Killing Time: Lunatic Soup

Andrew Fraser's bestselling and controversial true-crime memoirs are now being adapted into an exciting new television series called Killing Time! From 1975 to 2001, Andrew Fraser was a leading criminal solicitor with a successful national practice. And then it all went horribly wrong. In 1999 he was charged with being knowingly concerned with the importation of a commercial quantity of cocaine. Fraser pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing, trafficking a small quantity and to using cocaine over a period of time. He was sentenced to seven years in maximum security prison. Court in the Middle describes his early years - growing up in a family of lawyers; running hard to build a criminal law practice; his successful years with a national practice and defending high profile, sometimes notorious clients including Allan Bond, Laurie Connell, the Pettingill Family and the Morans; his relationship with cocaine; addiction and deals; crime and punishment and the shocking details of his time spent in a maximum security prison. After being convicted and disbarred, Fraser became the confidant of one of Australia's most notorious serial killers, Peter Dupas. What he learned made him the Homicide Squad's secret weapon. Angry at his treatment in jail and at his excessive sentence, the long-time defence lawyer enjoyed the irony of his situation: the authorities who destroyed his career now needed his cooperation. There was never any doubt that Andrew would give evidence, even though he knew that the defence would try to destroy his credibility, dredging up the past he so desperately wanted to forget. Fraser paints a vivid picture of the grim, terrifying and futile reality of maximum security prison life and of his time spent with the murderers, psychopaths and paedophiles.