Child sex abuse survivor XX: Anger without answers is just pain

THE child sex abuse survivor known only as XX reveals his thoughts on the failed bid for freedom by the paedophile who abducted him 27 years ago – as the journalist who opposed Colin Humphrys’ secret release explains why.

The man known as XX who was, as a child, kidnapped and abused by serial sex predator Colin Charles Humphrys.

• Original ruling: Supreme Court rules Humphrys should be released
• Appeal: DPP takes Humphrys case to the Full Court
• The victim: Humphrys victim says ‘monsters never change’
• The new laws: Humphrys to be kept in prison
• Sean Fewster’s analysis: How the legal system failed us
• Editorial: Time to heed victims’ call to protect our children

FOR more than 27 years, I’ve felt like I had no voice when it came to Colin Charles Humphrys, what he did to me and how the courts dealt with him.

What really broke my heart, over that time, was all the children whose harm – at both his hands, and those of his fellow predators – could have been prevented.

When I first heard Humphrys had reoffended I felt like a failure, because I couldn’t keep him in prison.

Now that I have a voice, I feel it has come at the perfect time.

I speak from my conscience, and I don’t have the strength to do nothing – I had to do something.

This was not something I could turn away from; the pain is just too real, too debilitating, to turn away.

XX pleads for Colin Humphrys to stay in jail

This situation, from the very beginning, has been so ridiculous and so absurd, and it really needed an insider to say what was going on in a way the public could digest.

There is no point being angry without having a solution, that doesn’t generate change – anger without answers is just pain.

I think this has been a fantastic group effort by everyone who’s been involved – The Advertiser, the Carly Ryan Foundation, the public and the politicians.

Everyone has really come together and found a good outcome.

I’m now really looking forward to seeing these laws tested in court, and see what we have ended up with.

We can’t have a final celebration until we’ve seen that but, on the surface, I’m very optimistic and very grateful.

I really hope we can save a few children from preventable harm.

Why a journalist decided to stand up against secrecy

Comment - Sean Fewster, Chief Court Reporter

THE only thing worse than an uncontrollable, unrepentant, repeat kidnapper and serial sexual predator being released is the thought of such a man being released in secret.

Of the countless suppression order applications I’ve fought over the past 16 years, none concerned me as much as that sought by Colin Charles Humphrys.

It was Wednesday, March 21, and Humphrys’ bid to be released on licence, under supervision, looked set to succeed.

Through his lawyer, the paedophile asked the Supreme Court to also ban publication of his proposed new suburb — theBowden-Bromptonarea.

Utilising the right journalists have, under state law, to challenge suppression orders, I stood up and asked Justice Trish Kelly to reject Humphrys’ plea.

Her Honour agreed to hear from me on Tuesday, March 27, ordering prosecution and defence counsel to provide me with their arguments as to why Humphrys deserved partial anonymity.

Despite her order, I did not receive those papers until the evening of Monday, March 26, giving me one night to prepare my counter-argument.

The following day, I told Justice Kelly that, under law, it was her duty to balance Humphrys’ purported chances of rehabilitation with both the public’s safety and its right to know.

I argued releasing Humphrys’ proposed address would allow parents to be informed and keep their children away from the predator – enhancing the public’s safety.

Justice Kelly agreed and refused the suppression order, concluding it was “in the public interest, and in the interests of monitoring Humphrys”, that people knew where he was.

“That way, if he’s not where he should be, there will be more than just police looking for him,” she said.

That victory, under The Advertiser and Sunday Mail’s “Your Right To Know” campaign, sparked community debate over Humphrys and prompted his victim, XX, to speak publicly for the first time. It also led directly to Thursday’s landmark legislative change, which not only ensures Humphrys will remain behind bars but stops others of his ilk seeking release.

Of the countless suppression order applications I’ve fought over the past 16 years, I’m grateful Humphrys’ unwarranted, unsettling bid for secrecy effectively sealed his own fate.

Follow @SeanFewster