I survived gang rape. I want to help our leaders imagine the ‘unimaginable’

Gang rape is a unique crime. It’s uniquely terrifying to experience, yet our society and our justice system often turn away from this life-threatening and psychologically damaging crime.

When I was a child – I had just turned 14 – I was gang-raped on multiple occasions by men and boys who were members of a notorious gang. This was 1993. Fast-forward 30 years, I’m a solicitor, I run my own legal practice. On Wednesday, my phone started running hot. Another gang rape reported. Colleagues and friends calling to see if I would speak out, express their outrage, and see if I was OK.

To report gang rape to police, or not?Credit: Jo Gay

NSW Premier Chris Minns described the alleged gang rapes of the 17-year-old girl as an “unimaginable ordeal”. The Sydney teenager who has reported the alleged crimes to police may not be able to speak to the media because of the upcoming trial. But I can. I can tell you what the experience of gang rape is like and how our justice system and our society need to wrap around girls and women who experience this crime.

I am so grateful to be alive. I am so grateful this girl is alive.

Gang rape is uniquely dangerous for girls and women. There are so many of them, so many men and boys, it becomes a frenzy. Men and boys egging each other on. It is a unique crime, with unique drivers around masculinity and misogyny.

At the time I was being gang-raped, my instinct to survive kicked in. I remember thinking about Anita Cobby. I just hoped they’d stop before the cricket bat leaning against the wall came into play. Now, I also think of Janine Balding, Lauren Barry and Nichole Collins, and Leigh Leigh (and the movie inspired by her case, Blackrock).

This crime escalates. It can often result in murder. Yet, the victim blaming is immense. Gang rape victims commonly report that they/we were degraded during the attacks. Called names like “slut”, “whore” and “filthy”. For so many victims, particularly girls (children) for whom the rape represents their first “sexual experience” (sic), these names stick. These labels become ingrained in a victim’s identity. They can prevent girls and women from reporting to anyone, let alone to police.

And high-profile cases in which police don’t investigate, or where they believe the alleged perpetrators over the victim, deter other girls and women from coming forward.

Most victims of gang rape don’t report the crime. Only 8 per cent of rape victims report to police. Typically, this is because of the shame and stigma surrounding rape – and because they fear police won’t do anything. Both are true.

Victims are often blamed for their own gang rapes. How often do we hear, “but why was she at that party?” or “why was she coming home so late on her own?” or “why was she talking to them?” or “why did she let them into her car?” or “why didn’t she fight back?” or “why didn’t she go straight to police?“. A victim is never to blame for their rape.

Meanwhile, boys who commit gang rape are often described as “not knowing better” or, worse, “just experimenting”, while the girls they gang-raped are sexualised and presented as sluts who provoked it. We hear about the normalisation of gang rape in sporting clubs, boys’ schools and other competitive male-only spaces.

NRL players interviewed about the alleged gang rape of a woman by members of the Canterbury-Bulldogs in 2004 insisted none of what took place was an offence. “Some of the boys love a ‘bun’,” one player told The Sun-Herald. “Gang banging is nothing new for our club or the rugby league.”

Victims need lawyers. Someone to stand with them, in their corner, and advocate from day one. To call out the double standards, to even the playing field, when dealing with police, prosecutors and courts. This is precisely what the Australian Law Reform Commission has recommended following its recent inquiry, Justice System Responses to Sexual Violence. As it is, it found the justice system harmed victims.

And let’s clear up another myth. No, prosecutors are not the victims’ lawyers. They are the state’s lawyers. Most victims meet the solicitor or barrister for the prosecution on just a handful of occasions before a hearing.

With gang rapes, there is often a collective sharp intake of breath. A discernible shudder goes through our city. People rightly murmur how horrific the crime is and that it will affect the girl or woman for the rest of her life. It will. This type of crime changes you. Many victims will take their own lives; many will find relief in drugs and alcohol to numb the ricochets of trauma; others will become hypervigilant, hyper-achieving, to prove themselves worthy. This hypervigilance can be just as destructive as addiction.

Yet, as a society, typically we do not support victims of gang rape to heal. There is a misconception that victims receive compensation. Or worse, that they come forward so they can receive millions in compensation. In NSW, the Victims Services Scheme has been reduced. The one-off “recognition” payment is $10,000.

For those raped in a workplace, or in parliament, settlements can be in the millions. For those raped in an institutional setting – connected through a church, school or sporting club – payments through our National Redress Scheme are up to $150,000 (or they can extend into the millions if a complainant goes through a civil court case).

For girls (children) and women who are gang-raped, it is more than likely by “strangers” or people only loosely known to them. The NSW Victims Services Scheme does not support them financially to heal. They are not adequately supported to take time out of study or work to receive intensive therapy, to buy a car they feel safe in, to fund security in their homes so they can sleep, to move away from the suburb or town where they were raped. They are not supported to do a self-defence course, not so they can prevent a rape but to feel more confident in themselves. They are not adequately helped to get dental work or other treatment to heal their damaged bodies or, if they are Aboriginal, to access intensive cultural support.

Our federal, state and territory governments have all signed up to the national plan to eliminate violence against women and girls. Part of that is meant to be a focus on healing.

The Law Reform Commission’s recommendations include a review of victims’ compensation – but it stopped short of recommending a national scheme for all victims. It even stopped short of recommending a national scheme for child victims of gang rape.

I am calling on Chris Minns to meet me and other victims of gang rape, to understand the unique and “unimaginable” nature of this crime. He, and our community, are rightly shocked by the report of yet another gang rape. But the girls and women who are brave enough to report these crimes to police, and who voluntarily enter a criminal justice process that will harm them more, need our support.

Karen Iles is a lawyer. She is a member of the expert advisory group to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s inquiry into Justice System Responses to Sexual Violence. She was a finalist in the 2025 Premier’s Women of Excellence Award and has lent her name to the Karen Iles Sexual Assault Victims Justice Fund which advocates for victim-survivors of domestic, family and sexual violence.

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