Franky Dean’s story highlights the moral dilemmas of crimes with ‘unknowing victims’
At 12 she was abused by a friend’s father. Police told her parents she was asleep so there was no need to let her know. The problem? They were wrong …
There are a number of instances in which someone may be an unknowing victim of a sex-related crime. For instance, if someone is date raped and does not remember that they have been assaulted. Or if they have consented to having sex with someone but do not know that they are being filmed or that the film is going to be distributed.
The next morning, everything appeared to be normal. Greg lived in a detached house on a private estate, so he had to drive Franky to the gate for her mum to pick her up. During the journey, neither of them acknowledged what had happened. In the car ride home with her mum, Franky didn’t bring it up. She felt ashamed. She wouldn’t talk about it to anyone for several years.The first person Franky told about the assault was her first boyfriend, when she was in her teens.
So she made a promise to herself. “I’m not going to tell my parents,” she decided. “Whatever happens, I’m not going to tell them.”n 2014, Franky’s parents received a call from a detective constable. She asked if she could meet them at their house, and arrived soon afterwards. She told them that Greg had been arrested. A year earlier, three girls in a changing room had spotted him holding a small camera under the cubicle walls.
On 2 September 2015, the detective emailed the Deans to inform them that the Crown Prosecution Service had authorised 22 charges against Greg. She said that since they strongly anticipated him pleading guilty there was no need to inform Franky about any of it. “It’s just such an ethical debate,” says Lawrence Jordan, director of services at Marie Collins Foundation, a charity that supports victims and survivors of technology-assisted child sexual abuse. “No one has been able to say with confidence – probably because it’s a case-by-case basis – that yes, a survivor should know or no, they shouldn’t.”
Some victims were numb; others were furious. “Why have you told me this?” Waters recalls them asking. “I had no idea that this happened to me. You’ve ruined my life. So why have you told me?” But for other victims, the revelation was a relief. They didn’t have a clear memory of the night, but they had a feeling that something bad had happened.
When he was adopted, Robert was “catatonic”. He was afraid of men, he didn’t want to be touched and he preferred to be left in a dark room, alone. As a child, he had behavioural problems and intense mood swings. Robert’s adoptive mother decided to take him to therapy. In one session, when Robert was eight, he said that he’d had a scary memory of his father hurting him. He flung himself to the floor, wailing hysterically, raising his bottom in the air.
Years later, when Franky finally reported the assault to the police, they brought up this school meeting, as if to say: why didn’t you tell us then? “It felt very much like victim blaming,” Franky says. There’s a particular art to interviewing children who might have been subjected to sexual abuse. It’s called the ABE technique, which stands for achieving best evidence. It’s a balancing act between wanting to get all the necessary information, without asking leading questions.
In 2019, a friend said: ‘Jo’s dad had filmed us all in the toilets.’ It was the first time Franky had had confirmation that the shadowy memory of that night was probably real “Both of us were obviously keeping face, almost hiding our own secrets,” Franky says. “She was feeling me out to see if I knew anything about my assault, and I was feeling her out.”he night before Franky filed a police report, she’d been to the cinema to watch a new documentary, To Kill a Tiger. The film follows the story ofafter his 13-year-old daughter was gang raped. Franky was moved.
But after cross-referencing Franky’s statement with video evidence gathered at the time, police came back with a response that Franky found disheartening. Sitting alone in NYU’s journalism department, Franky spoke to a detective constable over Zoom. He told her that it was unlikely that the incident she remembered was different from the one Greg had already been charged for, meaning that the case could not be reopened.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NT police commissioner promises 'cultural reform', after Aboriginal police officers lodge human rights complaintLawyers allege several Aboriginal NT Police officers experienced racial vilification, derision and an unequal pay system on the job. The police commissioner says it's a 'positive step' that they have the confidence to speak up.
Read more »
Police rescue more than 400 children after abuse allegations at Malaysian welfare homesAuthorities in Malaysia have rescued 402 children who were allegedly being exploited and sexually abused.
Read more »
Man shot by police after fatal stabbing in Melbourne's north-westA man has been shot and critically injured by police following a fatal stabbing at a home in Hillside, Melbourne. Police were called to the scene following reports of a stabbing, where they found a 61-year-old man dead on the front lawn. A confrontation ensued between officers and a knife-wielding man inside the home, leading to police firing shots that hit the suspect in the lower body.
Read more »
UK counter-terror police drafted in after Telegraph journalist dies in GibraltarDavid Knowles, who helped make Ukraine: The Latest podcast, died on holiday after suspected cardiac arrest
Read more »
Families of police officers murdered at Wieambilla call for more funding for mental health support charity as demand skyrocketsThe mother of Rachel McCrow, one of the police officers murdered at Wieambilla, makes an emotional plea ahead of National Police Remembrance Day.
Read more »
Drug detections outnumber drink-driving offences in latest police crackdown7NEWS brings you the latest local news from Australia and around the world. Stay up to date with all of the breaking sport, politics, entertainment, finance, weather and business headlines. Today's news, live updates & all the latest breaking stories from 7NEWS.
Read more »