If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, please seek help with a qualified counsellor or by calling 1800 RESPECT.
You may have recently read about Amy*, the 14-year-old Geelong girl who was allegedly raped by three men on November 1, 2015. An immeasurably brave young woman, Amy was the victim/survivor of an alleged vicious sexual assault who discontinued the prosecution of her alleged attackers owing to the spectre of re-traumatisation by the legal process. The trial was discontinued on February 24, this year.
Recently, Amy’s telling of her story prompted me and many others to stand in solidarity with her and tell our stories of sexual abuse and assault and rape, too; these are stories of having elected not to report or not to pursue charges against perpetrators, and of having endured traumatic experiences through the legal process where we have chosen to proceed. We speak in order to bring about change in an arena where despite much laudable progress, change is still urgently needed.
Why is it that such change is needed in Australia in 2017? It is needed because both reporting and conviction rates remain woefully low, preventing victim/survivors from accessing justice and reducing public safety by leaving offenders free and in the community and sending them the message that they can behave with impunity. And it is needed because victim/survivors who do proceed to prosecution continue to report negative experiences, with many describing it as “brutal”. Something, I’m sure you’d agree, is going wrong.
As a young child, I was determined not to participate in any prosecution of my abuser. This was borne of my feelings around the re-telling of what had happened to me.