Shadow of Doubt podcast: Daughter of jailed NSW parents recovered memories of another abuser

It was the overseas sporting trip that changed everything for the family at the centre of our Shadow of Doubt podcast. Now, for the first time, the schoolgirl friends of ‘Emily’ tell their versions of an encounter with a much older male coach.

Shadow of Doubt podcast. Illustration and design by Emilia Tortorella.

Friends of a young woman whose memories of sadistic abuse led to the jailing of her parents have confirmed she spoke about an earlier incident in which she recovered memories of sexual assault by a sports coach.

The couple’s daughter accused the sports coach before she made allegations against her parents, telling police he had snuck into her hotel room at night while she was competing overseas in a sporting event.

But a friend who was sharing the hotel room says the young woman acknowledged later that her memory of the alleged assault had only returned once she was back in Australia.

The Shadow of Doubt podcast, which is investigating the parents’ claims of innocence, this week reveals details of this incident, which led the young woman to seek counselling. The Australian is removing any identifying details from its reporting to protect the identity of their daughter.

The couple’s daughter was 17 when she travelled to the overseas sports event, where she shared a hotel room with two female competitors aged 17 and 15. Shortly after their arrival, both her room-mates complained that a male coach who had been performing sports massages was touching them inappropriately.

The older of the room-mates has told the Shadow of Doubt podcast that after they all returned to Australia, the couple’s daughter called her from a psychiatric hospital and said she now remembered that the coach had sexually assaulted her.

“She told me that she had remembered things that had happened to her overseas that night … And she said that the physio, the one that had touched me, had raped her.”

The friend says she didn’t necessarily disbelieve the story, but was confused because she had shared the room and could not understand how such an assault would go unnoticed.

“I said ‘What do you mean, how could that have happened?’ And she said, she doesn’t remember exactly, but she does definitely remember a deep pressure on her chest.

“And she does remember that she was raped. And it had all come back to her – all these memories had flooded back to her when she had tried to go and have sex with her partner.”

The daughter gave this account to more than one friend, The Australian has learned. But it was never told to the jury in the couple’s trial because of laws that restrict defence lawyers’ questions about the sexual history of complainants.

Speaking from prison, the parents say this incident was a catalyst in their case because their daughter sought counselling after she returned home from overseas. It was while in counselling that she remembered incidents of extreme abuse and torture extending from age five to 18.

Her parents were found guilty of 86 charges in their trial in the NSW District Court, and the father received a record sentence of 48 years’ jail. The mother is serving a 16-year sentence.

Two of the couple’s children are supporting them in their push to seek a review of the case, saying they saw no evidence of the extreme abuse their sister alleged. But another sister testified during the trial that her father had sexually assaulted her for several years in her teens when he performed sports massages.

Lawyers for the couple argue that the reliability of the medical and psychiatric evidence presented by the prosecution should have been challenged in their trial.

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