It’s important to let you know I don’t have television reception, and I don’t want it.

I also don’t read newspapers or listen to the radio. The only way I know what’s going on in the world is if someone rings me or sends me an article via text or email. Or the SES sends me an immediate evacuation message, like they did during the recent 2022 floods.

A friend called me about what happened to Cardinal George Pell. I’m at University and currently studying ancient history, but at the time I was studying 1900s history at a different University. I had done an assignment on Pope John Paul II and his right hand man, Cardinal George Pell and their contribution in taking down the USSR’s control over the people of Poland, with help from Ronald Reagan and 1973 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Henry Kissinger.

Because of this, and the fact the Pell case changed the legal precedent in relation to sexual assault cases, I took an interest in the case and researched how this could help me.

Even though Peter Faris QC had retired from practicing law, he was kind enough to offer me his opinion.

In May, 2019, I caught a plane down to Melbourne to see the Victoria Police. When I arrived at my hotel, terrified about being in the same city as my rapist and knowing that I could be in danger, I got out of the taxi.

Waiting for me outside my hotel, arms opened to greet me, was Peter Faris. My fear faded and my eyes filled with tears. I called out, “Hello Sir!”. Mr Faris replied, “Peter!”, as I walked up to him as quickly as I could and he welcomed me with a big hug. I was safe.

In the 1970s, Mr Faris took on a sexual assault case. He was the lawyer representing the accused. He did his job and won the case. The cries of pain from the victim haunted him so much that Mr Faris never again took on another sexual assault case, until he met me, the victim.

And Mr Faris was semi-retired when we first met.

Mr Faris and I went to my room in the hotel and put a plan together.

We had a photo taken together then we caught a taxi to Victoria Police HQ. I let Mr Faris do all the talking.

The front desk at the Victorian Police HQ was not attended so we had to stand for some time before a female officer came out to speak to us. Before she arrived, Mr Faris pointed out the cameras to me and said, “They know we’re here. They are trying to ignore us.” We both laughed.

Mr Faris asked the female officer to look up my file. She searched and searched but my name and/or my case was nowhere to be found. They had deleted my case from police records. Mr Faris couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. I, on the other hand, wasn’t surprised.

Prior to leaving the hotel, Mr Faris asked me to write down the names and contact details of any other witnesses I had who I hadn’t given to the police previously.

I wrote down another ten or twelve names. (I still have more. My mother taught me to always keep an ace up my sleeve).

Mr Faris handed the female officer the new list of names and asked the female officer to make sure Senior Detective Constable Georgia Connors received these names first thing in the morning, as Mr Faris would be calling her to make sure she had them.

The next morning Mr Faris tried calling the SOCIT (Sexual Offences and Child-abuse Team) phone number many times, but they did not answer the phone.

The night before, I posted on my Facebook page. The post had a photo of Mr Faris and myself with a message about reopening my case. This post got more than 8,000 shares and 6,000 comments. I had people tracking my social media posts and they reported to me ‘someone’ was trying to get my post taken down. My Facebook post was also trending on Twitter.

The next morning I was inundated by much of the media. Mr Faris spoke to most of them but a woman from the ABC was insistent on speaking to me. This woman’s name was Louise Milligan.

When I spoke to her I was surprised why she was insistent on speaking with me as she seemed to know nothing about my story.

I had been in news (including front pages) for four days straight in 2014, and all over the internet. A number of articles about me vanished from the internet just prior to the federal election being called, and I had been on 3AW (a prerecorded interview they sliced and diced) and spoke live on radio with Ben Fordam on 2GB. My story wasn’t new.

So I told Louise to do her research first. I also agreed to email her a copy of the Victoria Police statement, telling her to call me back after she had read the statement and researched my previous interviews. Instead, Louise Milligan sent out one of her minions to harass the witnesses named in the police statement, without letting me know.  This angered me.

So I called Louise Milligan to withdraw my cooperation. When I called her at the ABC she was hostile toward me.

About 6 months prior to this, a documentary film-maker wanted to air my story, so she went to the ABC for funding. She was strung along, before they said no.

So when Louise was screaming at me down the phone, I said I would only allow the aforesaid documentary film maker to tell my story.

Louise Milligan had me on a speaker phone, where I could hear two men listening in on the phone call. They were laughing out loud in the background.

I mentioned to Louise Milligan I could hear the two men, which she denied.

I told Louise Milligan, “I guess I should tell you now that I’m actually recording this call and I can assure you their laughter is being recording.”

The laughter then stopped.

So I said, “Silence. Well that’s all the evidence I need. If you continue harassing my witnesses, I do have this recording, and I will have no option than to see you in court. Have I made myself clear?”.

She hung up on me.

After I calmed down I rang the doco maker.

Louise Milligan had already called her and had abused her, too.

“I warned you about the ABC”, I said as I tried to calm down the very shocked and shaken award winning documentary maker.

This example of of abusive behaviour was uncommon but I did sometimes experience hostilities from some members of the media. I have spoken to many reporters, and by and large, most have in fact been genuinely very pleasant. I guess you may find a rotten apple in a bag, especially if you eat enough bags of apples.

Back in 2014, when I went to Larry Pickering, who then passed me onto the Melbourne Herald Sun, I got a call from Justin Smith who was working for 3AW.

I was surprised to hear from him as he hadn’t bothered to contact me since he had called the police.

In 2014, after The Pickering Post and the Herald Sun ran the story, primarily using the VicPol police statement to guide them, Justin Smith asked if he could record an interview with me then play it in the radio the following day, after editing it.

I said, “Okay”.

Just before the recording started, Justin Smith was upset and quite angered at me, claiming I’d told him I would give him and 3AW an exclusive interview (by then I had spoken to other media), but since 2019, I have mostly received an overwhelming amount of support, especially from the Australian public.

To those who donated to my GoFundMe campaign, THANK YOU!

Please know all of your very generous donations are safe and have not been touched. They will soon be put to good use. Without your support, I would not have been able to take this next step.

We are commencing legal action for a civil case.

THANK YOU, AUSTRALIA!

Kathy Sherriff. ❤️