Zarisha Bradley: 9News reporter opens up on childhood sexual abuse by a ‘man my family trusted’

A high-profile television journalist has spoken out about the horrific sexual abuse she endured as a child for nearly a decade by a “man my family trusted.”

Zarisha Bradley, a crime reporter for Western Australia’s 9News, wrote that the man was “a child molester and master manipulator, he fooled everyone’.

She wrote about her horrific experience in hopes that one day it will become easier for survivors to prosecute their abusers in Australian courts.

Ms Bradley said she could not remember the first time she was sexually assaulted.

“From as old as I can remember I was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a monster who married into my family,” she wrote.

The man was so close to her parents that he was there when she took her first steps and was at every family Christmas bringing lollipops and chocolates for the children.

“Under the family man’s facade, he was a child predator,” she continued 9News.

Ms Bradley explained that the man committed the sickening acts against her for nearly a decade during her childhood in Queensland.

Her abuser threatened her not to tell anyone, forcing Mrs. Bradley to keep the cruel secret from her family.

Mrs. Bradley said she was terribly afraid of getting into trouble.

But she finally told someone – her mother, when she was in her senior year of high school in the small Queensland town of Gin Gin, 230 miles northwest of Brisbane.

It was a day she will never forget. Nor will she ever forget the pain of watching her mother collapse in front of her.

Ms Bradley said she will never forget how her mother blamed herself, but that no one was responsible for these crimes except the perpetrator.

She thought the worst was over now that she’d told her mother, but nothing could have prepared her for what followed.

Her mother took her to Bundaberg police station, where she was questioned by detectives for nearly two hours.

She was also terrified to tell her father, knowing that he would want to hurt the man who hurt his daughter who lived only 1 km away.

The police needed Ms. Bradley to tell them every detail she could remember about every time she was attacked by the man, including what clothes she wore each day.

While it brought back memories she had long buried deep inside, she now understands why the police had to do that to build a case against her abuser.

But she said as hard as it is to speak up, a conviction in court is even harder.

A detective asked if she would be willing to confront the abuser in a recorded phone conversation to try and force a confession.

It scared her but she found the strength to do it because she was the eldest of four sisters and knew she had to do it for them.

Mrs. Bradley sat alone in a room in the Gin Gin police station, shaking uncontrollably, while her mother and the high school chaplain waited outside.

The man had no idea she had told her family or gone to the police.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she asked him why he did it.

With no idea he was being admitted, he said he wanted to put it behind him, but if it came out he would leave.

He also said he knew what had happened was wrong.

He continued to apologize, saying he was sorry it had happened and that his wife would be “devastated” if she found out.

Ms Bradley burst into tears at the end of the conversation, but a police officer told her how brave she was and said she would probably never have to see him again.

But she saw him the next day after school at the IGA store where she worked. He didn’t say a word, just stared at her from across the counter.

She walked into the cold store with freezer and burst into tears.

But he was arrested and charged with rape (digital), indecent treatment of a child and maintaining an illicit sexual relationship with a child with a circumstance of aggravation, among others.

Despite the seriousness of the charges, he was immediately granted bail.

The man’s wife called Mrs. Bradley the next morning and begged her to drop the charges in exchange for money.

She had thought that the woman would immediately leave her husband if she found out what he had done.

Eventually the woman left him and Mrs. Bradley forgave her.

But the man denied everything and forced her through the further trauma of a jury trial.

He lied to the court and refused to take any responsibility for the pain and suffering he had inflicted on her and her family and she was questioned on the witness stand by his lawyer.

She said the aggressive interrogation was like reliving the nightmare.

But the jury saw through his lies and found him guilty of every charge. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in 2016.

His appeal was denied, with the judge saying her taped phone call was strong evidence.

Although her name was omitted because she was a minor, the case was widely reported in the local newspaper.

People in the town of just over 1,000 discovered who the stories were about.

Ms Bradley said she was ashamed and embarrassed and as a journalist she never wants a victim to feel the way she does when reading those articles.

She said that despite everything she’s been through to bring the perpetrator to justice, she considers herself one of the lucky ones, pointing out that about 87 per cent of sexual assault cases in Australia go unreported.

Of those reported cases, only one in ten leads to a conviction. She is among the 1.5 per cent of Australians who see their abuser go to prison.

Ms Bradley called her abuser. His name is Charlie Faulkner. While serving his sentence, I was told that he had a stroke, which left him in a wheelchair.’

She thanked Queensland Police and Detective Senior Constable Hayley Self who was ‘such a powerful female role model to me as a scared little girl and helped take back the control that was stolen from me’.

The National Sexual Violence, Domestic Violence and Domestic Violence Hotline number is 1800 737 732.