, except that he still hadn’t devised a plan to get her out and he considered another midnight raid too risky.
He devised and discarded plan after plan. Some he tried didn’t work. He asked the doctor for sedatives strong enough to send a person to sleep. There was a video night coming up in the community which would leave the accommodation blocks empty for the evening. The plan was for his younger brother David to sneak in, put a bottle of spiked water beside Sandy’s bed, and hide until she fell asleep. He would then call Phil on the mobile and together they would carry her out. David got into her room without any problem but heard somebody coming before he had a chance to put the water beside the bed. He scarpered, managing to get out without being caught.
Another time Phil heard that Sandy had a dentist’s appointment. He arranged for an accomplice to go to the waiting room and let him know when she arrived. Neville got wind of it and Sandy didn’t keep the appointment.
In the end Phil decided to kidnap Sandy when she was away from the community during the day, going to a fake doctor’s appointment he would set up for her, ostensibly a consultation about her ongoing eye problems.
The community doctor was the friend Phil had built the kitchen for years before, and although he knew very well that helping Phil meant he’d lose thousands of dollars in business – because Neville would cut off anyone who helped his son – he didn’t hesitate, and set up the appointment immediately.
With the day and time sorted, Phil went back to the planning. It was exciting to devise an intricate plot, and that it was against his father lent extra spice. He hired a plain white car and a police uniform, asked a
friend’s 21-year-old son to play the part of the policeman, and even wrote him a script of what to say when he pulled Sandy’s car over. Phil didn’t tell Faith or any of his siblings except Michael what he intended to do, for fear they would try and talk him out of it.
The planning had taken weeks but by April 1990 it was all complete. Phil didn’t begrudge the effort or time he put in, as it showed his children to what lengths he would go to get their mother back, and would also show his wife that he loved her and wanted her. He believed utterly that he was right to abduct Sandy; the issue wasn’t so much about taking her away from where she wanted to be, as giving her back to her children. She would be happy in the supportive environment he’d gone to so much trouble to create. Their children would be happy with Sandy free to be the loving mother he knew she wanted to be. All they needed was time away from the influence of the community, time for him to show Sandy that life on the outside didn’t have to be the hell Neville’s diatribes painted it. Phil didn’t consider the legalities of what he was doing, probably because he’d grown up in a community where his father’s word was above the law of the land. Out in the world it certainly wasn’t illegal for a grown man to disobey his father. He saw that the end justified the means.
On the day before Sandy’s appointment, Phil drove the children up to the bach at Blackwood Bay. He was so confident of the abduction succeeding that he told the children that Mummy was coming the next day. All of them were too excited to sleep much that night. By the morning Phil’s confidence of the previous night had vanished. Would it work? Would the timing be right?
In fact the plan worked perfectly. Back in Canterbury, the ‘policeman’ intercepted the car in which Sandy and her minder were travelling. He stuck word for word to the script Phil had written: ‘Are you Sandra Cooper, and are these the names of your children?’ When she said, ‘Yes’, he told her she was wanted for questioning.
She got out of the community car and into the hired car, without asking for police ID. They made an incongruous couple, the fake police officer and the woman in her long, blue dress, headscarf and sensible shoes – she accepting the turn of events without suspicion. Phil had banked on the fact that she was used to obeying authority figures, but more than that, he knew that once she did begin to understand the situation, she would go along with it because she’d be concerned about her children. They drove off, the ‘policeman’ telling her that he was going to take her to them. He then made an official-sounding radio call to Phil to say they were on their way.
Phil still couldn’t relax. It was a five-hour drive to Picton, and the ‘policeman’ had to stop to pick up Michael who again was acting as security, and the break might give Sandy the chance to escape. He knew, too, that seeing Michael would instantly give the game away because she knew him. Phil believes she must have suspected the truth but went along with the story because she wanted to see her children. She didn’t speak or ask questions during the entire journey.
Phil waited til the car was about an hour away before he loaded the children into their 17-foot runabout. The trip to Waikawa Bay from the bach at Blackwood Bay took about 20 minutes, with the children straining their eyes all the way in case Mummy was already there and waiting for them. When they got to the jetty there was still some time to wait. Phil strove to be calm and reassuring although his nerves were stretched tight. What would he say to Sandy? How would he justify what he’d done?
Her car got to the marina at Waikawa Bay at about three in the afternoon. The ‘policeman’ kept to the script as Phil approached: ‘Are you Philip Cooper?’
Phil wanted Sandy to feel that the whole exercise was official and under control because she had been so used to control in the community. But none of that mattered the minute she saw the children who raced towards her, smothering her with hugs, kisses, tears and questions.
All the way to the bach in the boat she cuddled and held them. She hadn’t seen them for about two months.
The only thing that didn’t go right was that the ‘police officer’ rolled the car on the way home. He wasn’t hurt, but his mother found out what Phil had done and she was none too pleased.
CHAPTER EIGHT: A TASTE OF PARADISE
No husband ever has the right to ask his wife or children to leave the Church and no Christian should ever leave the Church because he or she is asked to do so by any relative or family member. WHAT WE BELIEVE, P. 62
Sandy didn’t speak to Phil during the boat trip. As he had expected, all her attention and love was for her children, but she was also treating him with reserve, seeming to distance herself from him. He would have some explaining to do later. He hoped she would be able to accept his reasons for kidnapping her.
The children had so much to tell their mother. Almost before his father had the chance to tie up the boat, Israel leapt onto the jetty, holding his hand out to help his mum climb up. He wanted to drag her off right that second to show her the bach and all the wonderful things inside it. There was so much he wanted her to see: the trees, the hills and the beach where they could swim. She had to see their dog too, a yappy little terrier called Rufus. Sandy laughed and hugged Israel. ‘Wait,’ she told him. ‘It won’t disappear. We can’t leave the girls in the boat.’
Dawn picked Crystal up and passed her to her mother. Justine and Tendy scrambled out by themselves, and with Sandy carrying Crystal, the four older children danced around her, all talking at once, wanting her to share their good fortune at having such a magical place to stay. But the best magic of all was having their mother with them again.
Sandy put the children to bed that night, making it clear to Phil that she didn’t want any input from him. She prayed with them, read to them, and tucked them up. Dawn threw her arms around her mother’s neck and clung to her. She’d missed her so much. Would she stay with them this time? She wanted to have her mum all the time. She wanted her to kiss her goodnight every night.
Sandy stroked her daughter’s shoulder-length hair – how shockingly short it was – and told her how much she loved her. But she made no promises about staying. The children all slept in one room with four bunks, with Dawn and Crystal top and tailing. The four older children looked so like their father with their blond hair and Cooper features, whereas Crystal was a replica of Sandy herself, with darker hair and rounder face.
Sandy waited until they were all asleep before she spoke to Phil. Why had he taken her away from the community? He knew his explanation would be crucial if they were to have any chance of living together as a family. He kept it simple, not mentioning his father’s name at all. The children missed her, he missed her, and he wanted them to be a family again. He hoped they’d be able to achieve that here where they would be free from outside influences. She seemed to accept his explanation, but whether she really did, or said she did because she was so happy to be with her children, he didn’t know.
He didn’t know, either, whether all his careful planning would succeed, but as he watched Sandy with her children he was hopeful; she loved them, there was no doubt about that. Everything was set up for success; she was secure in the little world he’d provided; she didn’t have to deal with the outside and there were no pressures on her. All she had to do was be a mother. It only took a couple of days before she’d lost all her reserve with him and so began the happiest time of their married life.
Phil was still very careful not to put in her way any temptation to escape. He unplugged the phone and hid it. He didn’t take the family near a town for several weeks. He and Sandy spent their days supervising the children’s schoolwork, taking them for walks, and going fishing. There was no pressure and all he had to do was make sure he got enough food for them to survive, which he did by fishing and working the occasional day or two at the local salmon farm. When Sandy got frightened by the noise the possums made at night, Phil got out the shotgun and he and Israel went possum hunting. They relished their role as saviours and protectors of their women.
The bach was a paradise for the child
ren. They were with their mother, their father was around most of the time, and the house was furnished with proper chairs, tables and couches. There were pictures on the walls and rugs on the floor. They hadn’t experienced such comfort and luxury since leaving Faith’s home months before.
Phil’s relationship with Sandy was better than it had ever been. Neville wasn’t there, hovering over them as a real or threatened presence, and they could both relax. They made love often, revelling in the freedom from all pressure. However, their community indoctrination meant they never discussed birth control because it was evil, in the same way that abortion and murder were evil. They didn’t think about pregnancy, either. They were just two married people making love and would be happy with the consequences whatever they turned out to be.
Eventually they had to go into Picton for supplies. Phil was frightened that Sandy would run, so he took Israel aside and told him to make sure he always stayed with his mother. He knew it was putting a lot of responsibility on him, but he was counting on Sandy not taking just one child if she went back. She would go alone or not at all.
That first trip into town was an adventure for the children. They had never gone to town with their mother before – and they were going by boat! With one part of his mind, Phil listened to their chatter and to Sandy responding to them but, for him, the outing was an ordeal. He didn’t want Sandy to feel he was watching her every move, but he knew it was risky to go where she might find a phone and ring the community. He understood very well the total control his father had over his followers and he knew that Sandy was still torn. On that trip, he made sure the seven of them stayed together, involving the children and Sandy in every purchase he made. On subsequent trips he was able to relax his vigilance as she seemed to be letting go of the community.
They went everywhere by boat, one day getting caught by the weather on the way back from fishing. The sea came up too rough for him to dock the boat and he had to take it round to the next bay where it was sheltered enough for Sandy and the children to jump into the water and wade ashore. From there they had to walk back through the trees to the bach. Life for the children was exciting, it was fun and they felt secure and happy, although Israel still suffered from the stomach pains that had started in Christchurch. Again he didn’t mention them to his parents; they had enough to worry about. Even though life was idyllic on the surface, he knew there wasn’t much money, and that lack of money meant lack of food. He watched his mother. She seemed happy and he hoped she’d be with them forever, but there was still that undercurrent of worry.
