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.
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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]