Content warning: This post contains information about sexual violence that may be triggering to some readers.
An eight-year-old girl, who allegedly contracted HIV after being raped by her soccer coach, is yet to receive victim’s compensation, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been told.
The now 27-year-old woman, who has been given the pseudonym BXA, claims she was repeatedly raped by her soccer coach while playing in an under-10s soccer team in Sydney in 1996.
She said that on some occasions the man’s wife was in the room when the rapes occurred.
The Daily Telegraph reports the woman was given a diagnosis of HIV shortly before her 15th birthday.
The woman’s statement, which was tendered to the commission, detailed how the abuse took place after she began spending nights at her coach’s house with permission from her mother, who had drug and alcohol problems.
“At the beginning, the coach and his wife were very nice,” BXA said.
“They were touchy-feely . . . . I felt it was too much touching and a bit creepy.
“The first time the coach raped me was a Friday night.”
BXA said the wife of the coach would sometimes come to the room where she was sleeping and take her to the coach's room and stay while she was raped saying it’s OK” and “it’s alright’.”
"I was in a lot of pain," she said. "I remember crying and telling the coach it was hurting me. I remember him saying it would relax me."
The commission heard that the coach was charged after the girl passed a note to a classmate saying she had been raped and it was intercepted by a teacher.
The coach was found not guilty by the Campbelltown District Court in May 2001. The girl was told by police there was not enough evidence to convict the coach.
In her statement, the woman said she was treated like a liar and the coach continued to coach even after he had been charged.
BXA said she had not had other sexual partners or a blood transfusion before she was found HIV positive but said she was rejected for victim's compensation in 2001 and again in 2015.
“In relation to all the things that have happened to me I feel I have not been offered enough to support,” BXA said.
The commission is examining the way leading sporting bodies, including football, cricket and tennis, have responded to sexual abuse claims.
It is expected the inquiries into sporting clubs and institutions will run for two weeks.
Top Comments
That poor women, that wife deserves to rot in hell. The victim has had no sexual partners, ever. The article says she has had no "other" sexual partners but a rapist is not your partner - semantics I know, but it should be corrected.
That is appalling treatment by our protective and judiciary systems!! I hope she gets the closure and compensation she deserves. May that couple rot in hell, disgusting human beings!