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Speaking Out About My Sexual Assault

Newspaper article 2007

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After my catague three sexual assault trial i was in the special victims unit with the DPP. i spoke out in the Sunday Telegraph a nation wide newspaper in Australia about my experience and how it made me feel. That i was mentally scared by speaking out about this experience when i was in the witness box. When i went home i wanted to hide away under my bed and never speak to another human ever again as i was so traumatised by this. The Sunday Telegraph was doing a story on sexual assault survivors and how they are treated in trials. How it needs to change so victims are not traumatized by this. As i was one of the worst sexual assault survivors in Australia at the time. i was raped for eight hours when i was seven and a half  months pregnant and nearly lost my baby. I had two social workers supporting me at the trial to look after my well being, one from the DPP special victims unit and my case worker from the crisis center that i was involved with where i lived. I was not drugged or drunk in any way when sexually assaulted like some survivors are though. The Sunday Telegraph would  ring me to ask me my opinion about what should change to improve the system. I also went to the attorney general, the domestic violence prevention team to tell them my story so they could make changes in how victims are treated when in the witness box. i also was used in the police system to educate training detectives about what happens to rape victims and what they need from them and what helps them. i wanted to speak out about this because the amount of survivors who  go to trial is really low and often it is not a pleasant experience for them to do.