Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing.

“They actually take the skin off the skull, rebuild the head to the shape it would have been, and then put the skin… back over the head.”

What initially seems like a horrifying crime was, in truth, a vital move by the Australian Federal Police to help capture a man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people, including many Australians.

That was then-AFP detective superintendent David Craig, who led the federal police response to the 2005 Bali bombings.

“I wanted to send a message that Australians aren’t going to be bullied,” he told Frost. 

“So, I reserved the very table at which you would have been seated that night, on the opening night, and I invited the Indonesian police as well.”

“It wasn’t a particularly relaxing meal, but for me, as an Australian, I wanted to stick it in the face of these pricks…

“There were shrapnel marks on the table, and although none of us quite had the appetite, we sat together, discussed, and demonstrated solidarity.”