Shadow of Doubt: the story so far

Your episode-by-episode breakdown of the investigative podcast topping charts around the world.

Counsellor ‘Donna Shepherd’, who helped troubled teenager ‘Emily Johnson’ recover horrific memories of abuse. illustration by Emilia Tortorella

Our investigative podcast Shadow of Doubt is taking the world by storm, topping charts in Australia, the United States and beyond, with its gripping story of a family torn apart by allegations of monstrous crimes.

You can read all our coverage at shadowofdoubt.com.au.

Here’s the story so far.

Episode 1

’Emily Johnson’, illustrated by Emilia Tortorella.

At a beautiful bush property, ’Emily Johnson’ guides detectives around the scenes of what she says are horrific crimes perpetrated by her parents, ‘Martin’ and ‘Susan’.

The parents will later be convicted of torturing and abusing Emily. Martin will be jailed for 48 years – the longest ever sentence for child abuse in Australia – and Susan for 16.

From prison, the parents tell The Australian they are the victims of a miscarriage of justice: that no abuse occurred.

Friends, relatives and even two of Emily’s siblings say they don’t believe the crimes occurred.

Emily had extensive psychiatric therapy and was diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder.

We learn about a sports trip in her teens where Emily made allegations about an older male coach — but fellow schoolgirls from the trip have differing recollections.

In counselling after this episode, Emily — who is in increasing distress — for the first time alleges her father has sexually abused her.

Episode 2

Shadow of Doubt: Illustration by Emilia Tortorella

We journey inside the hospital where Emily is receiving psychiatric treatment, and becoming close to a counsellor at a local sexual assault service, Donna Shepherd, who is deeply concerned about her young patient.

Emily turns to self-harm and is heavily medicated, including with antipsychotics.

A veteran psychiatrist who worked in the hospital at the time, ‘Dr Brian Williams’, says the treatment Emily was given was “an abomination”, and says staff working with Emily were clearly “over-involved”.

After a suicide attempt, Emily is transferred to the hospital’s high-dependency ward, but she begins asking to go home.

She moves back in with her parents and demands Donna return her diaries – but then, after an argument with her father, overdoses and is back in the hospital.

In the emergency department, she tells doctors she’s just learned something shocking about her father: that in the 1980s as a young teacher, he was accused of grooming schoolgirls.

Episode 3

‘Sarah Johnson’, illustrated by Emilia Tortorella.

Martin Johnson, although beloved as a sports coach and mentor to young athletes and their families, has a secret.

He was, in his late 20s, ordered to leave the school where he was teaching after three girls aged 15 and 16 told officials he’d engaged in sexual talk with them, tried to kiss them and attempted to lure them into sexual activity.

In his early 30s, he was again forced to leave a school after allegations by a female student. .

Emily’s grandmother, Susan’s mum, denies telling Emily about this history. Her ex-boyfriend Sam says he believes the informant was a policeman, Dave Miller, whom Emily trusted.

Emily is spiralling down, saying she now has memories of sexual abuse by her Dad.

A nurse at the hospital, Catherine, says she was alarmed at Emily’s treatment, including an episode where a psychiatrist jumped in her car and chased Emily to avert a suicide attempt.

The drama heightens when Emily’s sister Sarah returns from overseas travel, learns of Emily’s allegations and seeks an apprehended violence order against Martin Johnson, before backtracking and moving back in with her parents.

Sarah then begins making allegations of her own, alleging she was raped by a family friend — Bill Newman — and that her Dad gave her sexually-charged sports massages.

Episode 4

Counsellor ‘Donna Shepherd’.

Sarah’s warm relationship with her Dad becomes hostile and she cuts off her parents after Emily tells Sarah their Dad raped Emily as a child — and that their mother hadn’t protected her.

Martin and Susan discover Emily is seeking an AVO, telling police Martin assaulted her in a local carpark. Police don’t tell Martin and Susan that Emily also claimed her father raped her in the same attack, but a doctor found no evidence of sexual assault.

Martin and Susan deny this incident ever happened and no charges are laid.

Unknown to the parents, Emily is now telling her counsellor Donna, a nurse and psychiatrist about terrible sexual torture by her father, including being locked in a shed for up to three nights and being assaulted with tools.

These claims are startlingly similar to other cases including one from the 1990s in Western Australia, where two sisters claimed violent abuse using tools by their father, who was never convicted.

We meet the brother from that WA case, who says the sisters later sought to reconcile with the family, but the father never recovered.

We also hear from another case of ‘recovered memory’, Sydney grandmother Cheryl Bornhauser who ‘remembered’ similar ritual abuse. Cheryl tells the podcast the events never really happened.

Episode 5

Mother ‘Susan Johnson’.

Emily makes a detailed statement to police about the torture allegations, telling them about a diary she wrote at 14 detailing the abuse and revealing she buried some of the tools her father used to torture her with.

She gives police the diary, and police raid the family property, finding the tools buried where Emily indicated they would be, and a pair of girl’s underpants in a shed.

Police are listening in on Martin and Susan Johnson’s calls, in which they express shock and dismay about their situation.

From a police station Sarah calls her father, directly accusing him of causing her to orgasm with inappropriate sports massages.

Martin tells Sarah in the call he can’t explain his behaviour and may have been “sick” and had “demons” he can’t explain. He does not deny being violent with his wife and admits to hitting Sarah with a broom handle and throwing Emily into a bush.

He tells the podcast these were not admissions of guilt but attempts to mollify an angry Sarah by conceding he had been a volatile and often absent Dad.

Emily’s boyfriends, friends and other young people who lived with the family say they have no recollection of anything sinister – but nearly all say police never contacted them.

Susan’s mother Margaret tells police she once saw a naked Martin becoming sexually aroused while being massaged by his daughters.

Sister Rebecca tells the podcast none of these events ever happened.

Susan is arrested and charged with eight offences including sexually assaulting Emily when she was under 10 and indecently dealing with both Emily and Sarah.

Emily attempts suicide and is in and out of hospital, but recovers to go on a skiing holiday to Japan with her boyfriend

She sues the sports coach she accuses of rape, alleging she has post traumatic stress disorder from that incident. The lawsuit does not mention her allegations against her parents.