Woman claims she wasn't Clavell's 'hostage'

One of the four women holed up in a Adelaide massage parlour with fugitive Rodney Clavell says those present were not held against their will and that she tried to talk the gunman out of taking his own life.

The unnamed woman, who spoke with Channel Seven's Today Tonight, was the last person to leave Clavell's side before he shot himself.

When asked if she was scared of Clavell the woman replied, "Why? Why would I be scared of a gentle man?"

"It doesn't feel real that he's gone. It's broken my heart," said the woman who claimed to have been "really, really good friends" with the 46-year-old.

In the unpaid interview, the woman said she chose to stay with Clavell until the very end and that "he actually thanked us for staying with him".

"I knew what he was going to do – that's why I walked out and that's why I was crying, that's why I was hysterical," she said.

The woman said that Clavell "did not keep us hostage" or "threaten us" and that it was her who barricaded the doors to the premises, not Clavell.

"I put things against the walls … if that thing moved, it'd fall and I'd know," she said.

She also said they watched the entire siege unfold on television and called most of the reporting "lies".

The woman said that she was in contact with police from 4am right until the very last phone call and repeatedly told authorities that the mood in the brothel was "fine".

"I knew at the end of the day what would happen. We both did. But we both tried as best we could to make it as good as we possibly could."

The woman said Clavell was a committed Christian and that he prayed "to the very last moment."

She said his last words to her before she left were: "I love you baby girl".

After exiting the building, the woman was photographed collapsing to the ground in tears she said it was at that moment that she heard a gunshot and knew Clavell has taken his own life.

The woman said she decided to speak out on her ordeal because "Rodney made me promise to come and tell you my story so I could clear my name and his."

Clavell's death is being investigated by the coroner as a death in custody.

Source: Today Tonight

Author: Natasha Lee, Approving editor: Simon Black