Child sex assaults on the rise on south coast
More and more people are working up the courage to report the vile sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of their attackers and authorities believe even COVID has played a part in the shift.
The South Coast News
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A recent increase in the reporting of historical sexual abuse is due to a cultural shift, police say.
NSW Police say they have seen a recent increase in historical cases of sexual abuse on the south coast, due in part, they said, to victims feeling more comfortable coming forward than in the past.
“There has also been a number of historical cases being reported of late, which can be attributed to victims becoming more confident to report,” a police spokesperson said.
“In the majority of sexual assault cases, the perpetrator is known to the victim.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, police recorded a 30 per cent increase in the reporting of sexual assault between 2010 and 2018, with the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research attributing it to an increase in historical reports.
Data from child protection organisation Bravehearts found more than half of survivors choose not to disclose their abuse until years later, with men less likely to disclose the abuse than females.
Forty-five per cent of men and 25 per cent of women take more than 20 years to disclose their abuse, the organisation said.
In February, the former president of lobby group Port of Eden Marina, and well-known south coast fisherman, Reinhard ‘Fritz’ Drenkhahn, 69, was jailed for four years for sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys between 2000 and 2003.
One of his victims, now an adult, told the court in a victim impact statement he met Drenkhahn at the age of 10 and the pair would go fishing together.
He told the court he had attempted suicide after Drenkhan’s arrest, which came 16 years after the offending began.
Drenkhahn was found guilty of molesting one of the boys at a south coast rental home, and assaulting the other boy, who he tried to wrestle while naked, during a trip to Wagga Wagga.
While he had maintained his innocence, Drenkhahn was found guilty on three charges of aggravated indecent assault of a person under the age of 16, one charge of sexual intercourse with a person aged between 10 and 16, and for possessing an unregistered rifle.
Currently in protective custody, he will be paroled in December next year.
Louisa Stewart, chair of the Shoalhaven Family and Domestic Violence Committee, said victims often wait until their abuser “is no longer in the picture” before going to police.
“The increase could be because different generations are more open, and people have been home (due to COVID-19) with a lot of time to think,” she said.
According to Bravehearts, men are less likely to disclose their abuse, which the organisation said can lead to mental health issues, including suicide.
“Offenders rarely, if ever, only offend against just one child, or just once. It is the victims that hold the key to protecting the next generation of children by letting authorities know who the offenders are,” the organisation’s founder Hetty Johnston said.
“We must encourage and support victims to report and then support and thank them when they do.”
In 2019, two victims of a south coast man were able to reconnect with each other on social media before reporting his offending to police after more than a decade of silence.
One of the women opened up to her former best friend, the man’s stepdaughter at the time, about the abuse over Facebook, and she revealed she had suffered similar abuse.
Criminologist Carol Ronken said adult victims have described the reporting process as offering them the “ability to heal, to gain support and to be validated, while also facing disbelief and lack of support, relationship and family breakdown, and poor emotional health”.
Police said some south coast programs aim to pinpoint at risk children in the community.
“NSW Police will continue to work with the community through programs such as DVSAMS, which aims to identify families that are at risk of domestic violence and sexual assault, as well as ‘love bites’ which is rolled out in schools and focuses on healthy relationships,” they said.
If you need support, call Lifeline on 131 114 or 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.