Kim Hollingsworth
Encyclopedia
Kim Michelle Hollingsworth (born 1966) is an Australia
n woman who was formerly a stripper
, prostitute, student police officer and undercover agent. She was dismissed from the New South Wales Police Academy for failing to disclose her past. Her judicial attempts for reinstatement were ultimately unsuccessful. She now operates a trail riding
business.
Hollingsworth is portrayed by Emma Booth
in the 2010 television miniseries Underbelly: The Golden Mile
.
police officer. After completing her schooling at Wodonga West High School
in 1984, she moved to Sydney
. After a succession of jobs including shop assistant and waitress, she turned to stripping and eventually prostitution. She sometimes performed at fundraising functions and bucks nights frequented by police officers, occasionally leading to paid sex. During her eight years as a prostitute, Hollingsworth became aware of some police extorting brothel
keepers and demanding sexual favours from prostitutes.
As other students became aware of her past, she was subjected to harassment and requests for sexual favours. About one month after commencing her studies, Hollingsworth was recognised as a former prostitute by a police officer studying a detective
s course at the Academy. He approached her to work in a brothel that he was opening in western Sydney.
which was at that time investigating police corruption. In meetings with staff assisting the Commission she named a further 20 officers who frequented brothels and strip shows. Hollingsworth subsequently stated that the Royal Commission encouraged her to return to prostitution to collect information on police involvement in the vice industry. Her apartment was fitted with a hidden camera
and she wore a "wire
" to entrap the corrupt police officer, who by then was skimming 10% of Hollingsworth's income from prostitution.
Hollingsworth was subsequently sent to Adelaide
for her own protection; however, it was alleged she was encouraged by police to again return to prostitution to support herself.
In 1997 Hollingsworth appealed her dismissal to the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales
(IRC). Commissioner Connor ordered the Police Service to reinstate Hollingsworth to her former position as student police officer and to pay her $35,000 for lost income.
The Police Service in turn appealed this decision and, on 22 December 1997, the full bench of the IRC quashed her reinstatement, noting Hollingsworth's deception of the Police Service at the time of her recruitment. The Commission noted, however, "room for sympathy for Ms Hollingsworth and the position which she is in, particularly after her substantial co-operation with the Police Royal Commission".
A counter appeal by Hollingsworth was determined in her favour by the IRC on 21 May 1999. The Police Service was ordered to reinstate her to her former position as a student police officer and to recommence her training with the next intake after 21 May 1999, and that the amount of $35,000 be paid no later than 28 May 1999.
By the time of Hollingsworth's reinstatement, initial police training had been transferred to Charles Sturt University where students were required to complete three sessions of the Diploma of Policing Practice prior to appointment as a probationary constable. Hollingsworth agreed to participate in that program. Despite attempting to study at the College on three occasions however, she was subjected to harassment and ridicule from other students and left the program.
In 2006, then aged 40, Hollingsworth launched a last-ditch effort to join the Police Force. She returned to court and sought to enforce the earlier orders to be employed as a student police officer. The court found that the position had since been abolished, and it had no power to vary the earlier decision.
Hollingsworth's business interests now include horse agistment
and trail riding
.
In 2004 Hollingsworth gave evidence against a horse property owner accused of failing to exercise reasonable care for a horse on agistment
. She also led protests against the captivity of animals in Australian circuses.
and Screentime Australia considered a biopic called Blue Lady, to be based on the life of Hollingsworth, depicted as "the true story of Kim Hollingsworth's determined, terrifying and courageous journey from stripper to police officer". The program did not proceed to production.
Following the success of the first two series of Underbelly
, the Nine Network
and Screentime Australia produced a third series (Underbelly: The Golden Mile
) set in Kings Cross, Sydney
in 1989. Hollingsworth's character (played by Emma Booth
) featured in the series. Executive producer Des Monaghan said "It's a remarkable role because Kim Hollingsworth is a remarkable woman. Her story is one we've been interested in for a long time." Hollingsworth is described as "one of the series' most compelling characters". Hollingsworth was a key adviser on the production.
A companion book to the series will be published in 2010. Its summary notes "Kim Hollingsworth is a policeman's daughter who wants to follow daddy's footsteps. She's a stripper and a hooker but that's no problem – until she blows the whistle on bent cops who think they can stand over her".
In 2010 Hollingsworth appeared in a bikini spread in lads' mag Zoo Weekly
at age 44.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n woman who was formerly a stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
, prostitute, student police officer and undercover agent. She was dismissed from the New South Wales Police Academy for failing to disclose her past. Her judicial attempts for reinstatement were ultimately unsuccessful. She now operates a trail riding
Trail riding
Trail riding sometimes called horse or pony trekking is riding outdoors on natural trails and roads as opposed to riding in an enclosed area such as a riding arena. The term may encompass those who travel on horses, on mountain bikes, or on motorcycles and other motorized all-terrain vehicles...
business.
Hollingsworth is portrayed by Emma Booth
Emma Booth (actress)
Emma Booth is an Australian model-turned-actress. From Perth in Western Australia, the former teen model and TV star played a significant role in the 2007 film Introducing the Dwights, opposite Brenda Blethyn.-TV and Movies Career :...
in the 2010 television miniseries Underbelly: The Golden Mile
Underbelly: The Golden Mile
Underbelly: The Golden Mile is a 13-part Australian television mini-series loosely based on real events that stemmed from the nightclub scene of the Sydney suburb of Kings Cross. The timeline of the series is the years between 1988 and 1999. it primarily depicts the running of Kings Cross and the...
.
Early life
Hollingsworth was born in 1966, the daughter of a VictorianVictoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
police officer. After completing her schooling at Wodonga West High School
Wodonga West Secondary College
Wodonga West Secondary was one of three public secondary schools educating Years 7-9 in Wodonga, Victoria. In 2005-2006 it formally merged and pooled resources with the other two public secondary schools in Wodonga, Wodonga High School and Mitchell Secondary College...
in 1984, she moved to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. After a succession of jobs including shop assistant and waitress, she turned to stripping and eventually prostitution. She sometimes performed at fundraising functions and bucks nights frequented by police officers, occasionally leading to paid sex. During her eight years as a prostitute, Hollingsworth became aware of some police extorting brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
keepers and demanding sexual favours from prostitutes.
Police trainee and undercover agent
In 1994 Hollingsworth applied to join the New South Wales Police Force but failed the physical agility test. She applied successfully in 1995 and was sent to the New South Wales Police Academy in Goulburn. She began well and earned positive comments in her class report.As other students became aware of her past, she was subjected to harassment and requests for sexual favours. About one month after commencing her studies, Hollingsworth was recognised as a former prostitute by a police officer studying a detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
s course at the Academy. He approached her to work in a brothel that he was opening in western Sydney.
Undercover agent
Hollingsworth lodged a formal complaint against the detective; the matter came to the attention of the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police ServiceRoyal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service
The Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service was held in the State of New South Wales, Australia between 1995 and 1997. The Royal Commissioner was Justice James Roland Wood...
which was at that time investigating police corruption. In meetings with staff assisting the Commission she named a further 20 officers who frequented brothels and strip shows. Hollingsworth subsequently stated that the Royal Commission encouraged her to return to prostitution to collect information on police involvement in the vice industry. Her apartment was fitted with a hidden camera
Hidden camera
A hidden camera is a still or video camera used to film people without their knowledge. The camera is "hidden" because it is either not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another object...
and she wore a "wire
Covert listening device
A covert listening device, more commonly known as a bug or a wire, is usually a combination of a miniature radio transmitter with a microphone. The use of bugs, called bugging, is a common technique in surveillance, espionage and in police investigations.A bug does not have to be a device...
" to entrap the corrupt police officer, who by then was skimming 10% of Hollingsworth's income from prostitution.
Hollingsworth was subsequently sent to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
for her own protection; however, it was alleged she was encouraged by police to again return to prostitution to support herself.
Dismissal and fight for reinstatement
On 18 July 1995 (while Hollingsworth was co-operating with the Royal Commission) Superintendent R. J. Myatt, Acting Principal at the Academy, dismissed her for omitting information about her previous employment from her application.In 1997 Hollingsworth appealed her dismissal to the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales
Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales
The Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales conciliates and arbitrates industrial disputes, sets conditions of employment and fixes wages and salaries by making industrial awards, approves enterprise agreements and decides claims of unfair dismissal in New South Wales, a state of Australia...
(IRC). Commissioner Connor ordered the Police Service to reinstate Hollingsworth to her former position as student police officer and to pay her $35,000 for lost income.
The Police Service in turn appealed this decision and, on 22 December 1997, the full bench of the IRC quashed her reinstatement, noting Hollingsworth's deception of the Police Service at the time of her recruitment. The Commission noted, however, "room for sympathy for Ms Hollingsworth and the position which she is in, particularly after her substantial co-operation with the Police Royal Commission".
A counter appeal by Hollingsworth was determined in her favour by the IRC on 21 May 1999. The Police Service was ordered to reinstate her to her former position as a student police officer and to recommence her training with the next intake after 21 May 1999, and that the amount of $35,000 be paid no later than 28 May 1999.
By the time of Hollingsworth's reinstatement, initial police training had been transferred to Charles Sturt University where students were required to complete three sessions of the Diploma of Policing Practice prior to appointment as a probationary constable. Hollingsworth agreed to participate in that program. Despite attempting to study at the College on three occasions however, she was subjected to harassment and ridicule from other students and left the program.
In 2006, then aged 40, Hollingsworth launched a last-ditch effort to join the Police Force. She returned to court and sought to enforce the earlier orders to be employed as a student police officer. The court found that the position had since been abolished, and it had no power to vary the earlier decision.
Hollingsworth's business interests now include horse agistment
Agistment
Agistment originally referred specifically to the proceeds of pasturage in the king's forests. To agist is, in English law, to take cattle to graze, in exchange for payment.-Agistment:...
and trail riding
Trail riding
Trail riding sometimes called horse or pony trekking is riding outdoors on natural trails and roads as opposed to riding in an enclosed area such as a riding arena. The term may encompass those who travel on horses, on mountain bikes, or on motorcycles and other motorized all-terrain vehicles...
.
Animal rights activist
Hollingsworth has been a vegetarian since childhood. She became a vegan in the 1990s. Had she gained reinstatement as a police trainee, Hollingsworth intended to pursue a vegan police uniform and footwear.In 2004 Hollingsworth gave evidence against a horse property owner accused of failing to exercise reasonable care for a horse on agistment
Agistment
Agistment originally referred specifically to the proceeds of pasturage in the king's forests. To agist is, in English law, to take cattle to graze, in exchange for payment.-Agistment:...
. She also led protests against the captivity of animals in Australian circuses.
Depictions in the media
In 2002 the Seven NetworkSeven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
and Screentime Australia considered a biopic called Blue Lady, to be based on the life of Hollingsworth, depicted as "the true story of Kim Hollingsworth's determined, terrifying and courageous journey from stripper to police officer". The program did not proceed to production.
Following the success of the first two series of Underbelly
Underbelly (series)
Underbelly is an Australian television true crime-drama which originally broadcast on the Nine Network. Each series contains 13 episodes and is based on real-life events including the Melbourne gangland killings between 1995-2004, the Griffith drug trade between 1976-1987, and the Kings Cross scene...
, the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
and Screentime Australia produced a third series (Underbelly: The Golden Mile
Underbelly: The Golden Mile
Underbelly: The Golden Mile is a 13-part Australian television mini-series loosely based on real events that stemmed from the nightclub scene of the Sydney suburb of Kings Cross. The timeline of the series is the years between 1988 and 1999. it primarily depicts the running of Kings Cross and the...
) set in Kings Cross, Sydney
Kings Cross, New South Wales
Kings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
in 1989. Hollingsworth's character (played by Emma Booth
Emma Booth (actress)
Emma Booth is an Australian model-turned-actress. From Perth in Western Australia, the former teen model and TV star played a significant role in the 2007 film Introducing the Dwights, opposite Brenda Blethyn.-TV and Movies Career :...
) featured in the series. Executive producer Des Monaghan said "It's a remarkable role because Kim Hollingsworth is a remarkable woman. Her story is one we've been interested in for a long time." Hollingsworth is described as "one of the series' most compelling characters". Hollingsworth was a key adviser on the production.
A companion book to the series will be published in 2010. Its summary notes "Kim Hollingsworth is a policeman's daughter who wants to follow daddy's footsteps. She's a stripper and a hooker but that's no problem – until she blows the whistle on bent cops who think they can stand over her".
In 2010 Hollingsworth appeared in a bikini spread in lads' mag Zoo Weekly
Zoo Weekly
Zoo is a weekly lads' magazine published in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 29 January 2004, as the second weekly men's magazine in the UK after the similar and rival magazine Nuts)...
at age 44.
External links
- Kim Hollingsworth on 60 Minutes - video
- Kim Hollingsworth on 60 Minutes - transcript
- Transcript of interview with Hollingsworth, June 2000, Animal Liberation Front, includes historical and contemporary images.