Families hurt by COVID-era child abuse busts

Families are being torn apart at unprecedented rates amid a surge in COVID-era child abuse material busts.

Victoria is experiencing a surge in child abuse material busts during the COVID era.

Families are being torn apart at unprecedented rates amid a surge in COVID-era child abuse material busts.

The head of an organisation set up to support innocent partners and children whose lives are shattered by such arrests says it has been inundated with pleas for help.

Natalie Walker, the CEO of PartnerSPEAK, said there had been a 129 per cent increase in such cases since COVID hit Australia.

Ten Victorian men – some with families – were last week charged in a wave of

search warrants carried out by a joint Victoria Police-Australian Federal Police taskforce which targets peer-to-peer child abuse material.

Ms Walker, whose life disintegrated when her partner was busted for possessing child abuse material in 2002, said hundreds of Victorian families had been left devastated over the years.

She said those left behind suffered everything from financial disaster and the loss of a home to being ostracised and condemned.

“Many of them (offenders) will have wives, children, siblings and parents who will be deeply traumatised by these busts,” Ms Walker said.

“Just imagine having your door kicked in by the cops in the middle of the night and learning this way that your loved one is making and/or using child abuse material!”

Ms Walker said PartnerSpeak had never been more busy.

She said there were damaging myths attached to such crimes, including that a partner must have known what the offender was doing.

The result can be already devastated victims further punished by being isolated by former friends.

“Many of them end up with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. People talk about the moment of discovery and how their world was ripped away,” Ms Walker said.

“We spoke to a woman recently who had no one in her life that she had before the offence,”

PartnerSPEAK can be contacted on 1300 590 589 or by visiting the website PartnerSPEAK.org.au.