Sex abuse survivor Kirsty Prince shares her story on getting her abuser Mark Aberley convicted and jailed

A woman, molested by her stepfather across five long years, is calling for radical change in the courts system. On the day he was sentenced, the mother-of-four shared why “justice still isn’t served”.

Kirsty Prince, survivor of horrendous sexual abuse by her stepfather. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

A woman, molested by her stepfather for over five years, is calling for radical change in the justice system – personally lifting court orders suppressing her identity to tell her story and explain why “justice still isn’t served”.

Mother-of-four Kirsty Prince, who is now planning on becoming a policewoman, is calling out a system she says silences victims and enables and protects child sex offenders.

One of the earliest memories the now 34-year-old has of her stepfather Mark Aberley was when she was forced, as a three-year-old, to watch him her pet mouse get eaten alive by the family cat as a punishment for not keeping it’s cage clean.

From 1995 to 2000 was five years of opportunistic and predatory sexual abuse, occurring so many times Ms Prince lost count, though she estimates it to be “in the hundreds.”

He would tell her he loved her more than his own children, swearing her to secrecy while the abuse escalated behind the closed doors of their family home in Schofields, in Sydney’s western suburbs.

Kirsty with her stepfather.

When she was 14, fear started to give way to anger and hatred and Ms Prince found the strength to push away Aberley’s advances and began sleeping with a steak knife under her pillow.

It wasn’t long after that Kirsty revealed the truth to her mother who reacted by throwing a carton of beer at Aberley, before ending their relationship.

A short time later, in 2002, Kirsty went to the police for the first time when she recorded a video statement — which was a key piece of evidence in securing his conviction — knowing at the time she wasn’t yet ready to lay charges.

“I told them essentially I had been abused for half my life, but I wasn’t ready to press charges,” she said. “I just wanted to be a kid and I was forced to have an adult’s mindset from a very early age.

“But I made sure I reported it because my thinking was if he does it to someone else, and they come forward, they‘ll have my statement, and that will help them.”

When as an adult Ms Prince decided to go through and press charges she never could have imagined how long the process would be, taking her eight years of being continuously knocked back before she found a detective to take on her case.

Kirsty Prince in primary school

Ms Prince said she felt her case was continuously put in the “too hard” basket by police, who constantly fed her excuses as to why they wouldn’t follow up.

“With historic abuse cases they’re hard to prove,” she said. “It’s a lot of resources for not a lot of return, it was as though they felt I just need to tell my story and then I’m going to go away.”

It wasn’t until she lodged a formal complaint about the lack of police action before was she finally assigned a detective.

In 2019, a female detective took on Ms Prince’s case, who she says “has never done me wrong”, and after a few months on the case secured a warrant for Ms Prince to confront Aberley over the phone, leading him to make an admission.

Mark Rodney Aberley

“It was a seven-minute call but those seven minutes felt like forever,” she said. “He goes ‘yeah I did it, I’m so sorry mate, I’m just a dirty old man, how can I ever make it up to you?”

“I said: ‘the one thing you can do for me is when this goes to court, you’re gonna get up and you’re gonna tell that judge what you did to me’.”

“He goes: ‘okay mate, yeah I will’.”

Despite Aberley pleading guilty from the onset what was meant to be a black-and-white, straight forward case was still dragged through the courts for over two years due to procedural red tape and Ms Prince says “incompetent” lawyers.

One barrister appearing for her stepfather quit without warning, the next one turned up without having even familiarised herself with the case or consulted with her client making a mockery of proceedings, Ms Prince said.

“Lawyers, solicitors need to be held accountable because they’re the ones who keep survivors like me in limbo,” she said. “I can’t go back, I can’t go forward I’m stuck in the courts with this case.”

Kirsty Prince, 34 outside Penrith Local Court.

On Thursday at Penrith District Court, after pleading guilty to nine counts of sexual intercourse with a person under ten and four counts of indecent assault a victim under 16, Mark Rodney Aberley was convicted and sentenced to nine years prison with three years no parole.

The 69-year-old showed little emotion as the horrendous details of his offending were read aloud, with the court hearing he had previously blamed Ms Prince for her role in the abuse.

When asked if she believed justice has now been served Ms Prince is firm in her response.

“No,” she said.

“My life was only worth six short years of his. I have to live my trauma all the time. I made peace with myself a while ago not to be hung up on the sentence because I knew wouldn’t be much, so no justice has not been served.”

“And he’ll be a good boy in prison, because paedophiles don’t muck up so he’ll be out in six.”

Ms Prince said the leniency with which the justice system sentences child sex offenders is something which was in a dire need of an overhaul.

“We give harsher punishments to drug dealers. We’re quite happy to put people behind bars for the rest of their life if it a commercial supply. But drug dealers don’t go out and target little girls in their bed. So who are we protecting more?”

Even more frustrating for Ms Prince is because Aberley only molested one child he is classed as a “low-risk offender”, making him ineligible for programs aimed at rehabilitating child sex offenders in custody.

“There was only one victim, me,” she said. “It would matter if it was 20, but only one was fine. So in six years he is essentially a free man to do as he pleases. He can get out and molest whoever he wants.”

Ms Prince has gone to be a mother of four children aged 15, 13, 7 and 5, to her partner whom she’s been with since she was 19. She doesn’t drink, she has never touched drugs and has carved out a career she is proud of.

Her next career move is to join the police force, inspired by the example of the detective who took on her case after so many years. While she felt let down by some in the justice system she says it’s important to acknowledge the ones who do their jobs well.

“If I can help someone like she helped me, if I can be that person after eight years, then it’s all worth it,” she said.

She says she is sharing her story to make others with similar experience to realise they can speak up, and while childhood sexual abuse shouldn’t be normalised, it should be understood and there shouldn’t be a stigma around it.

“I had to fight to get my suppression order off my case,” she said. “I’ve done nothing wrong and I’m happy for people to know my name, I don’t care because at the end of the day he did it. I have nothing to be ashamed of.

“I want others to know you can have a life, you get to choose how you live. I’m a survivor not a victim, victims are broken people. Live as a survivor, own your own life.”