A respected Greek Australian taxi driver, ‘John’, 82, is being accused by deaf woman Melanie Duggan for indecent assault when she was a 4th grade child.
Melanie Duggan, was driven to and from primary school by ‘John’ when she was 11. She told the ABC that he was a child molester who subjected her to a number of indecent behaviours.
Ms Duggan alleges that he would make her touch his private parts, expose herself and kiss her on the lips.
She says she wanted to flee but could not because her home was several kilometres away. The assault had an impact on her, and she started wearing baggy clothes as a way of shielding herself from ‘John’, who became increasingly aggressive and would sometimes leave bruises as he grabbed her.
In a sworn statement to Victoria Police, she said that she “didn’t tell anyone about what happened because at the time I just thought it was normal.” She revealed her abuse at the age of 17 in 2003 but the ABC revealed that Victoria Police and the Victorian College of the Deaf, where Ms Duggan went to school, failed to properly handle the complaint.
When her school did not report her complaint, Ms Duggan built up the courage to approach the police, however they did not provide her with an Auslan sign language interpreter and trusted the interpretation of the high school teacher who had already failed her.
Her parents and child protection authorities were not told of the incident and there was no counselling offered.
The driver was interviewed but denied wrongdoing. He resigned soon after.
Ms Duggan said the investigation was closed. “Police were saying, ‘it’s your word against his’,” Ms Duggan said, telling the ABC that her records were destroyed when she went to look at them years later.
Justice only came two decades later when Judge Frank Gucciardo described the Greek Australian driver’s behaviour as “abhorrent, repulsive and vile”. He was this year convicted of two counts of an indecent act involving a child under the age of 16 years, however his two-year sentence was wholly suspected because of his old age (he had been 61 at the time of the assault in 1997) and his poor health as he is suffering from heart disease, kidney failure, type-two diabetes and arthritis. He was suffering from heart disease, kidney failure, type-two diabetes and arthritis, and needed a walking cane.
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“It makes me think, all the pain I went through, was it actually worthwhile?” Ms Duggan told the ABC. “I’m still suffering because I had to go through the whole trial. In some ways it’s worse than the abuse itself because they made me relive everything thousands of thousands of times.”
Ms Duggan is angered by the ruling and the fact that he walked free, however she is also angry with Victoria Police who have admitted that they bungled the initial investigation, failing to treat her with respect when she was young.
In 2014, she contacted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the advocacy group, People with Disability Australia. Police offered Ms Duggan $25000 in compensation were she to stay silent about her complaint, and this was a deal she refused.
The ABC revealed that Victoria Police confirmed that the initial detective that handled the original case was disciplined for his “poor performance” and was charged with a range of offences, including perverting the course of justice but charges were dismissed in court.
