Michael Bradley - System Failure: The Silencing of Rape Survivors

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Professor Margaret Gardner AC

President and Vice-Chancellor,

Monash University

System Failure: The Silencing of Rape Survivors

Copyright 2021 Michael Bradley

All rights reserved. Apart from any uses permitted by Australias Copyright Act 1968, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the copyright owners. Inquiries should be directed to the publisher.

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ISBN: 9781922464781 (paperback)

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Series: In the National Interest

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

To Mia, Dina and Saxon, with deep thanks for
trusting and allowing me to share their stories.

The events related here took place in 2020 and 2021. This is about what is happening today.

The following is an extract from Mias police statement:

Trent was taking me out to dinner for my birthday. He made his way down from the Central Coast on the train to my place. He told me he was drinking a long neck of beer on the train. He walked into my place, said hello and went straight to the fridge. He got a beer and walked onto the balcony to smoke a cone of weed. He also had a bong on the balcony.

I was getting ready in my room when he walked in and asked what I was wearing. He wasnt happy with what I wanted to wear but I wore it anyway. I did change my shoes at his request. During this time, I had been drinking a glass of wine while he had already drunk three bottles of beer, smoked three cones of weed and whatever he drank on the train.

Around 8.00 pm, I had just finished getting ready and was about to walk out of my bedroom when I saw Trent standing at my bedroom door, basically blocking the doorway. We were standing face to face when he looked at me then looked down at his crotch. I felt like he was indicating for me to suck his penis.

I said, No, Ive just got ready for dinner and the reservations at 8.30.

He said, Im pretty hard.

Trent unzipped his pants and took out his penis. I was getting pissed off at this point as its my birthday dinner, hes already wasted and now he wants sex. I said, No.

I tried to walk past him, when he put his hands on my shoulders. Im 5 foot 4.5 inches tall and Trent is around 6 foot 2. He pushed me down with his hands on my shoulders and forced me onto my knees. I looked up at him and said What?

He said, Be a good little girl for daddy.

I remember him smiling like it was a joke. He put his hand on the back of my head and pulled my head towards his crotch. He started shoving his penis into my mouth. I couldnt even speak to tell him to stop as his penis was so far into my mouth and throat. He put both his hands behind my head and pulled it back and forth, multiple times. The force of his penis going into my mouth and throat was causing my eyes to tear and pain in my throat. I was gagging and felt like I needed to vomit. I put my hands on his thighs and tried to push myself away from him, but couldnt. He used so much force on my head that it caused one of my looped earrings to bend out of shape.

After a few minutes, I managed to push myself away from him. He did not ejaculate in my mouth.

I was crying and wiping away my tears and said, No, its my birthday, I dont want to be servicing you today.

He said, Pfft.

I stood up and walked out of the bedroom. I felt rattled and in shock about what had happened. I walked down the hall to my dining table. He followed behind me and once I was standing near the table, he pushed me onto it from behind, bent me over, pushed my dress up, moved my underwear to the side and inserted his penis into my vagina. I immediately froze and started crying as I didnt want to have sex with him. He thrusted his penis into my vagina for around one and a half minutes before ejaculating into me.

After he finished, I stood up, turned around and looked at him.

He said, Whats wrong?

I said, I told you I didnt want to do any of this. He said, Why are you crying?

I said, Are you serious?

He seemed a bit startled. After a minute or so he said, Oh baby I love you, I wouldnt hurt you.

I said, Lets just go, weve got somewhere to be.

We got an Uber to the restaurant. During dinner he was acting overly nice and charming towards me. We had a normal night out as if nothing had happened. He stayed at mine that night, he was very drunk and went straight to bed. We never discussed the incident again.

In her statements to the police, Mia described eight separate incidents of being raped by Trent. They occurred over a six-month period before Mia finally ended their relationship. A few months later, she made a report to the NSW Police Force.

Five months after that, Mia found herself alone on the footpath outside the Surry Hills Police Station, in her words left to walk home in a dissociative state, processing my shock and feeling like the world was crumbling around me. She had just been informed that her case was closed. The police, without even interviewing Trent, had concluded that a prosecution wasnt likely to succeed. There had been no prior warning to Mia that this might be how it would end.

That it had come to thisas Mia later described it, a feeling of being used up, disregarded and discarded, her agency stripped away once morereflected her status as another data point in the endless roll call of rape victims who the system has utterly failed. When it comes to rape, the exceptional is the norm.