Latest news with #justicereform
ABC News
5 days ago
- ABC News
Child sex abuse survivor calls for urgent case management reform after his life was 'shattered'
A child sex abuse survivor has called on the courts and police across Australia to urgently reform the way cases like his are managed. South Australian Mike Worsman has delivered a victim impact statement in the ACT Supreme Court today describing the crimes against him as "monstrous". The man accused of the offences has pleaded guilty to five charges, including acts of indecency and rape, committed in Canberra in the 1990s. Mr Worsman was only 12 at the time of the offences. The court heard the man had threatened to kill him if he told anyone, as the attacks became increasingly violent. "He stopped only when I said, 'Kill me or stop'," Mr Worsman told the court. In a graphic account he said: "I will never be un-raped". "I will never know a life free from this pain," Mr Worsman said. "He shattered my existence. "His evil infected me." Mr Worsman had kept the abuse secret for more than 20 years. But then came a bombshell, when he discovered his abuser had sexually assaulted another child. The man spent several years in jail in South Australia for that offence, but has recently been released. Mr Worsman said the discovery another person had suffered at the hands of his abuser prompted him to go to police in 2019. But after gathering his courage — and taking part in a five hour interview — he was told by the officer involved he was in the wrong place. "He said, 'Oh, actually I shouldn't have been taking your statement here — the crimes first started in the ACT', and he then went on to say, 'Actually I'll send them the document next week'," Mr Worsman said in an interview after his court appearance. "Eighteen months later is how long it took him, me following up every month to say, 'Hey, have you sent that document that's about me being raped as a child over to the ACT?'" There was then a long wait while his abuser served the first sentence. But when it came to bringing the man to Canberra, there was another hurdle, with no legal avenue to extradite him. "He pleaded guilty on the 19th of June last year," Mr Worsman said. "Why couldn't he be sentenced a month after that via remote video link? "He was sentenced via remote video link for the other case." He said it had been an anxious wait between the man being released from South Australia, and the ACT court proceedings. "He was then allowed to be a free citizen and asked to get on a plane by [SA Police], thankfully he did, and then he's out in the community here," Mr Worsman said. He has also called for tough minimum sentences for such offenders, to protect the community. The offender will be sentenced on Thursday.
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Yahoo
'Getting out of control,' vigil held in B.C. to remember women who died in July
VANCOUVER — A small group gathered outside Vancouver's art gallery Thursday to remember several women who died recently in B.C. and call for changes within the justice system to prevent more such deaths. Dahye Son, an anti-violence worker at Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter, says femicide is getting "out of control," and a better system needs to be put in place to protect women from dangerous men. Police say an 80-year-old woman died in Abbotsford in a murder-suicide in late June, a 51-year-old woman was killed in Richmond July 18 and her partner is charged with second-degree murder, and in Kelowna, Bailey McCourt was beaten to death on July 4 and her husband faces a murder charge. Two other women in Surrey and Vancouver were also killed, but few details have been released on those deaths. Son says a man accused of violence against their partners should not be allowed to be released on bail or they should be forced to wear an electronic monitoring anklet. She says the current criminal justice system is "very arduous," requiring women to tell their stories again and again, and the result is not always what the victim was hoping for. The housing crisis in B.C. also makes it challenging for women who try to leave the violence, and Son says the sad part is that their partners also know they can't afford to leave. "I think it's more about how the normalization of femicide in the society is that we're just continuing to see it without any change, and you might see another case in the news and think, 'Oh, just another thing that happens in our society.' But I want us to remember that it's not OK," says Son. "It's not acceptable for a woman to die because she's a woman and have her life taken away because she's with a man." This report by The Canadian Press was first published July, 31, 2025. Nono Shen, The Canadian Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
