Lisa Oldfield, television presenter and reality TV star, has spoken for the first time about being sexually assaulted by a taxi driver on her way home from a Christmas party in 2015.
“He has destroyed the woman I was. The attacker knocked the wind out of me. I have become a victim, not the strong brave fearless Lisa I was before the attack,” Oldfield tells News Local‘s Jo Casamento.
The Real Housewives of Sydney star said the attack almost ruined her marriage of 16 years to One Nation politician David Oldfield.
“I feel self-doubt and I’m not comfortable doing basic things like jumping in a cab any more … that can be really destabilising,” she says.
“And because it happened in broad daylight, it’s not like I am scared of the dark. It was so low risk so I keep asking myself, ‘How did this happen to me? And could it happen again?'”
Top Comments
That's awful, I feel nothing but pure sadness for her. I suggest there is also the whole media circus being a well known identity married to David Oldfield, it may have gone against her. Having worked with women In these types of cases it seems unless you have a boat load of evidence, and certain boxes have been crossed, a woman is unlikely to win in court . But we often still have a fear of being not believed or being re-traumatised when the man/men come to court.
I know a woman who went with her partner who assaulted her, so that she could get him to admit to it, and it would go on some sort of admissible public record, the counselor's records weren't properly written so the police refused to press charges. It is like anything it can be very unpredictable, and the Police are unlikely to press charges if they can't get the right sort of evidence for a conviction.
Don't they have cameras in taxis now? Couldn't you track the perpetrator through the GPS on his phone or his cab system to show he stopped for a period of time in the spot he assaulted her, while the meter on her journey was still running? I am absolutely not doubting her story at all, but SURELY there is some way he could be proven to be lying? If she wanted to pursue this complaint surely there are options available to the investigators especially as she had injuries and evidence of an attack with ruined clothes?
Yes, you are right in the sense that Lisa has a pretty good case to make BUT if you look at other cases similar to hers or even with greater evidence at hand you will find it is very rare for a male rapist to be found guilty. There was a trial recently with a sportsman in Melbourne accused of rape and an actual witness that heard the girl screaming for him to get off her and saw them struggling and he was acquitted. In that case the witness was female and that also goes against you in a rape trial. From my point of view - I had a very similar incident happen to me and I had people that heard me screaming for help ( although no one came to help, by the way!) and I did not press charges. Lots of reasons, probably the biggest reason was that one of the witnesses says I was flirting with the boys prior to it and that I shouldn't have been!!! I was stupid enough to believe them, even though I did not like the boys at all and was certainly not flirting with them, just talking. I was also very young at the time and didn't want to make trouble. In saying that, though, knowing what I know from a person close to me who is in the criminal enforcement field, today, 20 years later I would probably still not come forward if it happened to me again. A lot of things have to change and a lot of prejudice has to go before women feel safe about coming forward and getting a fair trial.
I'm not disagreeing with you on any of those points, and I know it's about 1% of total perpetrators who actually end up doing time, as well as male jurors are more sympathetic than female jurors in SA cases, which is quite confronting - what happened to the sisterhood, right? It's very disappointing, in the light of ALL the evidence, it still comes down to he said/she said. It seems to me is that the entire judicial system is set up to favour the perpetrators and penalise the victims, then its compounded by societal attitudes. The whole system needs an overhaul.