A mother who spent just a year behind bars for plying her teenage daughter with alcohol and leaving her in a hotel room to be raped by an obese middle-aged man still refuses to name the rapist almost 20 years later to give up.
Therese Butler was filmed telling a reporter to “fuck off” when confronted A current issue in Monday’s episode.
Her daughter Peta, now in her 30s, told the program in 2018 about the night she was raped by the stranger in 2005 or 2006.
Butler had lured her to a Toowoomba hotel under the guise of a “girls’ weekend”.
As the vile pedophile – known only as Thommo – raped the teenager, her mother sat outside the room smoking cigarettes.
Therese Butler (pictured with her partner Jason Cantoni) told a reporter to “fuck off” when he questioned her about her daughter’s rape
Peta (pictured) was lured to a hotel room by her mother, drunk with alcohol and left to be raped by an obese stranger known as Thommo when she was a teenager
‘It only lasted a few minutes, but as he raped me, I turned my head to the side and closed my eyes as I cried. I couldn’t talk,” Peta told ACA six years ago.
‘It was like having my larynx blown off: I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t scream at my mother, I couldn’t do anything.’
Queensland’s parole laws had prevented journalists from speaking to Butler since she was released in late 2018, but ACA was finally able to confront her at a pharmacy last week.
When asked “what kind of mother” allows her daughter to be raped, Butler said, “Shut up… You don’t know the facts and it was all lies.”
Nearly twenty years after the assault, Thommo continues to evade police.
Peta claims that police suspect her mother withheld crucial information that could lead to his arrest.
Despite serving a year in prison for the crime, Butler claims her daughter “was never touched.”
Thommo (pictured in a computer-generated image released by police) has not been arrested since he raped Peta as a teenager in 2005 or 2006
Butler (pictured with her partner, Jason Cantoni, in 2019) told reporters that her daughter has “never been touched” despite serving a year behind bars for her part in Peta’s rape
“I don’t know where that cowardly bastard is, but he never touched my daughter,” she said.
“I have never left my daughter’s side… You continue what my idiot daughter comes out with, she is the liar.
‘I would die for my children, I always have. Get out!’
Peta spent almost a decade working up the courage to report her abuse.
When she finally did, she managed to trick her mother into confessing during an emotional 27-minute phone call that was secretly recorded by police in early 2016.
She had called her mother claiming she needed “closure” but was shocked when she casually admitted that Peta had been raped.
“It was still rape, but you were sixteen. I wouldn’t let him touch you under 16, absolutely not,” Butler said in the recording.
The mother recalled buying her minor daughter Vodka Cruisers and bourbon before leaving her alone in a hotel room for her online lover Thommo, whom she had only met in person twice.
Despite the blunt confession, Butler told Peta how she fantasized about cutting Thommo “from ear to ear” with a knife.
Peta (pictured) is now a loving mother to her own two daughters and describes herself as ‘resilient’
“If I could turn back time, Peta would do it with a heart,” she said during the phone call.
“Instead of bowing to him, I would grab his balls, cut the balls off and shove them down his throat.”
However, Peta has come to terms with the fact that she never received an apology from her mother.
“I will never receive that and I don’t expect to receive it,” she said.
Peta is now a loving mother to her own two daughters and describes herself as ‘resilient’.
However, the fact that Thommo was never caught still weighs on her.
‘He deserves to be found. He deserves to be brought to justice,” she said.
Thommo was described as extremely obese with ‘bulging’ blue eyes and drove a car with cream leather seats.
He appeared to be in his mid-forties at the time of the attack.
Butler had been speaking online with Thommo, who she thought was called Peter, for two years and was strangled by him during sex before her daughter was raped.
Peta (pictured with her mother as a teenager) says her mother never apologized for the assault
Police are still calling on anyone with information about Thommo’s identity to come forward.
If you have any information that could assist police, please contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
If you or someone you know needs confidential support, please call 1800RESPECT.