Shadow of doubt on parents’ trial

Violent child sexual abuse, especially within families, is one of society’s most heinous and hidden crimes. It can be hard to detect, which adds to the problems of the justice system. In the interests of victims, those accused of abusing them and the community, cases must be pursued forensically and persistently, leading to the correct outcomes, wherever the truth may lie. Wrongful and unsafe convictions do not help victims. They undermine confidence in the law, inflicting painful punishments and shame on those who suffer the ignominy of being falsely accused and convicted.

The Weekend Australian has launched a new podcast, Shadow of Doubt, by veteran investigative reporter Richard Guilliatt, detailing a story that has left him more perplexed and disturbed than any other in 45 years of journalism. It amounts to this: Is it possible for a young woman to be raped and tortured on her family property for 13 years through primary and secondary school, by her father, with the co-operation of her mother, without a brother and one sister, friends, teachers, sports coaches or a paediatrician witnessing or noticing anything? On the other hand, during the police investigation, another of the couple’s daughters alleged that she, too, had been sexually assaulted by her father when he performed sports massages on her. She told police her father was terrifyingly violent and her mother engaged in inappropriate sexual talk. Police also learned that in the 1980s the father had been accused of grooming and molesting female students when he was a high school teacher.

The case involving abuse of his daughter sparked headlines across the world, Guilliatt writes in Inquirer: “A psychiatrist’s report described the daughter’s physical and mental injuries as ‘catastrophic’.’’ After the father’s conviction by a jury, the presiding judge labelled him a remorseless sadist and imposed a record jail term of 48 years. His wife was sentenced to 16 years. She will be eligible for parole in 2027. Her husband is on track to die in jail.

So, was justice done? Greg Walsh, a Sydney solicitor who is representing the mother pro bono, says there is clear evidence the daughter’s allegations against her parents were based on recovered memories or “dissociative flashbacks”. Mr Walsh notes the daughter had been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, an illness that has been linked to false memories of extreme and ritualised abuse. “The complainant had an extensive history of psychopathology,” he says. “She suffered from very serious mental health conditions which directly impacted and affected her reliability. That wasn’t put before the jury.” Numerous judicial appeals have failed.

Some doctors have expressed concern, including Maria Nittis, a former head of forensic medicine in western Sydney, who described aspects of the daughter’s allegations as implausible. A complicating factor is the reliability or otherwise of the controversial psychological tool, repressed memory. The case began when the young woman, then 17, who was a promising sports star, returned from an overseas competition and told her mother a sporting official had sexually assaulted her in her hotel room. While undergoing counselling for the alleged rape, she began making allegations against her father.

Abuse within families can be some of the most difficult to detect. The Australian’s 2022 podcast, My Sister’s Secrets, was a searing investigation of the lies, manipulation and cruelty that allow predators to get away with the most shocking of crimes. In the same spirit of investigative journalism, Shadow of Doubt is a pursuit of the truth. We have followed the facts, wherever they have led.