news

Tara Moss speaks about being raped by 'someone she trusted.'

Australian author and supermodel, Tara Moss, has shared the details of her sexual assault in a campaign to highlight violence against women.

Trigger warning: This post deals with sexual assault and may be triggering to some readers.

As part of a campaign to raise awareness of violence against women, Author and model Tara Moss has spoken publicly of her experience with sexual assault – a story she kept locked up for 20 years.

Forty-one-year-old Moss, who is a domestic violence advocate, she was raped by someone she trusted when they offered to drive her home from an acting class.

A Current Affair revealed the model was raped and “imprisoned for a night” by her attacker.

The attacker, who was described as a close friend of Moss’, ultimately was convicted of sexual assault, but not on the charges laid against him by Moss.

“When I did go forward to the police, I didn’t feel I got the support I would have liked. I think that’s probably a fairly common situation for people,” Moss said.

Related content: What happens when women like Pamela Anderson and Tara Moss talk about rape.

Moss said that “about a dozen” women came forward with sexual assault allegations against the same man, and the only reason he was convicted – on one count only – was that his friend testified against him in court.

Domestic violence kills two women every week. Moss is now an ambassador for the Full Stop Foundation to provide assistance to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Related content: A week ago Tara Costigan gave birth to her daughter. Now she’s dead.

“This kills more women than cancer. We need to be able to talk about it. We need to change it and we need to say it’s never okay,” Moss told A Current Affair.

“Intimate partner violence, for example, is the leading non-disease related cause of death for women in this country between the ages of 15 to 44.

“I’m going to use my time on this earth to change these statistics.”

If you need help with sexual assault please contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or visit the Full Stop Foundation website.

Related Stories

Recommended

Top Comments

Alice O 9 years ago

Isn't it terrible that you can have multiple women all making the same claims...but they're all just unsubstantiated hysterical, possibly vengeful bitches until the guy's friend agrees.

sleepy and confused 9 years ago

I thought the same thing. It's no wonder so many women don't report.

Amomynous 9 years ago

So what do you propose? That the standard of proof for each charge should be lowered with each subsequent accusation?