TAS: Victim pursued Randell for own daughter

AAP General News (Australia)
08-13-1999
TAS: Victim pursued Randell for own daughter

By Don Woolford

HOBART, Aug 13 AAP - The victim who led a "crusade" to bring child-molesting cricket umpire
Steve Randell to justice did it largely for her own daughter.

"The final straw was having my own daughter and realising how unprotected I'd been," she
said, after Randell was jailed for four years today on 15 charges of indecent assault against
nine girls when he was a teacher in 1981 and 1982.

The woman, who can not be identified under Tasmanian law, gave evidence last week that
Randell fondled her and forced her hand on to his penis during two incidents while she was in
bed in 1982.

She'd been in Randell's Grade 6 class at Marist school in Burnie at the time.

She was the only victim in court to hear Justice Peter Underwood tell Randell he had
betrayed the trust of children and their parents to satisfy his "perverted sexual lust".

The woman, who was 11 then and is now 28, said she first went to the police about Randell
about six months after her daughter was born three years ago.

But at that stage, she said, it was her word against his and the police could not take it
any further.

She then went looking for a potential witness. While she didn't find her, in the course of
looking she found other women with memories of Randell.

Some recollections of abuse, although not the first, came during a get-together of eight
girls who'd been in Grade 6.

She said that as soon as she knew there were other women prepared to speak she contacted
Burnie police again and then gave the number of a woman police officer there to anyone who
wanted to talk.

"As soon as other people came in, it was a team,," she said.

"We didn't ever discuss individual complaints, but we supported each other emotionally."

The woman said her crusade against Randell was intermittent.

"I wasn't looking (for other victims) all the time," she said.

"I would forget about it and occasionally when my panic attacks got too much and I thought
I had to do something, then I would try to do something else about it."

The woman said that, despite her experience, she would not over-protect her daughter.

"I'm trying to make her as independent as I can, make her feel a safe person," she said.

"I felt so unsafe for such a long time."

The woman said all the victims had suffered.

She had been severely depressed and had separated from her partner, but was "fine now".

"It made it very hard for me and the others to have a relationship and maintain a
relationship," she said.

"Everyone has been coping in their own way. Some people have been very emotionally
volatile, some people have been recluses."

The woman said Randell had been given a longer sentence than she'd expected.

"I think as the law stands it's appropriate and sends a clear message to the community that
this is something that has to stop," she said.

However she would like to see more research into paedophilia "to work out why people are
moved to sexually abuse children".

The woman's mother said she too was a victim.

"I had my trust betrayed and I felt very guilty that I hadn't protected my daughter," she
said.

AAP dw/cjh/br

KEYWORD: RANDELL VICTIM

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