Jeni Haynes has lived her life with an army of strangers.
But with her father now likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars, the 49-year-old has given herself permission to be free from the protection of her 2,500 different personalities.
Richard Haynes has been sentenced to 45 years with a non-parole period of 33 years.
Here is the preview for Jeni’s appearance on 60 Minutes. Post continues after video.
Speaking to 60 Minutes, Jeni’s elation was infectious, “We’re free! We’re free, we’re finally, finally free,” she said.
“Every one of my alters, every person inside, the war is over, we won. Stand down,” she told Liz Hayes.
The case against Richard was the first of its kind in Australia, where a person was allowed to testify through various personalities.
Symphony a four-year-old girl, Ricky an eight-year-old boy, and Muscles a motorcycle-loving teenager, all took the stand to give evidence through Jeni.
Between the ages of four and 11, Jeni was sexually abused by her father, and as she told 60 Minutes, he “chose to inflict, severe sadistic, violent abuse. He did this every day of my entire childhood”.
Jeni developed Multiple Personality Disorder, now called Dissociative Identity Disorder, as a coping mechanism. It's where a person’s identity is fragmented into a number of distinct personality states called ‘alters’.
Victims design the multiple personalities as a way to disconnect and separate themselves from the situation.
For the past 10 years, Jeni has been fighting for justice with the help of detective Paul Stamoulis, who she describes as "God on legs".
In 2017, Richard was charged, and in February this year, Jeni finally had her day in court.
After he heard the testimony from "Symphony", Richard switched his plea from not guilty and admitted to 25 charges.
"I am thrilled that my father finally owned up. A guilty plea is my father admitting to everything he did and I could not be happier," Jeni told reporters outside court.
While handing down her sentence this month, Judge Sarah Huggett noted that the child abuse was among the worst to come before the court, with the physical harm often accompanied with "significant gratuitous cruelty".
Though his attacks often caused Jeni to bleed, urinate and cry, he continued and told her she deserved it and liked the abuse.
“This hurts me more than it hurts you,” he told her on one occasion.
“Mummy doesn’t want you and if you tell her, she will die and it will be your fault,” he said another time.
Jeni has a permanent colostomy bag, which she has described as a “degrading, daily reminder” of her father’s crimes, and unending problems with eyesight, hearing, dentistry and mental health.
"I hope his time in prison is as traumatic as my childhood was," Jeni told 60 Minutes.
With the court case behind her and her father out of her life for good, Jeni is looking forward to being free, finally.
Top Comments
I am, sadly, but one of so many now adult women & men who have been abused this way also here in Australia. Our life journeys are a testament to human survival. I was younger than Jeni, and abuse continued on in to my teens (left home). I am from a well respected, relatively wealthy, professional family. I was 40 years old before I could, in part, articulate what had happened to me, and also, tragically, without my knowledge, the abuse had crossed to the next generation (three of my own children). I had a clinical breakdown. I did not know what was happening to me, and it was quite sometime before I started to accept all was normal, my body's natural response to trauma. I still live with PTSD. My health will never allow me the joy of earning enough income, therefore I am grateful for legal entitlements of Australian social security. I am speaking up, and bravely writing here to plead with EVERYONE please, please consider the impacts for people like us, victims of crime, the impacts of having our new found independance, freedom, self esteem and autonomy ripped away and being forced on to Indue cashless wefare cards, and yet wealthy offenders will now have more freedoms and respect. I am fighting hard, and I will not stop.... but time is running out. Please help the broken, the, at times, voiceless like me.