For nearly a quarter of a century, Leah Sallese believed she had had an “adventure” with her physical education teacher; then a conversation changed everything.
Key points:
- Leah Sallese said the abuse occurred in the early 1990s when she was 16 years old
- Despite her opinion at the time that it was an affair, she made two attempts to report it to the school, but it was rejected.
- Ms Sallese told the commission that when she later went to the police she had a “wonderful experience”, but prosecuting the case in the courts was another matter.
This revelation and his subsequent experience with Tasmania’s justice system was part of his evidence Friday morning at the Commission of Inquiry into Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Environments.
“I thought I had an‘ affair ’with the physical education teacher,” she told the committee.
“That was the plan I had in my brain whenever someone referred to it.
“I basically took the blame and the shame of having this relationship, he didn’t.”
Lines of support for sexual assault and domestic violence:
The abuse occurred in the early 1990s, when Ms. Sallese was 16 years old.
Despite his opinion at the time that it was an affair, he made two attempts to report it to the school.
First, he told a school chaplain that he went to the principal and the deputy principal on his behalf.
“They fired him and told him he was wrong,” he told the commission.
His father and mother were “the next to meet” and reported him to the school.
“It was assured that my abuser would be fired immediately,” Ms Sallese told the commissioner.
“My parents found out later, on the night of the end-of-year speech, that I was still working at the school. That was about six months later.”
Elizabeth Bennett SC acts as an attorney assisting the commission. (ABC News: Chook Brooks)
The conversation with the psychotherapist changed everything
As far as Ms. Sallese knows, the school never alerted the police.
He told the commission that the first experience he had with the police was when he presented himself for the third time, in 2017.
By this stage, he was already 40 years old and had spent most of his life believing it was an “affair”.
It was a conversation with her psychotherapist that changed everything.
“I said I had an affair with the physical education teacher, and he said ‘What? No, you didn’t. That’s child sexual abuse,'” Ms. Sallese said.
“This is the first time, as a woman in my 40s, that I questioned what I had in my head as a narrative all my life.
“I had avoided a lot of trauma until then, so I actually experienced a lot of trauma again in my 40s after re-identifying and rewriting that narrative to get to where I am today.”
Part of this was realizing that she was a “victim of abuse” rather than an “equal or instigating participation in an adventure.”
“I was a vulnerable child and was twice my age and in a position of power,” he told the commission.
“I had never seen it like this before because I had always taken the blame. All the adults in my life had made me responsible for that.”
The Tasmanian commission of inquiry has heard devastating reports of abuse. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
“I felt like I had been taken away from power”
Mrs Sallese also spoke to someone at the school about the abuse.
“She told me, ‘What happened to you should never have happened, I feel sick.'”
“I also felt a bit of validation on that, there was basically a light switch on after telling me for years, 24 years, that it had been an instigator and a match of something that wasn’t really my fault.” .
Ms Sallese told the commission that when she went to the police she had a “wonderful experience”, but prosecuting the case in the courts was another matter.
Her assailant admitted the crimes, but Ms. Sallese told the commission she was “interviewed and re-interviewed” by the Department of Prosecution (DPP).
“How, why, when, over and over again and in different ways … it’s traumatizing to have to go through the same information again … looking back now, it was a big question for them,” he said. tell the committee.
“Especially because I had admitted it.
“I don’t see how I went back to looking for all this information when I had already done an interview with the police. It was really unnecessary.”
When it came time to write his statement on the victim’s impact, he said the prosecution “wrote it and rewrote it.”
“I felt like I had been stripped of some of my power,” he told the commission.
“All I wanted to do was get up and present my witness statement to his face … that was the only thing I had promised my 16-year-old self that I would do … that they left me take out a little.
“I really couldn’t say everything I wanted to say.”
The language used at the time was “offensive”
Her assailant was convicted by the judge who described the relationship as “consensual” but inappropriate for her age.
Ms Sallese told the commission that describing the abuse as “consensual” was “offensive”, as was the charge for which she was convicted of “having sex with a young person”.
“If you’re a kid, you can’t consent: you can’t vote, you can’t drive, you can’t buy alcohol, you can’t do anything an adult does,” he told the commission.
Since then, Prime Minister Jeremy Rockliff has pledged to amend the penal code to introduce the presumption that minors under the age of 17 cannot consent to sexual intercourse when a person is in a position of authority over them.
Meanwhile, the accusation of “having sex with a young person” has also shifted, in large part due to the efforts of former Grace Tame and Let Her Speak campaign founder Nina Funnell, at ” persistent sexual abuse of a child “. .
As for future improvements, Ms. Sallese told the commission he would like to see better support for surviving victims through the witness assistance service and someone who received training in trauma and psychology to support surviving victims through “sessions in what does a grid do to you “. .
Overall, however, she told the committee, she was glad she had presented herself.
“I was very happy that my abuser was convicted. It is a pity that they do not receive the sentence we receive, the perpetual sentence of that legacy they have left us,” he told the commission.
“It’s a shame they’re not punished like us, so that’s something I don’t like very much, but it’s like that.”
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Posted 9 hours 9 hours ago Friday, July 8, 2022 at 4:39 AM, updated 9 hours ago Friday, July 8, 2022 at 4:48 AM