To Prey and To Silence

The true story of one survivor of child sexual abuse and her fight for justice.

“There have been extraordinary revelations at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse but the testimony of survivor, Joan Isaacs was particularly confronting” …Joan is one of “Australia’s heroes” …one of the “brilliant voices…shining through the gloom”.

__Van Badham, THE GUARDIAN, Dec.26, 2013

Synopsis

Joan Katherine Isaacs is a wife, mother and doting grandmother. Born in 1953 into a Catholic family, Joan was the middle child of migrant parents. But at the age of fourteen, Joan’s normal and happy life changed irreparably when the chaplain at her school groomed her for his own sexual gratification. Although her abuse by Father Frank Derriman left her with lifelong scars, she endeavoured to get on with her life as best she could.

To Prey and to Silence details Joan’s journey as she deals with the implications of her abuse and later on, her fight for justice.

Nearly thirty years later, as a married woman with children, she had a chance sighting of her abuser. This had a profound effect on her, and she contacted the police. Joan’s journey took her through a police investigation, committal hearing and a trial. To Prey and to Silence details what it is like for a victim of child sexual abuse to traverse the justice system. Many of her experiences within the system were damaging and traumatic.

In 1996, the Catholic Church introduced their Towards Healing Program. It was a program which was promoted as bringing compassion and justice to victims of clergy abuse. Joan entered this program in 1999, full of hope that she might finally receive a just and compassionate response from the Church. Unfortunately, she emerged a broken woman and was silenced from ever speaking about her abuse again.

In 2013, Joan was released from her silence by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to give evidence at the first Public Hearing into the Catholic Church, Case study 4. Although giving evidence in a Public Hearing was a stressful and confronting experience, it exposed Towards Healing as a sham and it set her free from her imposed silencing.

After being silenced for so long, firstly by her abuser, Father Frank Derriman and later by the Catholic Church, Joan felt compelled to write her book, To Prey and to Silence.