How multiple personalities helped sex abuse survivor

[Pelican Press 0]

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How multiple personalities helped sex abuse survivor

A father who ********* abused his daughters, one of whom developed multiple personalities as a survival tactic, may die in prison after receiving a two-decade jail term.

The 58-year-old man, who can be identified only as SN, was found guilty of 23 counts of ***** and indecent assault against his daughters LN and AB following a NSW District Court trial.

The jury was told the ******* abuse spanned seven years and was accompanied by a relentless campaign of intimidation, physical and emotional abuse, and isolation.

LN told the court on Thursday that her father’s abuse meant she had developed multiple personalities after being unable to cohesively form a single identity.

She lives with dissociative identity disorder which experts testified arises where a child is exposed to recurrent and very severe abuse.

“Our brain responded to an impossible situation in the best possible way it could,” LN said.

“While our diagnosis in a lot of ways makes life impossibly difficult, we survived what numerous people wouldn’t have been able to”.

LN said the lifelong abuse at the hands of her father also left her with physical disabilities and a “profound and enduring suffering” she struggled to put into words.

“The daily fight to simply survive is exhausting, soul-destroying, and a constant unwanted reminder of what our father’s actions have left us to face,” she told the court in an emotional victim impact statement.

“This man is someone who should have loved and protected us, yet he did anything but.”

One of LN’s “alters” – a 13-year-old girl identified as M – recalled being tortured and “nearly killed” by her father during the years of abuse.

“You made me break into little bits and I’m never going to get those bits back,” M said.

“You took away everything that made me happy.”

During the trial in 2024, M and other alters were sworn in as separate identities to give evidence in a landmark first for Australia.

In sentencing, Judge Ian Bourke was satisfied the father’s ******* abuse substantially harmed LN beyond what would ordinarily be expected.

He found her sister AB also experienced serious consequences, including a fractured sense of self, a lack of trust in others, problems forming and maintaining relationships and issues in engaging in employment.

The offences all involved “a grave breach of trust and authority”, the severity and duration of which spoke “loudly” against the conclusion SN was a person of good character, the judge said.

“Each of the offences involves very deliberate actions where the offender preyed on his two children for his own selfish and depraved ******* gratification,” Judge Bourke said.

The 58-year-old father was jailed for 21 years, with a minimum term of 14 years.

Judge Bourke noted there was “some risk he may pass away before being released on parole”.

He will be eligible for release in December 2038, although the court was told he is facing legal proceedings in states where the family lived before moving to NSW.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National ******* Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

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