Veronique is only five years old when everything starts. She lives in Mauritius in a stepfamily of seven children. Her parents are not often present to take care of them and it's in this unstable family context that her half-brother, the eldest of the siblings, begins his attacks.
"My story started very subtly, with candy and toy offers to attract my affection. Really it was for the purpose of sexually abusing me".
In 1987, the family moved to Australia. The abuses continue and Veronique is not the only victim; other members of her family were also attacked. On family pictures, Veronique wants to make disappear the face of her attacker.
"One day I was in the room with him [Ed. Her half brother]. The door was open and my other brother walked by. He was invited to join us. My half-brother asked him to take part in my aggression but my brother refused, grabbed my hand and said: "come, we'll tell dad". My father was cooking, when my brother told him what happened, my father got really angry, went upstairs and started beating my half-brother with a belt. My mother arrived. An argument with my father followed and she told him "you will never touch one of my children again".
The abuses couldn't be unseen. But yet, the denial reigns in the family. "My mother knew. I also talked to my aunts. I was told that at that age, the boys were curious, that it was normal. Growing up, if I talked to friends or family, my mother said I was lying. That I was sexually precocious. She knew how to sow doubt, even my father was manipulated. She could have stopped the abuse, but she never took my defence. "
In 2011, Véronique decided to file a complaint, "I learned that my half-brother was living with a woman who had two young children. And it was for me very important to denounce him because I didn't want to think there could be a potential abuse of these children ".
She knows at this time that she will have to face the traumatic experiences that were buried in the depths of her memory during 19 years. She will have to face the eyes and the attacks of her own family who never supported her accusations. Her family denies, her half-brother denies. But the hardest experience would come from the process of the judicial system.
"It is painful and kind of traumatising. The purpose of the cross-examinations is to sow doubt about the victim's complaints, and in some ways, I suffered the same betrayals and attacks that I suffered as a child. We brought stories from the past that had nothing to do with abuses I had suffered".
"The whole process was difficult. I felt that the justice system was focused on the rights of the accused more than the rights of the victim. We must find a balance, this system must change".
"I think the justice system, as it is right now, is reducing the victim into a position of non-control', diminished to a role of victim, and we have the impression that the accused has a power, with the presumption of innocence, and I respect that presumption, but the way it is put into practice gives the accused the power to abuse the opportunity of this system in order to harm the victim and also to reduce their responsibilities. I would like it to change, get it more balanced, for the rights of the accused but also of the victim ".
For Veronique, it is time for movements like #metoo and Time's Up to be heard.
"I have spoken since I was a little girl. I was trying to talk to people who had the power to stop these abuses, protect me or comfort me. The problem was that it was not heard. There is a global social and cultural system that has always reacted badly to issues of sexual violence. I think the #metoo process is great because these voices have so much power that you can't ignore them".
Veronique hopes that these movements will push the justice system to represent those voices that rise, in a process of justice.
Despite a painful trial, she would not hesitate to do it again, "It freed me, it was the right thing to do and for me it was necessary. It helped me to confront not only my attacker but also the whole system that was set up for me to be a victim. I was able to put an end to all this ".
Veronique's half-brother was sentenced in 2016 to four years and five months' imprisonment with a three-year non-parole sentence. He should come out at the end of 2018.
Australia has one of the highest rates of reported sexual assault in the world, but workers say the number of offenders in court are sentenced to too low jail time.
Organisations like The WhiteRibbon, ReachOut, CASA are here to help men and women victims.
Veronique took part in the "Rape and Trial" SBS Insight show, available on SBSOndemand.
