We secured 20,000 signatures in eight hours to help child sexual abuse survivors

Rose and Pippa Milthorpe don’t want any children to experience the trauma they went through, but they need your help.

On Monday, news.com.au launched the Justice Shouldn’t Hurt campaign, supporting Rose and Pippa Milthorpe’s quest to make court easier for children involved in sexual offence matters.

The sisters, aged 14 and 17 respectively, from Albury in NSW, are fighting for the Child Sexual Offence Evidence program to be rolled out across the country. It is currently only available in two locations in Sydney and Newcastle.

In just eight hours, we got 20,000 signatures, and can now request that the issue be debated in parliament and will be following it up with the NSW Attorney-General’s office.

The campaign has also attracted the support of high profile people, including Hetty Johnston AM, Founder of Bravehearts.

“It never ceases to infuriate and astonish me at how much talk there is at election times about the need to protect children and how little rubber hits the road in real time,” Hetty told news.com.au.

“Here we have an age-old problem with a proven new age solution. It’s been trialled ad nauseum, it works, children are not re-traumatised, offenders are facing justice. What on earth is the delay? How many more years? How many more children? How many more families? It is a no-brainer. Just do it!”

Bravehearts Founder Hetty Johnston supports the Justice Shouldn't Hurt campaign. Picture: Supplied

Rose and Pippa’s story

Rose and Pippa Milthorpe were five and eight when they told their parents someone close to them had been sexually abusing them for a number of years.

At just 7 and 11, they took their abuser to court, eventually getting a partial conviction, but the court system left them traumatised beyond belief.

Six years later, they have won a court battle to say their own names and today have exclusively shared their story with news.com.au to launch the Justice Shouldn’t Hurt campaign.

They are fighting to make it easier for children in sexual offence matters to give evidence. They need your help to protect other children.

Justice shouldn’t hurt, but for children in Australia, it does. The NSW Government knows how to fix this problem, but has failed to do so. That’s why news.com.au is calling for law reform to make it easier for child victims of sexual abuse to give evidence. Join the movement and sign the petition here.

What we are fighting for

Rose and Pippa want the Child Sexual Offence Evidence pilot program rolled out across NSW.

The program aims to provide greater support to child complainants and prosecution witnesses in sexual offence matters – an experience that is often stressful, harrowing and re-traumatising in itself.

Implemented at the Newcastle and Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court locations as a trial in March 2016, the pilot has two major components: allowing children to have all of their evidence prerecorded early; and to be supported by specially trained and accredited specialists, known as witness intermediaries, who help them communicate with police and the court, while preserving the rights of the accused to a fair trial.

Rose Milthorpe.

Rose and Pippa Milthorpe.

Brent and Michelle Milthorpe with their children Rose, Pippa and Maggie. Picture: Copyright news.com.au

The program has received glowing reviews, but has yet to be rolled out beyond trial locations, despite the NSW Attorney-General promising it would be made “permanent” in 2018.

The girls’ mum, Michelle Milthorpe, says it is “absolutely a double standard” that the program hasn’t been rolled out across NSW.

“It’s not fair for country kids, or for any child. There’s children in Sydney that don’t have access to this,” Michelle, who first urged the NSW Attorney-General (then Gabrielle Upton) to consider expanding the program in 2016 following her daughters’ trial.

“It’s not fair that children are not treated equally in this, because they have already been through the worst experience. They should not be re-traumatised by the legal system.”

The Milthorpe’s legal fees were jointly funded by news.com.au and the LetUsSpeak campaign, which you can donate to here.