Sexual assault survivor urges others to speak out

A woman who was raped by her uncle when she was a child has urged other sexual assault survivors to speak up and tell their stories.

Transcript

00:00 According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, sexual assault is the only major crime category

00:05 that continues to increase year to year with almost 90% of sexual assault survivors never

00:11 reporting their ordeal.

00:13 There are six times more female victims than male and 61% of victims, like I was at the

00:19 time, are under the age of 18.

00:22 Like me, in 70% of cases women are raped by someone they know in a home they believe to

00:28 be safe.

00:30 And yet one in five Australians think that women who say they were sexually assaulted

00:36 are exaggerating or making it up.

00:38 That's the highest of any Western country.

00:42 And adding to these horrifying statistics, rapists risk a less than 1% chance of being

00:49 arrested, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced.

00:53 Almost every rapist gets away with it and even if they're found guilty their sentencing

00:57 is minimal and totally does not reflect the trauma that they caused.

01:02 In a case of incestual sexual assault, like mine, where an uncle raped his niece, families

01:08 feel a lot of shame and often the victim is silenced so as not to bring shame upon the

01:13 family.

01:14 But the worst thing we can do is silence a victim because sexual violence thrives in

01:20 silence and by silencing victims you pass trauma onto the next generation.

01:26 I was very lucky that my mum, dad and sister believed me and supported me when I told them

01:31 about the abuse.

01:32 I want to thank them for going through this very difficult process with me.

01:37 I also want to acknowledge the incredible support from my partner Johnny and my close

01:41 friends and to shine a light on the incredible work done by Detective Senior Constable Nathan

01:46 Bates from the Criminal Investigation, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse team, Sonia Osfield,

01:52 Senior Case Manager and Councillor from the Justice and Community Safety Directorate and

01:57 Patty Ng, my witness liaison and all the team at the DPP.

02:03 We need cultural change towards sexual violence in Australia, starting with teaching credible

02:08 sex and consent education in Australian schools, making victim-centred sexual assault laws

02:14 and introducing sentencing reform to properly reflect the damage caused by sexual violence,

02:20 especially on children.

02:23 The time of silence is over.

02:26 In speaking out and reporting my sexual assault, I've gone from being a victim to a survivor

02:32 and the more of us that report sexual violence, the stronger we become.

02:37 I encourage all victims to speak up and redirect the shame to where it belongs, with the perpetrator.

02:44 Together we can create concrete change for our daughters and sons.

02:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]