How the ACT's systems have failed sexual assault victim-survivors

After giving evidence to a court room, Ms Burg was feeling woozy, like she had been in a nasty car accident. She had been unable to eat throughout the trial but her husband, Phil, decided to take her to the steakhouse restaurant.

"Phil ordered me mashed potato and I just sat there and I was just sitting and crying. It was that weird kind of crying where you don't cry with any noise... it's as if you're completely fine you're just streaming with tears," Ms Burg said.

"The manager clearly he had no idea what was going on... but he suddenly showed up beside us with a hot fudge sundae.

"He just put it down on the table and he asked Phil if I was OK and Phil said, 'Yeah, she should be fine', and he said, 'Don't worry about paying for this, it's on the house.'

"That was the kindest thing that happened to me in the whole process."

A damning report into the ACT's responses to sexual assault was released this week. It found victim-survivors in Canberra were often retraumatised through their experiences with the territory's justice system, community and government agencies.

The report was a culmination of eight months of hard work and was led by a series of working groups that comprised members from across the ACT's law, community sector, health workers, union members and other stakeholders.

As part of the investigations from the groups 17 victim-survivors were interviewed about their experiences in reporting sexual assault. Their accounts were shocking - many were disbelieved, they felt disrespected by police officers and the courts.

A common thread through the many cases was that police and others in the justice system didn't even bother to keep them updated about their cases.

Ms Burg was one of the victim-survivors who shared her experience. Her story was shared under a pseudonym in the report, despite her request to have her real name attached to her story.

As a child, Ms Burg was raped by an Anglican priest.

About seven years ago she made the decision to report the historic offences to police. John Phillip Aitchison was found guilty of the crimes in 2018 and was sentenced to nine years in jail with a five-year non-parole period.

While Ms Burg has since revealed her identity and spoken publicly about her case, she felt completely unprepared for the media attention that surrounded her trial.

"I was provided with very little information about what to expect while giving evidence, where I would be staying in relation to my abuser, and how the media might respond to the case," she said in the report.

More recently, Ms Burg found out that Aitchison had unsuccessfully sought to appeal his sentence through a news article. She hadn't even been informed that he had sought an appeal.

"I found out through an article in The Canberra Times because my husband has an alert on his phone for my perpetrator's name," she said.

"That was the first I had heard of it."

While Ms Burg felt let down by the system, she said she felt her experience sadly by comparison was a positive one.

She felt supported by detectives, she was believed and the perpetrator was found guilty and was sentenced.

Ms Burg said it wasn't the people who failed her but it was the systems in which they were operating.

"It's as good as it gets and that makes it even more sobering. I had a really fantastic detective. The lead detective in my case was a woman. She and another detective flew all the way down here to Melbourne to interview me. They knew it was a live case very early, everyone took it very seriously. I was believed from the outset," she said.

"I'm one of a tiny percentage, you know, the percentage of rape cases that result in a conviction like mine are tiny."

The landmark report has made wide-ranging recommendations that span the territory's justice system, community sector, education and government agencies.

A key recommendation is that victim-survivors be put at the forefront of prevention and response to sexual violence in the ACT. It was recommended that an ongoing consultation program be established with victim-survivors.

The report has also called for the ACT government to fund training in relevant government and community settings on the dynamic of sexual violence, responding to sexual violence disclosures and sexual violence active bystander training.

Extensive reviews of government services that provide services related to sexual violence have also been recommended.

But the report has recognised that the community's attitudes about sexuality need to be changed in much more fundamental way.

Another survivor who shared her story in the report was Chloe Jones, she said the recommendations were an accurate representation of the things that need to be changed.

"It is clear within this report that our desperate cry for change has finally been heard," she said.

"This gives me hope that actual reform is possible and that, with their eyes now wide open to so many complex failings within the system, the government has to finally listen and make systematic and legislative amendments.

"It is for this reason that I will not stop speaking up about the immediate need for the transformations outlined in this report and hold onto hope for what positive change will come to fruition in the future."

ACT victims of crimes commissioner Heidi Yates, who was a part of two working groups, said she was not at all surprised by the findings in the 200-page report.

"The gravity of harm experienced by victim-survivors in the territory as a result of the systemic failures of our systems are stories that people tell us in a steady stream here at Victim Support ACT," Ms Yates said.

This work was brought to the forefront this year following the March 4 Justice, prompted by the disclosure from Brittany Higgins of an alleged sexual assault at Parliament House.

READ MORE:

Ms Yates said she was confident the momentum for change that started this year would continue.

"We might identify a similar trajectory with Rosie Batty coming forward and when she was Australian of the Year there so many community conversations about people's lived experience of domestic and family violence have come to light as a result of her taking that national stage," she said.

"I think similarly seeing Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins, Chanel Contos and Saxon Mullins coming forward they have created space for people of all ages and backgrounds and cultures and genders to think 'my story matters and what happened to me was not OK'.

"I'm confident that whilst the national conversation has begun this year, the voices of those survivors, young women in particular are going to carry us forward and set new expectations around the leadership that is needed."

The report sets out that change will need to be done over a long period, with the report stating that a 10-year strategy for the prevention of sexual violence would be necessary.

"The strategy should aim to change the attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate sexual violence and implement tailored actions to reduce the risk and occurrence of sexual violence in all settings where ACT residents live, work and play," the report said.

But Kath Taplin, who is the senior director at Victim Support ACT, said change could commence immediately.

"I think it can be done quite rapidly with the right leadership," she said.

"Yes, it will take a very long time to remove some of the norms that make some people feel that have a right to perpetrate against others but equally we can start that now."

The report also highlights the ACT's low conviction rate for sexual violence offences, which has plummeted by more than half over the past five years.

Last year, only 2.8 per cent of finalised police investigations into sexual violence resulted in charges being laid in court.

A recommendation is for the ACT government to establish an independent taskforce to undertake a review of all sexual assault cases reports to ACT Policing that did not progress to charges being laid. This would include those deemed unfounded, uncleared or withdrawn.

The ACT's director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold said he supported this recommendation and would be willing to prosecute any matters where there was a reasonable prospect of conviction.

"We know that to date the criminal justice system has been far from perfect in the way in which complaints of sexual assault have been dealt with by criminal justice agencies," he said.

"The experience of victim-survivors has varied considerably. Many complaints have been dealt with diligently and professionally, but we cannot shy away from the fact that many have not."

For Ms Burg, she has doubts about how much of the report's recommendations will actually happen but she said it was important that the voices of victim-survivors remain at the centre.

"I think the things that are going to be implemented will be procedural in nature, but not in real world application," she said.

"I think it's these kinds of stories that society needs to hear. I think it's incredibly important. And I think it's the only way we can actually really see systemic changes in the system."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: