Woman who was sexually abused by her parents for 14 years says she was devastated by The Australian’s podcast

## Summary
A sexual abuse victim told news.com.au that her world fell apart after The Australian’s Shadow of a Doubt podcast gave a platform to the parents who abused her. Illustration: The Australian Woman who was sexually abused by her parents for 14 years says she was devastated by The Australian’s podcast Abuse survivor tells news.com.au that her mental health suffered after being contacted by journalist Richard Guilliatt Warning: This article contains graphic content Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A woman who suffered sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her parents for 14 years has broken her silence to say how devastated she was when The Australian interviewed the jailed couple for a podcast called Shadow of Doubt and described her evidence in an editorial as “manifestly implausible”. The young woman told news.com.au she “felt sick” when The Australian gave a platform to her parents the year after the high court decision – just when she “felt safe for the first time in her life”. “In 2023 I received a message from a journalist, Richard Guilliatt,” she told news.com.au Walkley-award winning investigative journalist Nina Funnell. “He contacted me on social media and told me he was in contact with the two paedophiles who raped me and was making a podcast about them.” Guilliatt did not get an interview with the survivor but he spoke to the parents from jail and they both protested their innocence. An experienced journalist who won a Walkley award for feature writing and is a member of the Walkley judging board, Guilliatt told news.com.au: “At all times my editors and I made strenuous efforts to comply with the non-identification order imposed by Judge Sarah Huggett in the NSW district court.” “The podcast was explicit in acknowledging that [her] mental health issues may well stem from childhood abuse. “I was and am aware of the deep distress [the woman] has suffered since 2010.

## Article Content
A sexual abuse victim told news.com.au that her world fell apart after The Australian’s Shadow of a Doubt podcast gave a platform to the parents who abused her.
Illustration: The Australian
View image in fullscreen
A sexual abuse victim told news.com.au that her world fell apart after The Australian’s Shadow of a Doubt podcast gave a platform to the parents who abused her.
Illustration: The Australian
Woman who was sexually abused by her parents for 14 years says she was devastated by The Australian’s podcast
Abuse survivor tells news.com.au that her mental health suffered after being contacted by journalist Richard Guilliatt
Warning:
This article contains graphic content
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A woman who suffered sexual and physical abuse at the hands of her parents for 14 years has broken her silence to say how devastated she was when The Australian interviewed the jailed couple for a podcast called
Shadow of Doubt
and described her evidence in an editorial as “manifestly implausible”.
Her parents were
jailed in 2016
but it was not until this week she chose to
speak publicly
after suppression orders were lifted in a separate, historical case against her father, William “Rob” Gilfillan.
In 2023, The Australian published an
eight-part podcast investigation
by journalist Richard Guilliatt which featured interviews with the couple from jail and suggested the case could be a “grave miscarriage of justice”, based largely on the argument that “no one noticed the abuse”.
On Monday the woman gave an interview to news.com.au, a sister publication of Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian, in which she detailed how her mental health suffered after she was contacted by Guilliatt.
Her lawyers asked The Australian to reconsider because publication was likely detrimental to her mental health but the podcast was released anyway.
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Two years after the podcast was published the media was able to name the perpetrator, giving the survivor a chance to respond for the first time.
In December 2025 a Victoria county court jury found the former high school sports teacher
guilty of indecent assault of a person under 16 and sexual penetration of a child under
in the 1980s. There were two victims and five charges, according to court records.
Ten years earlier, in 2016, the daughter’s case was widely reported after a judge described the father as a “depraved sadist” and sentenced him to a total prison term of 48 years.
The sentence for the rape, mutilation and torture of his youngest daughter from the age of five he was handed down in Sydney’s district court but the names of the parents were suppressed because the father was facing additional historical charges in Victoria.
The woman’s mother was convicted of a further 13 counts, including indecent assault, and sentenced to 16 years.
The couple appealed against the convictions but ran out of legal options in 2022 when the
high court upheld the guilty verdicts.
The young woman told news.com.au she “felt sick” when The Australian gave a platform to her parents the year after the high court decision – just when she “felt safe for the first time in her life”.
“In 2023 I received a message from a journalist, Richard Guilliatt,” she told news.com.au Walkley-award winning investigative
journalist Nina Funnell.
“He contacted me on social media and told me he was in contact with the two paedophiles who raped me and was making a podcast about them.”
Guilliatt did not get an interview with the survivor but he spoke to the parents from jail and they both protested their innocence. He said he recorded hundreds of jail phone calls of six minutes’ duration.
The podcast detailed the woman’s private medical information after Guilliatt obtained access to her sexual assault counselling notes. She said the access “absolutely erased her trust” in the system.
The mother told Guilliatt that her daughter’s “substandard mental health treatment caused her to confabulate false allegations”.
View image in fullscreen
Journalist Richard Guilliatt said ‘efforts were made to present a nuanced picture of this case and the many issues it raises’.
Photograph: Clare fletcher/The Australian
A feature in the Weekend Australian was headlined: “Shadow of Doubt podcast: Fresh questions raised about evidence that convicted parents for ‘depraved’ child abuse”.
The Australian backed up the investigation, saying in an
editorial
the podcast was “more gripping than a dark mystery novel [and] is critically important public interest journalism”. News Corp commercial executive Ainslee Horstman told a trade publication that investigations like Shadow of Doubt “translate into growth for our business via consumer and client revenues”.
“It is manifestly implausible that the girl was ritually tortured for days on end in a chicken-wire shed just metres from the family home, visible from her siblings’ bedroom windows, without them noticing – and it’s inexplicable

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- The Australian backed up the investigation, saying in an editorial the podcast was “more gripping than a dark mystery novel [and] is critically important public interest journalism”.

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- In 2023, The Australian published an eight-part podcast investigation by journalist Richard Guilliatt which featured interviews with the couple from jail and suggested the case could be a “grave miscarriage of justice”, based largely on the argument that “no one noticed the abuse”.
- Although the podcast did not name the family members, the survivor says she was quickly identified online and suffered extreme anxiety as a result, including when one article used her real initials to identify her.
- An experienced journalist who won a Walkley award for feature writing and is a member of the Walkley judging board, Guilliatt told news.com.au: “At all times my editors and I made strenuous efforts to comply with the non-identification order imposed by Judge Sarah Huggett in the NSW district court.” “The podcast was explicit in acknowledging that [her] mental health issues may well stem from childhood abuse. “I was and am aware of the deep distress [the woman] has suffered since 2010.
- Efforts were made to present a nuanced picture of this case and the many issues it raises.” The Australian has reported that the couple are petitioning the NSW attorney general, Michael Daley, for a judicial review but a spokesperson said the minister could not confirm petitions for privacy reasons.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers australian, podcast, news topics. Notable strengths include discussion of australian. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1058.