AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From: The Australian
November 18, 2013

EMILY was eight days short of her third birthday when she was taken from her parents by a magistrate in Bowral, in the NSW Southern Highlands, and “committed to the care” of the state government, court records show.

Despite her parents’ desperate attempts to get her back, and her own struggles to tell government workers what was happening, Emily (not her real name) was placed with a foster father who raped her repeatedly for years.

At the time, she feels, nobody listened. “The pain never really goes away,” says the 54-year-old, who now lives in Innisfail, in far north Queensland. ” Recently I have been told that I have a meeting with the royal commission. I felt relief, sheer relief someone is going to take notice.”

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