Forgotten item found in Albury teen’s room changes everything
Two young sexual abuse survivors fought for the right to tell their story under their own names. Now they’ve changed a state’s justice system. Warning: Distressing
EXCLUSIVE
Rose Milthorpe was just four years old when she begged her mum, Michelle, to make her a superhero invisibility cloak, hoping it would “protect” her from “the monster” who was sexually abusing her.
Unaware of the sinister reason behind the request, Michelle happily obliged and helped make the cape.
For a short period, Rose was delighted. But when the cape failed to protect her and her eight-year-old sister, Pippa, Rose angrily discarded it.
And so it lay hidden in her room, forgotten about until November last year, when Rose and her childhood cape suddenly became the subject of national headlines.
In September, Rose became the youngest ever sexual abuse survivor in Australia to win court approval to tell her story under her own name. Two months later, at age 14, she and Pippa, 17, both waived their right to anonymity, speaking out exclusively as they fronted news.com.au’s Justice Shouldn’t Hurt campaign, demanding the expansion of a program designed to make court less traumatic for children involved in sexual abuse matters.
Today, Rose has powerfully reclaimed her cape – a symbol once associated with her victimhood – after receiving news that she has helped change the NSW child court system.
After less than three months of campaigning, news.com.au can reveal the NSW Government will invest $64.3 million over four years to expand the Child Sexual Offence Evidence program from July 1 to every District Court in the state.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said he was compelled to make the change after hearing what Pippa and Rose endured as they navigated the justice system.
“I received a copy of the report that news.com.au ran, and to hear about the trauma and the distress that Pippa and Rose went through, and the entire family, it clearly had a significant impact on them,” he said.
“As soon as I heard about it, and importantly, that there was already a solution there – that we were actually running these programs in two locations in NSW – as soon as I read it, [I thought] we’re going to fix this, and we’re going to roll it out so that no other child ever has to go through what Pippa and Rose went through.”
Mr Perrottet said “children who have already endured the unimaginable should not have to suffer further at the hands of a justice system designed for adults”.
“Under this program, young people are able to prerecord their evidence and are provided with intermediaries to assist them during police interviews and hearings, as well as supports to spare them the trauma of facing their alleged attacker in court,” he said.
“Our Government led the nation when we piloted this program and now we want to make sure that every child – no matter where they live in our state – can access this support.”
The program started in 2016 as a pilot in two court locations, Newcastle and the Downing Centre Sydney. More than $28 million was invested in 2018 to make the program permanent in these locations.
Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the statewide rollout would further strengthen the state’s criminal justice response to child sexual abuse.
“Re-traumatising a complainant does not advance justice,” Mr Speakman said.
“We need to do all we can to ensure that children and young people who have been sexually abused are supported through the court experience, so they can begin the process of rebuilding their lives.”
Rose said she was thrilled the program was being expanded across all of NSW.
“My cape is hanging on my wall with my trophies. It shows how far I have come and that’s my ‘first place’ because I take this as a win,” Rose said.
“Pippa and I both wanted to do this campaign so children don’t have to go through what us [and] many others had to go through.
“[As a child] the cape was made to give me a superpower which was invisibility but in 2022, I found its real power which was strength and courage and that’s what I think of when I look at it.”
Her sister Pippa agreed.
“My little sister had dreams of making a change, so we started small, with family and friends and as our small project grew, a bigger one came along,” Pippa said.
“The Justice Shouldn’t Hurt campaign allowed us to be real and raw and tell our stories in a place of protection and empowerment. They made our voices loud and clear.
“This is why we did the campaign, to be bigger than ourselves and create change.”
The superhero cape that changed everything
Rose and Pippa are now household names in the regional centre of Albury NSW, where they live. But their story began much earlier in 2013.
“It was a Sunday morning like any other,” Michelle said. “Rose woke me up after spending yet another night sleeping in my bed. She was saying, ‘Mum, can I tell you something?’ She must have said it a couple of times before I finally responded.
“The words she said next would change our lives forever.
“My baby girl had only just turned five. We found out that somebody that was close to our family had been sexually abusing Rose and her older sister Pippa, for a number of years.”
A few months earlier, Rose – then aged four – had begged her mum to make a superhero invisibility cape.
The next day when Rose set off to attend a playdate at a family friend’s home, she was wearing her cape.
“That afternoon when I picked her up, Rose was cranky,” Michelle said. “When we got home she ripped her cape out of her bag, stomped on it and shouted at me that ‘it didn’t work’. Rose told me that her cape was meant to make her invisible but ‘he could still find me!’
“I naively thought she had been playing hide and seek.”
This was in July 2013. It was another three months before Rose would finally find the words to disclose the full truth of what was happening on these ‘playdates’.
What followed changed the family’s life forever. After the sisters reported the abuse to police and charges were laid against the offender, it would take two and a half years for the case to eventually be heard in a Sydney courtroom. By then, Rose was seven, and Pippa 11.
“Two and a half years is a long time to wait for anyone, but especially when you’re five,” Michelle said.
Then, when the matter finally made it to court, a series of blunders followed. First, the sisters ran into the paedophile in the court foyer. Then the case was moved to Sydney meaning the family had to live out of suitcases for five weeks. The sisters were also not permitted to have their parents present as they faced days of brutal cross examination.
Finally the offender – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was convicted of six counts of aggravated indecent assault against Pippa Milthorpe. The charges relating to Rose and two other children were dropped after one child was deemed too young to give evidence – at age four – and the other pulled out during the pre-trial process after being left broken by cross examination.
That was in 2016. Six years later, in mid 2022, the Milthorpe sisters decided they were now old enough to speak out about the trauma they endured: not from the sexual abuse per se, but from the NSW court system. Together, they were ready to make change.
We are just so proud
For Brent and Michelle Milthorpe, today is a very proud day.
“From a father’s point of view, people work all their lives to make a positive contribution to our world,” Brent said. “To have my children making huge changes to the legal system at their young age, not for their own benefit, but for others, makes a father extremely proud.”
Brent said he was initially “hesitant about the girls sharing their story” but was delighted with the “sensational outcome” that has been achieved
For Michelle, the campaign process has been as important as the outcome.
“When people started signing the petition and sending words of encouragement to the girls, you could sense that there was genuine shock and outrage [from the public] that they experienced such a thing,” Michelle said.
“The girls didn’t want to share their story for the publicity nor to seek retribution. It was with the single purpose of informing the greater community of the injustice that our most vulnerable victims have been facing.
“This campaign has been solutions focused from the beginning. It has shone a light on the trauma that the legal system has caused to children who have already been traumatised.
“We can’t change what our kids have been through and there are people who have openly told us that we needed to let this go. However, we couldn’t walk away from this knowing that other children could be treated the way that ours were.”
“Rose said last night how she wanted her superpower to be invisibility. It’s ironic that by making herself seen and visible, that she’s really shown her strength and power.”
Nina Funnell is a Walkley Award winning freelance journalist and the creator of both the #LetUsSpeak campaign and Justice Shouldn’t Hurt campaign. To donate to the campaign click here.
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