Warning: The following article contains information about sexual assault and could be triggering for some readers.
During her time in the Australian Defence Force Academy, one woman, known now as ‘Susan,’ was called a “divisional toy” during her time as a cadet.
Being a “divisional toy” meant Susan “belonged” to her division, and they could do whatever they wanted to her.
Including rape.
One night, ‘Susan’ claims, she was assaulted by a third year cadet in her own bedroom, when he came into her room uninvited and started touching her body.
“I … pretended to be dead really, and I wished I was,” she said in an interview with ABC’s Four Corner’s program last night.
The story of ‘Susan’ is just one of a number of shocking incidences of rape and sexual assault that allegedly occurred in the Australian Defence Force in the 1990s – but were never properly investigated by authorities.
The four women interviewed during the program are known as part of the ‘ADFA 24’, a group of 24 cadets who wereallegedly sexually assaulted or otherwise abused during their training in the ’90s. The women say that these cases were never properly looked into and, shockingly, that many of the alleged perpetrators are now senior members of the force.
In 2012, the defence force released the DLA Piper Report, which was a review into “allegations into sexual and other forms of abuse in defence”. The report found it was “possible that male cadets who raped female cadets at ADFA in the late 1990s … may now be in middle to senior management positions in the ADF” and had since led to an internal investigation.
The fact that these alleged perpetrators are still serving within the Defence Force, means that the women they attacked are still subjected to their presence in the workplace.
One survivor of assault, referred to as ‘Jane’, spoke to Four Corners, and says that when she was a second-year cadet she was raped by a third-year cadet.
“I was scared,” she said. “So I reported it the next day.” Her case went all the way to a committal hearing, but was dropped by the DPP.
She is still a serving officer, and was deeply affected when the man who raped her arrived at her base this year. Jane said that his presence caused “it all just came flooding back, like it had happened the day before yesterday.”
Troublingly, some of the survivors of abuse did not know that the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce even existed before they were approached by Four Corners.
One of the ADFA 24 told the ABC, “When [DART] was mentioned to me for the very first time, I was in complete and utter shock… How can they have this whole taskforce, have this whole system set up for people who had been through what I’d been through, and we weren’t made aware of it?”
This woman’s story, Kellie Gunnis, is particularly brutal. She says she was sexually harassed and bullied during her first year at ADFA in 1996. This lead to an attempt to take her own life. She was then moved to a different barracks to be closer to her family, where an officer who was supposed to be keeping an eye on her recovery sexually assaulted her.
“He was my superior. After it happened I felt wrong. Nothing felt right,” she told Four Corners.
She reported the incident to the police, but was “talked out of [pursuing it further]”. ADFA then terminated her contract. The man who allegedly assaulted her, is now in a senior rank in the Defence Force.
The chairman of the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce, Len Roberts-Smith, says that they “made a deliberate decision very early on that we would not chase down [victims] who did not come to the taskforce voluntarily.”
He also asked for any other people who had experienced sexual assault, and not yet made a complaint, to come forward. Roberts-Smith was joined in his call by Chief of Defence, David Hurley, who asked that anyone with further information about the ADFA 24 cases should come directly to him.
The taskforce has already looked over more than 2,400 complaints of abuse, and referred 63 matters to the police. And that is just from the cases that have come forward.
Len Roberts-Smith suspects that the taskforce will identify hundreds of perpetrators throughout the course of their investigation.
Hundreds of perpetrators, yes. But also hundreds of women who claim they have never had the compassion nor compensation they deserve.
Let’s hope this changes that.
Some are calling for a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse in the Defence Force – do you agree?
Top Comments
I watched the Four Corners program and felt disgusted... disgusted at the lack of effort to give a balanced view of ADFA. I am a female graduate of ADFA. I spent four years there between 1989 and 1992 completing an Honours degree. Yes, without
a doubt I experienced behaviour that would now be termed sexual harassment. But this was one small element of my experience at ADFA and does not define my time there. Overwhelmingly, my experience was positive. I went to ADFA as a shy and naive young girl, and graduated as a well-educated, independent and confident young woman. I am angry at the suggestion that females at ADFA can only be victims in a male-dominated environment. I willingly participated in parties, drinking
games and other antics at ADFA. Sometimes these activities had sexual overtones – often I enjoyed the fun of this. Why do people assume that females can’t enjoy
- or even - initiate dirty jokes and sexual banter? I never felt that anything was forced upon me. If I didn’t feel like participating, I left. I was NEVER sexually assaulted
and I was NEVER raped. In fact, I felt safe while I was at ADFA. I made mistakes. I got drunk and regretted it. I kissed some boys and later wished I hadn’t. This is all part of growing up. People ask me now if I would send my daughter there - I answer yes. I would give her some advice before she left home – as I would if she was leaving to go to any other university in Australia – and I would send her there with my blessing. I understand that a small number of females had terrible experiences at ADFA. I’m not saying this is acceptable or should not be addressed. But to suggest that the entire institution should be closed down (as the Four Corners program suggested) on the strength of this is wrong. By this reasoning, many
residential colleges across Australia should also be closed down. According to
this article (http://www.crikey.com.au/20... 'the University of Canberra had the highest combined number of sexual assaults and indecent acts reported to the Australian Federal police between 2005-2010, with ANU coming in second among higher education institutions in the nation’s capital.' ADFA is an easy target. Many who are philosophically opposed to the existence of the military object to ADFA. But the ABC’s charter requires its reporting to be balanced. In this instance, it has failed.
I think there difference is if you want it or not. If you are happy to involve yourself in dirty jokes and sexual banter then fine. However, if you do not want this and it makes you feel uncomfortable then you in no way should have to be subjected to it. Also, the person who doesn't like it (if it is in a work place) should not have to leave the behaviour, the behaviour should stop. If you regret something you agreed to fine. If you regret something you did not want and was forced into it is assault. I am sure there are many people (women and men) who do have positive experiences in the army however this program was to highlight the negative issues and ones that in the past have been vastly ignored in a climate that is intensely un-supportive of women.
I have heard sometimes the opinion of senior army men and sometimes it felt clear to me that they did not want women in the army. It is still an essentially male dominated environment.
I might add as well that over 2000 complaints from women is no small number of occurrences. You can guarantee that there were more that did not get reported. Your comment in regards to colleges and the rate of sexual assaults is valid, there to is an issue that must be addressed but does not negate the one at hand.
I wanted to join the Army after I left school many years back, I wanted to be a military dog handler. I had already begun the process when I attended a party where I met many defence force personel and changed my mind quickly. The men just laughed at me, told me without any shame at all that I would be raped more than once and that it was all about teaching women a lesson and that we women should learn that our place was not in the military. Boys club, no doubt at all.