Skye

Skye was sexually assaulted by a soldier when she was a teenager.

Neither the police nor the army took any action against the perpetrator.

Skye explains that the attack happened several years ago, and she still finds it hard to deal with.

She describes her family life as ‘stable’, but she suffered bullying at school and developed an eating disorder. 

Skye and her family lived in a small town. One evening she was walking home when a soldier called out to her. She walked towards him and he asked how old she was. She told him she was in her mid teens, and he grabbed her and pulled her towards him, kissing her and, she says, ‘he got handsy’.

She was underweight and he was a ‘big, strong guy’, but she found the strength to push him off and ran crying to her house.

Skye told her father and brother what had happened.  

Skye’s father called the police and she had to make a statement. She found this very difficult and in the end, no action was taken by them or the army.

After this, Skye became more angry at school. On one occasion she verbally abused a teacher, who said to her ‘No wonder you were assaulted’. She was also accused of attention seeking. 

Feeling she was being blamed for the attack, Skye ‘hit the self-destruct button’ and allowed boys to ‘use’ her. When she was in her teens she had a relationship with an older man, who was emotionally abusive and physically threatened her. When they broke up he assaulted her.

Skye experiences flashbacks, panic attacks and suffers from PTSD. She had a mental breakdown a few years ago. She has a phobia of anyone in uniform. She does not want to be in a relationship because she is drawn to abusive men, and has isolated herself.

She believes it is essential that staff in schools are trained to deal with children subjected to sexual abuse. She says ‘no child should be told that they are attention seeking’.