The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 5

News 5 ttE SUNDAY AGE MAY Athena: A heavenly body at home among the stars alio distracted. "Well, OK, but you know, It's been a very long day. It's funny how all those shopping malls look the same. I might be a little slow today." Being an Aries, I didn't push it and over tea we talked about Melbourne. Athena Starwoman was born in Prahran and grew up in Hampton.

Her mother was a housewife, her father an engineer. After leaving school, Athena (she declined to tell me her family's surname) became a secretary shorthand and typing, that sort of thing. A sensible, typical post-war Australian upbringing. And yet Athena's grandmother, Barbara, read star signs. She Influenced Athena and her older sister, who for many years was known as Planet Janet before retiring to the southern New South Wales coast Athena can't recall her first star moment, but says she remembers as a child being drawn to the night skies.

"I guess from that moment I felt there was a force far greater, even though I didn't know how to express It as that." During her teens and 20s, Athena read books on astrology. It wasn't until she was 28 and living in the United States that she started her formal astrological studies. In the late 1970s, she returned to Sydney and was interviewed for the then Sunday Telegraph. She started reading people's charts, then gained a regular radio spot In 1980 she wrote and published her first book, Star Struck, and not long after was offered the gig at Woman'sDay. Athena's work has taken her around the world.

Seven years ago she met Dr John Demartlnl, an American inspirational speaker, at a seminar In San Francisco. He is a Saglttarlan and they married five years ago. Of her career, Athena said: "II was fate, totally fate. I'd say it was written In the stars. It just happened and I still don't know how it is that I am living In Trump Tower and doing what I do and having such a wonderful time." She spent the past five years writing Zodiac, in which each of the 1 2 star signs is examined, with important new millennium observations Included.

"It really took a lot out of me, but I wanted to put my life experience down," she said. "I put every cell and molecule into that book." Our hour was up and she had to go to another function. "I'm Just burnt out at the moment, but that's because I have just written a 450-page book," she said as we walked through the hotel foyer. "But the human body and spirit Is extremely quick to replenish." With that she flashed a moonbeam smile, signed my copy of Zodiac, shook hands and disappeared. It's not easy being a star woman, Trump Tower or no Trump Tower.

Corrie Perkin Athena Starwoman Athena Starwoman lives in Trump Tower in New York. Each time I think of The Donald and his latest blonde wife rubbing shoulders with a girl from Melbourne who made her fortune reading people's zodiac charts, I smile. Also surprising: Athena's photo In her long-running column in Woman's Day does not do her justice. She Is more beautiful, and when we met, there was not a purple caftan or a moonstone headdress in sight. Just a slim, sexy woman dressed In tight pants and a Jacket, looking for all the world like she'd stepped out of a Ralph Lauren catalogue.

Woman's Day calls Athena Starwoman the world's most accurate astrologer. "Oh, she's brilliant," said my mother, who for 30 years has been buying the magazine for its crosswords. "Is she doing any book signlngs near me? Id love to meet her." certainly at Just about every other shopping centre in the country. Athena Starwoman is on a tour of Australia to promote her new book, Zodiac: Your Astrology Guide for the New Millennium. On Monday, Athena started at Dymocks In Brisbane's Indooroopilly, then down to the Gold Coast that afternoon for another shopping centre appearance.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at book-signings all over Sydney, Thursday and Friday In Melbourne. Today she meets her fans in Adelaide's Rundle Mall. According to her publicist, crowds love Athena, and the book, released three weeks ago, is selling well. With her own website, magazine columns, star hotline telephone service and an International following, it is no wonder she estimates her zodiac business at $US1 million million) a year. We had tea In the lounge of her city hotel.

Within two minutes, she asked: "Are you a Leo? You look like a Leo." Do What do Leos look like? "Oh, your hair looks like the hair of a Leo. All long and wild." I admitted to Athena I was not a Leo. Maybe by the end of the interview you can guess, I said optimistically. The energy faded from Athena's eyes. I sensed this was a party trick of which she'd long since tired.

She politely smiled, but looked Star-struck: Athena Starwoman has struck It rich. Picture: vince calmiuri Not near mum's house, but Secret witness link. to robbery vou 4 number of offices in this building and it would appear mine was the only one targeted that it was not a random choice." Both robberies were in St Kilda Road, one occurred at Easter and the other at Christmas, and both offices contained files on E292. The secret witness went undercover to gather evidence against Australia's biggest amphetamines syndicate, i re Ur5 ady? anx was to last eight years, produce 600 intelligence reports and spawn 16 separate taskforces. It smashed the most sophisticated drug syndicate in the country.

The witness went into protection and was forced to leave Australia with his family in 1996. During the Christmas-New Year break of 1996-97 thieves broke into the drug squad office and stole more than 100 statements made by E292. They also took documents that identified his address in England, forcing him to move again. No one has ever been charged. He returned to Australia this year to fight for compensation, but left again last month, saying law-enforcement authorities had failed to deliver on promises to settle him in a new country and pay reasonable compensation.

He was paid $350,000, which he said was less than his original agreement. After being told of the break-in at his lawyer's office, E292 told The Sunday Age. "When is this all going to end? I have been given so little support. I have lost my country because I gave evidence, and now I wonder if anyone cares. "When you think that they broke into the drug squad to try to find me I have no doubt they would be prepared to go through my lawyer's office, to try to find where I am." He said police had not fulfilled a promise to get him resident's status.

"I have given my evidence. I am yesterday's man," he said. By JOHN SILVESTER A Melbourne lawyer believes a break-in at his office may have been an attempt to find files on a secret witness who was forced to leave Australia after giving evidence against a major drug ring. Police sources have no doubt that corrupt officers had already burgled the the squad offices to try to find where the witness codenamed E292 was living. The latest burglary was at trie office of the witness's lawyer, Paul Duggan, only two weeks after E292 left Australia in April.

Mr Duggan said his 11th-flo'or office in St Kilda Road was burgled over Easter, but the thieves appeared to be searching for information rather than valuables. They hacked into his office computer and broke open a filing cabinet filled with legal documents. "My immediate, reaction Was that someone was looking for something of a sensitive nature," Mr Duggan said. He said the thieves took a dictaphone, mobile phone arid computer disks, and locked the door after they left. Police have additional information to support the theory that robbery was not the motive for the break-in, and that the thieves were trying to find E292.

Mr Duggan said he believed his unmarked files on the secret witness were not disturbed. "I am satisfied the file has not been compromised," he said. "There are a large Still on the run: Secret witness E292 and his wife. headed by John William Samuel Higgs. He was the key witness in Operation Phalanx, a drug squad investigation that resulted in the arrest of 135 suspects and the discovery of $371,000 in cash and $415,000 in counterfeit United States currency.

Police also seized farms, cars, guns and eight tonnes of chemicals capable of producing amphetamines then valued at more than $200 million. Police say E292 was the single most important intelligence-gathering resource for Australian law enforcement. Operation Phal Z2. tf .1 With the Nationals Tailored GST Business Package, you will be. 5 r- "I YES, I want to know more about the National's Tailored GST Business Package.

Please Have a Business Banker call me. Send me a FREE information pack. I currently bank with the National Yes No Please use BLOCK letters MrMrsMissMs First name Surname Business name Paul Duggan: would appear mine was the only one targeted." Picture: EAMON GALLAGHER Address Postcode Phone(H)( You can't ignore the GST or leave it to chance. Your business has to be ready for it. The National's Tailored GST Business Package does more than just guide you and your business through the GST, it also includes information and practical tools to help you manage the new tax now and into the future.

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(W)( 3 die on roads Murder verdict Man missing Free fax this coupon to 1800 285 165 or mail to: Reply Paid AAA 1743, National Tailored GST Buslneie Package, GPO Box 1743, Melbourne. VIC 3001. ta A Wlieelers Hill man found guilty In 1998ofkilIingan associate in King Street, Melbourne, wasyesterday again convicted of the same crime in a retrial. In the Victorian Supreme Court yesterday a jury found Shane Alexander Cogley, ofLum Road, Wlieelers Hill, guilty of murdering Kevin Hitchens, 29, In 1998. The jury had been deliberating since Thursday.

Cogley had claimed Mr Hitchens committed suicide. Police have appealed for help to find a man from the Colac district in Victoria's west who has not been seen since Thursday. Lawrence Savage, 46, has failed to contact family, friends or workmates. He was last seen in a Colac bank on Thursday afternoon. He Is believed to have left the area In his 1989 white Toyota four-wheel-drive.

Anyone with information should telephone Colac police on 5231 5599. Three people were killed on the state's roads yesterday, including a Caulfield North man, 26, who died in a crash on Dandenong Road, Windsor; about 12.30am. A man in his early 20s died after a two-car collision south of Nathalia, near the New South Wales border, while a 31-year-old motorcyclist was killed in an accident at Carrum Downs. The three fatalities take the Victorian road toll to 159, 12 more than at the same time last year. A 1 1 nr)cr i a i a i ai iitiaiio I CONTACT YOUR BUSINESS BANKER OR CALL 13 10 12 'Terms and conditions apply.

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