Police arrested him this week after having left him free to re­offend for seven months, despite­ Ms Simpson handing his recorded confession to police.

In the call, made in February, the 66-year-old allegedly admitted he had repeatedly molested and anally and orally raped Ms Simpson ­between 1995 and 2001, when she was aged from seven to 14. Blacktown Area Command made the arrest in Seven Hills, in Sydney’s west, this week after ­inquiries made by The Weekend Australian to the ­Office of the Dir­ector of Public Prosecutions and NSW Police Force regarding their failure to act on Ms Simpson’s case.

He was charged with 13 offences, including two counts of ­indecent assault where the victim is under the age of 10, six counts of aggravated indecent assault with a victim under 16, ­attempted sexual intercourse with victim between 10 and 14 under authority, and four counts of sexual intercourse with a victim between 10 and 14.

The man was refused bail and will appear at the Blacktown Local Court on Thursday.

The ODPP is blaming police for failing to act earlier, while police claim prosecutors were the cause of the delay.

The taped call was included in an application to press charges for persistent abuse of a minor, which was submitted to the ODPP on May 27.

Police made the arrest on an array of lesser charges as the ODPP has not decided whether he should be charged with persistent abuse of a minor, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

While Ms Simpson, now 32, was relieved her stepfather had finally­ been apprehended, she was disappointed he was not ­arrested on the charge of persistent abuse of a minor.

“I’ve just accepted that the system isn’t there for me,” she said. “I’m really not expecting him to cop much of a sentence.

“Why would seven years of my childhood matter to the system? My current detective is the only one I’ve found who actually cares about my case.”

Ms Simpson says she endured years of horrific sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather, who allegedly repeatedly molested and raped her, grooming her and telling her “this is our little secret’’. He was opportunistic in his attacks, often waiting for Ms Simpson’s mother to go shopping, and physically, psychologically and verbally abus­ive to other members of her family.

In February, with the support of a detective, Ms Simpson ­obtained a court-authorised ­warrant to record a phone call and attempt to extract a confession. She struggled to steady her hands as she dialled his number.

“I asked him if I was the only one and he said, ‘Yes, you were the only one’,” Ms Simpson said.

“It was the most courageous thing I have ever done. I managed to get clear and precise confessions to his crimes. I asked him what I did to make him do those things to me and he said I was too nice to him. I will never forget that. I have no idea where my strength came from that day.”

Ms Simpson initially reported the abuse to police when she was 14, in a recorded video interview, but decided not to press charges. “I had been abused for half my life at that point,” she said. “I just wanted to be free. I was sick of living­ a lie. All I wanted was to sleep peacefully at night without anyone sneaking into my room. I wanted to be a kid for the first time in my life and I was not ready to face my demons in court.”

In her video statement Ms Simpson vowed to help if anyone else came forward to press charges­ against her stepfather.

“I also wanted that video for the day when I was ready to pursue charges,” she explains. “I was told that I could press charges at any time I wished, however, what they failed to tell me was how hard it would be to push those charges as a historic case. Unless you are willing to be loud, no one listens when it is a historic case.”

Ms Simpson is now waiting to use the confession in court.

“We literally had a self-confessed­ rapist on the streets for seven months which the system failed to act on,” she said. “How many other cases like mine are out there, with people afraid to speak up in case it interferes with their case? I was petrified that by talking about this to the media the DPP would not sign off on the charge I needed, because I am highlighting a failing system.

“I had found witnesses and passed on their contact information, drawn maps of houses where offences occurred­, obtained photographs to help with my statement and got the warrant for the call which led to his confession.

“All they had to do was slap a signature on the paperwork so my detective could go arrest him.”

Too few prosecutors

A spokeswoman from the ODPP said the determination on the charges of persistent abuse of a minor should not have delayed police making an arrest.

“Such a charge can and would ordinarily be laid after an accused person has otherwise been charged by police,” she says. “It was always open to police to charge other offences that might be available, and they were informed­ of such.”

Victims advocate Howard Brown says a statewide shortage of prosecutors is causing delays in having prosecutors assigned to criminal cases within the ODPP.

He says there are calls for increased­ funding to employ additiona­l prosecutors to keep up with the caseload. The transition to a new case management system­ in NSW requiring the appointme­nt of crown prosecut­ors far earlier in the process has increased the demand for them.

“They’re not allowing these matters to develop to the point where they have to appoint a crown (prosecutor) because they just don’t have enough,” Mr Brown said. “Which is terribly difficult­, because the trauma that is imposed on victims through this process is quite substantial.

“It makes it really difficult for victims because they feel that no one is taking any notice of their case. I have matters where we have been waiting 20 months to appoint a crown.”

The ODPP declined to ­comment on staffing or funding.

Ms Simpson is frustrated by the overall handling of her case within both law-enforcement and judicial systems.

“I don’t understand why I have to threaten to lodge a complaint to be heard,” she says. “This is why people like me give up — we come to brick wall after brick wall.

“The system has let me down time and time again, yet I am still here waiting to be heard in court.”

‘Police left me waiting’

Ms Simpson says it took years to find a detective willing to investigate the case against her alleged abuser. “The only reason I have the detective I do now is because I threatened to make a formal complaint against the last one,” she said. “I wasted two years of my life trusting and waiting for the last detective to help me, who couldn’t even locate the video statement I made when I first ­reported it in October 2002.

“She said I needed to be patient­, as historic sex-abuses cases take time. She said she would contact me and before I knew it two years had passed. I emailed her asking for an update and three weeks passed with no response.”

It took police in Dubbo, 400km northwest of Sydney, two years to establish that the case needed to be referred to Blacktown police due to the location of the offences, which occurred in Blacktown and Schofields, in Sydney’s west.

Ms Simpson says her current detective was crucial to getting her abuser arrested. “Chantelle has been the only one I’ve found who actually gives a shit,” she says. “There is some positivity in acknowledging investigators who actually work hard.”

Even when Ms Simpson does eventually get her day in court, sentencing varies widely for sexual offences and she knows there are no guarantees about the sentence her stepfather will receive.

She hopes to put pressure on the judicial system to change. “We need to start recognising the true nature of these crimes,” she said. “I feel that it’s worse than murder. Murder ends someone’s life, but these kind of predators slowly break you.

“They twist your soul and alter your whole way of thinking. I’m left feeling abnormal. I struggle with a lot of mental health issues.”

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