I would like to thank all those fellow child abuse victims and victim advocates for supporting me. People have supported me in different ways according to their ability and resources. Many had the capacity to lodge complaints with the NSW Police Commissioner and/or the NSW Victim Rights Commissioner concerning the mishandling of my case.
The concerned public’s efforts have produced a result. Victim Services decided to divide my claim up and make a ruling on just one of the incidents of crime, leaving me free to make further claims if I choose. How the system works is, when a single perpetrator is responsible for multiple crimes, those incidents are lumped together and treated as one incident.
Victim Services chose to rule on one incident, the abuse I experienced at the hands of my sadistic step-grandfather Peter Holowczak. They decided on the balance of probabilities that Peter Holowczak did sexually and violently assault me on multiple occasions. One source of supporting documentation Victim Services quoted was a 1993 hospital file entry stating: Ms Barnett presented to hospital “requesting help for sexual abuse by grandfather when she was a child.”
This decision is consistent with Victim Services’ initial, 2014 ruling that on the balance of probabilities I was indeed sexually abused by the multiple perpetrators I reported to the Child Abuse Royal Commission – including Peter Holowczak.
A sum of $10,000 is ridiculously inadequate compared to the harm Peter Holowczak cost me financially, psychologically, academically and professionally over the past 40+ years. However, this decision provides a sense of validation and recognition that I find healing. Also, this ruling offers a sense of hope to my fellow victims of abuse who are vicariously impacted by my public highs and lows. It shows the public what can be achieved by banding together and bothering in the face of an impossible enemy. In the scheme of things, this is a big win.
Our smallest efforts are not futile. Look at what has been exposed since I first went public: Pizzagate / Pedogate, Weinstein / #metoo, NXIVM child traffickers and, most recently, the Australian VIP pedophile ring involving Labor Party speech writer Bob Ellis. It’s only a matter of time before the big one cracks and the true nature and extent of child trafficking is exposed in Australia and abroad. Whether or not it happens in my life time, my decision to jump in first has well contributed to that swelling tidal wave of exposure.
Here is the Victim Services documentation:
Fiona Barnett
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)