November 16 2006
The Secretary
Parole Board of South Australia
ENGAGEMENT WITH THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make a submission to the Parole Board in the matter of Prisoner X, who broke into my home in September 1993 while my children and I were sleeping, threatened our lives and raped me. I am a registered victim, and prefer to be called a survivor.
I realise that you cannot base your decisions on past judicial decisions, but found it impossible to write a submission to you without reference to what has gone on before. So I have inserted questions about possible parole conditions into this text.
POLICE ACTIVITY
After Prisoner X raped me the police told me they had no idea who he was. They had no idea where to find him, and thought it was an opportunistic attack by someone who had broken in to steal and support his drug habit. This meant that every man I ever encountered was under suspicion. I live with the fear that I can be raped at any time by any man, every moment of every day and every night.
I participated in a study by the police, who were gathering and comparing information about similar sexual attacks that had been occurring in pockets around Adelaide. The police interviewed me, showed me photographs of other rape survivors and tried to piece together any information that linked us. This was fruitless. They still had no idea who had raped me.
CONFESSION
Prisoner X walked into Holden Hill Police Station and confessed to a string of crimes for which victims were not all found. Some women had not reported his attacks on them. The reason for his confession was that the next victim after me had reported his brutal attack on her. The detective who was handling her case believed her when she said she could make an Identikit photo of the man who had raped her. This photo was published in the local newspaper. Prisoner X saw his wife reading the article, recognised his own face and chose not to wait to be discovered or reported by someone who also knew who he was. He did not confess because he regretted his behaviour. He did not confess because he recognised the great damage his actions had wrought on the lives of women, their children, their friends and their families. I believe his confession was a calculated move to manipulate the criminal justice system and avoid a life in prison.
Because of Prisoner X’s confession, his victims never got a chance to tell the court what he did to us. Prisoner X himself avoided hearing about our pain and our ongoing distress.
There were two minor ways in which we were involved in the case. First, we had to identify Prisoner X in a police line up. Secondly, we were encouraged to write Victim Impact Statements, which were read by Justice N when she considered his sentence. We had no assistance with either of these events, and I was further traumatised by both of them.
IDENTITY PARADE
I had no trouble identifying Prisoner X in the police line up. This occasion took place at the Holden Hill Police Station. I sat in a room with some other victims and we were told that we were not allowed to talk about why we were there, what Prisoner X had done to us, or what we thought of the case. We sat in silence as we were picked off one by one and led into the room where the police line up took place. The room we went into was the room where the men were lined up against a wall. There were no other women in the room. The identification process was video taped. After I entered the room, my full name and address were announced to everyone present. I was violated once again – my body was stripped bare by the eyes of all those men, and my identity was revealed to them. This was a humiliating, terrifying, violating experience.
VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENT
I prepared my Victim Impact Statement alone on a borrowed computer. It took days, as I relived and wrote down what had happened since Prisoner X raped me. I missed the funeral of a close family friend, because I was immersed in writing down as fully as I could, the impact of Prisoner X’s crimes against my children and me. I sent my Victim Impact Statement into the police as I had been directed, and heard no more about it.
SENTENCING SUBMISSIONS
I sat in the sentencing submissions and heard how Prisoner X’s uncle abused him as a child. No details were given. This was supposed to be an excuse for why Prisoner X routinely terrorised strange women by hijacking their cars or breaking into our homes and raping us. It was presented as though Prisoner X had done a good thing in attacking us, and thereby sparing his wife and daughters.
Many Australian children are molested and abused during their childhood and teenage years. Most do not go on to behave as Prisoner X behaved. Most choose not to transmit the abuse across generations. Some seek help, and others soldier on alone. Prisoner X’s behaviour is indefensible.
SENTENCE AND SUBSEQUENT APPEALS
I sat in the courtroom as Justice N sentenced Prisoner X for his crimes. I listened in numb disbelief as she quoted from my Victim Impact Statement and halved Prisoner X’s head sentence because of a few words I had written in conclusion. Justice N never once approached me or spoke to me about what I had written. She quoted my words out of context and I felt guilty, as though I were responsible for Prisoner X’s ridiculously light sentence. I was violated once again, this time by a woman who betrayed me in her apparent admiration for Prisoner X’s willingness to step forward and face up to his criminal behaviour. I still heard no word from Prisoner X about remorse or contrition.
The Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) was appalled at the leniency shown by Justice N in sentencing Prisoner X for his string of serious crimes against women, and appealed successfully that his sentence be increased. I was not involved in this appeal, but someone from the DPP kept me informed of its outcome.
It has been a scant eight years since Prisoner X went to prison for assaulting 12 women. I couldn’t understand why he was already due for a pre-release work program and now for parole. The DPP never contacted me about Prisoner X’s successful appeal against the lengthening of his sentence. Nor was this sensationalised in Adelaide’s newspaper the way public outrage at his initial sentence was.
In appealing to shorten his sentence, Prisoner X’s lack of contrition and remorse seem obvious to me. It’s the same as his so-called confession, which was a calculated and selfish move to decrease the amount of time he would have to spend in prison to pay for his crimes.
NO REPRIEVE FOR VICTIMSAlthough the correctional services system in Australia offers reprieves to convicted criminals that include work programs, day release and parole, there is no such reprieve for victims. We will never be free of the effects of Prisoner X’s crimes against us. His release on parole or otherwise can only make us feel less safe. While he has been in prison, I have been able to get on with my life in the knowledge that he will not appear at my bedside or my front door to kill me for reporting his crimes against me to the police, as he threatened to do.
· the confession seems not to have come out of remorse or contrition
· appeal against the length of his sentence seems self-serving and unjust
· there is no reprieve for his victims when he gets out of jail so soon
MY STORY
After Prisoner X raped me, he told me that if I called the police, he would come back and kill me. He brandished the telephone and threatened to pull it out of the wall, unless I complied with his demands. I was a single mother, alone in my home with my children. My son was three years old, and my daughter was almost two years old. This happened about 6 months after I had fled my abusive husband.
I was outraged by being woken from my sleep and brutally raped. I was terrified that he would come back and kill my children and me, so I waited a few minutes to be sure he had really gone, and immediately made two phone calls to (a) my parents and (b) the police. My father picked up the phone and I told him someone had broken into my house. He said “Did he hurt you?” I said “Yes.” He said “I’m coming over straightaway.”
I don’t remember who arrived first – my father, or the police, but I was most concerned that they not wake the children. The police wanted to take me to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for forensic examination, so my father stayed with my children.
MY CIRCUMSTANCES
At this time I was also going through Family Court proceedings to establish access arrangements. My children were already traumatized by our marriage. During my marriage I had been estranged from my family and was only beginning to reconnect with my parents. I was also busily making plans for the rest of my life, for returning to study and making a home for my children. I had very few friends. As is often the case in domestic violence, my husband had taken care to isolate me, often through a process of social humiliation.
One of the reasons I fled my marriage was that my husband had raped me after the birth of our second child. After that incident, which we never spoke about directly, I felt like he was raping me every time I consented to have sex with him.
When Prisoner X raped me I discovered that I live in a world where men think they have the right to rape any women whenever and wherever they feel like it. I learned the bitter truth that I can never control the actions of men around me. I tried to avoid coming into any kind of contact with any kind of man. I worried incessantly about the fact that my son, whom I love very dearly, was going to grow into a man. I could not bear to think about the fact that my father was a man; that my brothers were men; and that one of my close friends was a man.
Though I have learned to live with my deep fears, I still jump every time someone knocks at my door, even when I am expecting visitors. I am on constant alert. I dread getting into a lift with strange men, though this is something I have to do almost every day. I have to psych myself up to speak with men who are sales assistants at service stations and in other businesses.
When Prisoner X raped me people tried all kinds of ways to justify his actions and blame me for what he did. The police seemed to make a big deal out of the fact that I hadn’t worn any underpants to bed. People said I should have locked my windows. They said I should not have left my husband. They said I was already living in fear and had somehow attracted a monster into my life to make my nightmares into reality. I could never bring myself to believe that people thought I had done anything wrong, because I was just asleep in my bed when he broke into my home.
It has taken thirteen years for me to remember what my state of mind was, before Prisoner X raped me. I was happy, optimistic, eager to embrace my life, enjoying mothering and looking forward to all the changes that were going on around me. Yet all this time I have nursed the secret belief that Prisoner X targeted me for a reason. I never believed it was a random attack.
· how do you ensure he doesn’t do this again to other women?
· the effects of his actions are deep, long-lasting and affect not only the women he raped, but their children, family and friends
CONSEQUENCES OF BEING RAPED
I can write at length about my experience of the ongoing physical, emotional, financial and spiritual effects of Prisoner X’s crimes against me, but in doing so I will come across as a nagging complaining victim, rather than a survivor of a hideous criminal experience that began when Prisoner X broke into my home in September 1993 and continues to this day.
The idea that in making this submission to the Parole Board, I am playing an important role in achieving justice just doesn’t ring true. This continues to be the story of poor victimised Prisoner X who has been in prison and wants to get out to live a normal life again with his wife and daughters. I have no real role in this story, except as an anonymous victim. Having my say does not help me to heal. It does not help me to recover. It does not make me feel safer. It does not make me feel justice has been served.
In writing this submission I am brought low again, as low as I ever let myself go. I feel bereft of myself – the only way to cope with these memories and to allow them to surface is to disconnect myself from everything else in my life. I fail to respond to my children as I should, and I am unable to go to work, because this is all I can think about. The rest of my life and my identity are in stasis. I am meaningless and worthless.
Perhaps it was an unlucky accident that my home was the one Prisoner X broke into that night? And if I were to make good my threat to kill myself in an effort to relieve my fears and my anxieties, who will suffer from my actions? They will have no impact on Prisoner X’s life or his prison sentence. The fact that rape is supposed to be considered as serious a crime as murder only goes to show that life is cheap, and there is no justice for victims of crime.
Ultimately, what bearing can my unexplainably debilitating menstrual cycle have on Prisoner X’s prison term? How can it matter, that I have longed to bear more children yet am incapable of forming any close relationship with a man that would make this possible?
I can see a direct link between recovering from rape, and the lengthy delay in my career and studies, and the financial impact this has had on my family. My life chances were severely impacted and reduced by Prisoner X’s crimes.
Is this the kind of thing the Parole Board considers, in examining applications by prisoners, for parole? The longer Prisoner X stays in prison, the longer I have to not think about him. I’ve already had to think about him this year as he has been on work and weekend release. Every time I hear from Correctional Services that it might be wise for me to avoid this place or that place, my inclination to be reclusive redoubles. Why would I want to leave my home if I might encounter a monster in the local shops?
· the ongoing effects of post traumatic stress disorder are debilitating and serious, affecting me psychologically and physically
· letting him out of jail can only exacerbate these experiences
· my children are affected in turn by my distress
CONDITIONS OF RELEASE
The miniscule degree of separation between people in Adelaide worries me. Prisoner X and I have children around the same age. Prisoner X’s wife and daughters are not responsible for his crimes against my children and me. Only he is responsible, but how dare his wife relocate to Golden Grove? Why didn’t she stay in Williamstown?
· Do I now have to consider relocating my children in order to avoid my rapist when he leaves prison?
REHABILITATION
One of the reasons given to the court for why Prisoner X’s sentence should be reduced was the lack of rehabilitation services that would be available to him in prison. The court was told that he stood a better chance of being rehabilitated if he were not imprisoned.
In my involvement as a Registered Victim with Correctional Services, I was told that Prisoner X has been a model prisoner, and that he takes advantage of all the rehabilitation services that are offered him in prison. However, I’m not sure what that means. The phrasing “takes advantage of” suggests that he is acting out of self concern, in order to get out of prison as soon as he possibly can. Maybe it’s not in order to acknowledge or come to terms with his crimes, and not an effort to prevent him from behaving in the same way in future.
I don’t know what rehabilitation means, for a serial rapist. What are the rates of success in the rehabilitation stakes? Is success determined by the increasing length of time between attacks, or by a reduction in severity? After his sentencing, I met up with some of Prisoner X’s other victims. I was shocked to hear from them, how brutal and frenzied his attacks had become, particularly when babies and small children were present.
Our televisions feed us an unrelenting diet of murder, rape and crime, the majority of which are by men against innocent women and children. Who can determine that a serial rapist is not thrilled, educated and encouraged by what he sees on television? Is it reasonable that I demand Prisoner X not be allowed to watch television for the rest of his life? Stress increases the risk of re-offending. Thank goodness he won’t be going home to a house full of small children anymore. Can I demand that he be given a stress-free life? Do I deserve anything less?
· What will his ongoing rehabilitation program look like?
· How will he be monitored to ensure he is compliant?
· What safeguards are there for the community that he not rape again?
· How do you ensure he fathers no more children?
I have no confidence that when he is released from prison, Prisoner X will not seek to carry out this threat to kill me. I have no confidence that he has any idea of the effects of his crimes against my children and me. I don’t know that he has any remorse or regret or contrition for his criminal acts.
Prisoner X does not deserve to attempt to lead an ordinary life out of prison unless he is determined never to rape again.
If Prisoner X still gets a thrill out of imagining breaking into a home and overpowering and raping the women he finds in there, he should die in prison. If Prisoner X continues to show no remorse for his actions, and no understanding of their impact on his victims, he should die in prison.
I don’t want to encounter him. I don’t want him to kill me. I don’t want him contacting me or my children directly or indirectly. I don’t want him to rape, or break into any more cars or homes. If there is any risk of these things occurring, don’t allow him to leave prison.
· he should not make contact with me or my children, whether directly or indirectly
· he should not carry out his threat to kill me because I told the police what he had done
Yours sincerely,
Melina Magdalena
(*Prisoner X remains unnamed in this blog for a good reason)
