Uniform Justice: Gabrielle Angel’s 60-year fight to get child rape allegations investigated

A woman who alleges she was raped as a child living on an air force base is still fighting for justice 60 years on. Trying to report her assault to authorities felt like “being raped all over again”.

A woman who alleges she was raped as a child by one of her father’s air force officer colleagues is still fighting for justice more than six decades later.

Gabrielle Angel, who now lives overseas and because of her trauma will not return to Australia, said her complaints were not investigated by police, and that trying to report her assault to authorities felt like “being raped all over again”.

Now 71, she said she was just eight years old when she was first sexually assaulted by the officer, which escalated to rapes in her teen years.

“I contacted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in November 2014 and I thought this was finally going to help me,” Ms Angel said.

“Reaching out to the royal commission was me grabbing hold of some kind of rescue line but I didn’t realise I was grabbing onto barbed wire.”

Gabrielle Angel alleges she was raped by a senior air force officer when she was just a child.

She was told her case did not meet its terms of reference, and police said her case was too old.

“I thought this was finally going to help me, I’m finally telling my story and hopefully someone will believe me … from the time I told my story it’s been a nightmare,” Ms Angel said.

“The whole thing has been reliving it, being called a liar, going through psychiatric evaluations ... I’ve got nothing to hide – I’m 71 years old for God’s sake.”

After her family came to Australia with the promise of a better life from war-torn Europe, Ms Angel moved onto an air base in Victoria after her stepfather enlisted.

In 1958, aged just eight, her stepfather’s superior officer took Gabrielle for a “private lesson”.

“He said ‘Do you know where babies come from?’ and me, being curious, I said something like ‘cabbage patches’,” she said.

“He then proceeded to undress me, pulled down my pants and exposed himself. Then I got a whole sex lesson.”

 What the Uniform Justice campaign is calling for.

Ms Angel said her mother refused to believe the assault, which caused a lifelong rift.

“She said I was making it all up because she was very friendly with his wife,” Ms Angel said.

The assaults became rape when Ms Angel was a teenager and lasted until she was 15.

Ms Angel said the senior officer would wait until his wife wasn’t home to continue their “private lessons”.

“I learnt how to cry without making a sound,” she said.

Years later, after a lifetime of trying to bury the traumatic memories, everything came flooding back to her when the Royal Commission opened for submissions.

After being initially told she didn’t meet the terms of reference and only being included after engaging a lawyer, she was told she had to make a police complaint.

It took a year for the police to get back to Ms Angel.

“This is the most insulting part of it, when I told my story to Victoria Police, I was told my case was too old to investigate,” she said.

Attempts to get support from Victorian-based victims organisations have gone nowhere because, she said, the abuse occurred on a federally-run base.

Ms Angel also reported her abuse to the Defence ombudsman and Defence reporting tool SEMPRO but with no response.

“My life was destroyed … who are they defending? My parents came to Australia to find safety, security, to have a life from war-torn Europe and what were they given in return? A child that was raped within the department of defence,” she said.

“I was estranged with my mother to the point I didn’t even attend her funeral because of all of this trauma that has come up. She never wanted to talk about it and it caused such a rift in my whole family. It caused my father to leave the force.

“The older I get the more angry I become and, since November of 2014 when I first reached out to the Royal Commission to today, that anger has only increased.”

Ms Angel said she wants recognition from Defence that the abuse did occur and is calling on them to investigate what happened “right in their own backyards”.

Veteran turned lawyer Glenn Kolomeitz from GAP Legal said “this case exemplifies the fact systemic abuse in Defence is institutional and the failure of Defence to properly address sexual trauma in Defence impacts ADF members and families”.

“Now two Royal Commissions have heard evidence of systemic and ongoing abuse in Defence – surely that will prompt effective change independently of the ADF senior leadership.”

A spokesman for Defence said incidents of sexual misconduct do not align with its values.

“Defence is focused on supporting victims of historical abuse and ensuring that any allegation of sexual abuse is taken seriously. The Australian Government response to recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse included the development of the national redress scheme.

“Defence, as a participating institution, provides redress to people who experienced institutional child sexual abuse.

“Defence has acknowledged past abuse and is focused on safeguarding children and members of the Australian Defence Force, ensuring those who suffer abuse feel safe to report, and ensuring victims and managers have access to support services. ”

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