Rape in a Small Community

In August this year, Timothy Leslie Brown, a convicted rapist from the Huon Valley, will be eligible for parole after serving just half of his four-year sentence. There are of course those in the tight knit community of the Valley who feel he will have done his time.

“I consider him to be a good man who made a grave error and who has paid the price,” said one such member of the community.

The recent increased public outrage and media focus on sexual assault is bringing to the fore that victims like Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame are the mere tip of the iceberg. No matter the shocking details, the perpetrators are far too often supported and protected, whilst the victims and their families are destined to life-long suffering.

The perpetrators – the rapists – are protected by their friends and family, protected by their employers and colleagues, and in the case of Brown, the rapist has been protected by the ‘Boys Club’.

The ‘Boys Club’ in this case is the Huon Rowing Club based in Franklin.

The sexual assaults for which Brown was convicted took place at the Schools State Rowing Championships at Lake Barrington, south of Devonport, in March 2018. The Victim, (who we will call Marie because she cannot be named for legal reasons in Tasmania), is a mother of four children.

On this occasion, her husband was unable to attend.  He stayed at home to look after their other children and she travelled alone with her son.  It was the first regatta she had been to without her husband.

“I saw Sexual Assault Support Service (SASS) for over 16 months before the trial. I met with prosecutors and others, retelling the incident over and over. That was hard enough,” said Marie.

“My Counsellor kept saying to me, ‘this never happens’, victims are never strong enough to go to trial.

She explained to me that in her entire career she had never taken the initial distressed call, counselled the victim, gone to trial and had a conviction for a sexual assault.

Mostly she helped people cope with what had happened to them without any justice for the crime.

The knowledge of this gave my family and I a lot of strength.

For some, nostalgia at artificial Lake Barrington on the Forth River situated 40km south of Devonport. 

This is why we were able to go on and to hold the individuals accountable for the treatment we received after reporting the assaults. The treatment from our Huon Rowing Club, their Committee, our local community, the peak rowing bodies Rowing Tasmania and Rowing Australia … nobody wanted to know, nobody supported us or the others impacted by the crime.

No one in authority fulfilled their obligations and responsibilities to a family in crisis after the assaults, though we did have support from two local families.

It’s hard enough to raise four engaging, aware and happy sons in a small regional community whilst running a small business, without the stigma, ostracism and isolation we faced after ‘doing the right thing’, and reporting a sexual assault to police.

Our courage should have been congratulated and embraced, but instead we were met every day in the supermarket, post office, and at our boys school with averted eyes, blank disregard and silence.

I didn’t ever know who had been told what. People I thought were friends wouldn’t acknowledge me when I said ‘Hi’.

The fallout from reporting the rape along with the emotional toll it took on my family and I, was much worse than the impact of the actual assaults.

This is something I feel few people realise,” said Marie.

Lake Barrington, Saturday 3 March 2018

Marie’s son, was an accomplished rower who had been with the Huon Rowing Club (HRC) for five years and the Club was very much a part of their family life.

Vice President/Treasurer and Coach Tim Brown before the Rape pictured in Huon News 14 February 2018.

Brown, the then 60 year old rapist, was his rowing coach. Marie and her husband were grateful to him for the support and coaching he had provided their son and they regarded him as a friend.

On the night of 3 March 2018, the rowers and their families were getting ready to settle down for the night into their respective tents and lodgings, when Brown coaxed Marie to a space away from the others and expressed his delight at her son’s success.

She soon realised he did not have anything in particular to say to her that warranted drawing her away.  He moved closer to her and she said to him, “you’re not going to try and kiss me are you?”

He said he would like to, and she said to him, bluntly, “No, that’s not going to happen, I don’t do that” and turned and walked back to the camp without him.

Feeling she had made her position perfectly clear, Marie got ready for bed. She had a small tent set up for herself to sleep in and her 17 year old son had a swag nearby. She said goodnight to her son and fell asleep.

She woke during the night to see Brown coming through the tent flap.  She said to him, “what are you doing?” and “No, you can’t come in here”. He took no notice and came into the tent, zipping up the tent flap behind him.

In the Supreme Court of Tasmania hearing in August 2019, a jury unanimously found Brown guilty of one count of rape and three counts of indecent assault.

In her closing comments Justice Wood stated:

“From the very beginning of the incident, and throughout, the complainant expressed her refusal, clearly and unequivocally, pushing him away, moving away from him and forcefully expressing her lack of consent, including by saying “no” to him over 20 times.  There was no room for any mistake.  Yet the defendant’s conduct was sustained and persistent. The defendant preoccupied with his own selfish desire, ignored her, knowing full well she was not consenting.”

In the days that followed, Marie told a supportive parent and her husband, as well as John Driessen, the President of the Huon Rowing Club.

The Coach was then questioned by the President and he resigned.

Marie then decided to make a formal complaint to police which she did even though the President felt the matter had been dealt with. The Police arrested and charged Timothy Brown within hours of Marie giving her statement; and so began the long process of prosecuting a sexual assault.

The Ongoing Cover Up Within the Rowing Fraternity

Huon Rowing Club President John Driessen.

The HRC President would not allow any mention of the alleged assaults to be recorded in the Club minutes, or to be discussed at committee meetings. The only written explanation for the sudden disappearance of their Junior coach was a memo to members saying he had resigned for personal reasons.

The rumour mills accelerated. Marie, her husband and her son felt shunned, isolated and ostracised. Her son who had also attended the Nationals in Penrith in 2018 gave up rowing and could not be at the HRC anymore. The atmosphere created by the club of silence, secrecy and hostility regarding the attack on his mother, was more than he could bear.

The additional heartache for his parents was watching a young rower suffer emotionally after committing years to a sport he loved, missing the socialising and the parties, training four nights a week, the weekends, the cross training activities, his diet, and the regattas. On his 18^th birthday he purchased his own rowing scull. He was so happy out on the water.

When anyone tried to talk to him about what he wanted to do with his boat after he stopped rowing, he would shut down and be unable to discuss it.

In Justice Wood’s comments she stated:

“The complainant made a report to police, after struggling with a sense of responsibility for the consequences for the defendant.  She was also worried about the impact on her family.

It is important to note that complainants should not feel responsible for the consequences to accused persons for reporting crimes. The consequences are a result of their criminal behaviour.  Further, it is in the interests of justice, and important for a safe and civilised society, that crimes, including sexual crimes, are reported.”

“These are crimes against society,” she said.

Marie pleaded with the Club to clear the air. She wrote emails to the Committee, to members, and she spoke face to face with the President.

Her husband, in distress, attended a couple of the Committee meetings where he was attacked and shut down, called disruptive and shown no support.

They both did this whilst facing an impending trial as well as the constant anxiety associated with the assaults. They did not give up trying to get support for their son and their family from the HRC, even though they were both struggling daily with the hideous sexual crime.

It is the view of Marie that the HRC completely ignored their compulsory responsibility under the Rowing Australia Member Protection Policy, with members left in the dark and young rowers feeling confused and betrayed.

Adult rowers were choosing sides in the drama and the toxic club atmosphere was spiralling out of control.

The Committee had been made aware on numerous occasions that something needed to be done and that it was the Committee’s responsibility, or if they couldn’t deal with it, then it was Rowing Tasmania’s responsibility.

Marie was distressed at what was happening, she was a great supporter of the HRC and had been associated with it for many years. They were her close social circle of friends and a very important part of her son’s life. It was the last thing that she wanted to have happen as a result of reporting the assaults.

Neither Rowing Tasmania nor the HRC appointed a Member Protection Officer for members.

“They buried their heads in the sand, the President down-played the assaults and in our opinion never ever took the reported assaults seriously,” said Marie.

When Marie’s husband in a traumatised and distressed state attempted to talk to the Committee at a meeting about some support after his wife’s rape, he was told by the President that they had been too busy with doing rowing stuff.

Several other members and families urged the President to stand up and to offer members who were struggling with the assaults some assistance.

“Young rowers needed to be offered counselling and support after the betrayal of the friend and Coach, but the club stayed silent, ruled by an arrogant and out of touch President,” said Marie.

One Committee member resigned after raising his concerns about how the committee had refused to face its obligations regarding member protection, and when the compulsory steps which should have been taken, were ignored.

The Huon River in Franklin

“Still the Committee’s arrogance would not allow them to concede that more should have been done. The President was adamant that no one should have been made aware of the assaults, reinforcing the age-old community attitudes of victim blaming and the shame associated with reporting a sexual assault,” said Marie.

Marie and her family felt they were completely on their own, they knew it was the right thing to do to report the assaults, but it was to the detriment of their son’s rowing life, their group of friends in the Huon Valley and to their mental health as small business owners in the community.

Several other young rowers and their parents have also been seeking private counselling sessions to help process what has occurred at the Huon Rowing Club since March 2018.

No contact was ever made by Rowing Tasmania to Marie and her family. No checking up on how she, her husband or her son were going over the 16 months between reporting the assaults and the commencement of a Supreme Court Trial.

Marie and her husband also made contact with Rowing Australia, the Australian Sports Commission Integrity team, the Australian Government Sports Health Department, and the Minister for Youth and Sport, Senator Richard Colbeck.

Tasmanian Times has made contact with John Driessen for comment, along with Ministers Rockliff and Courtney who were contacted by Marie in September 2019.

In December 2019 Marie contacted the Shadow Minister for Women, Julie Collins after learning that the Huon Rowing Club were being considered for a ‘building stronger communities’ grant.

“I told her they were under investigation and stated that I didn’t think they should be given a grant when they were not meeting their member protection responsibilities, and that they are definitely not contributing to a better community,” said Marie.

Collins responded:

“Thank you for your email regarding a grant application from the Huon Rowing Club.

I appreciate you letting me know of the history of one of the office holders [Tim Brown, Vice President and Treasurer] – I was not aware of it.

The current situation is that the Club applied several months ago and the grant was recommended for approval by a local committee of volunteers from not-for-profit community organisations and has since been approved by the Federal Government Department responsible.

I will seek some advice from the Department on this matter.

Again, thank you for letting me know the circumstances.  I am very sorry to hear that our community has been dealing with this and that this type of behaviour has occurred.”

Marie this week advised Tasmanian Times:

“It is very important to me that my experience helps to change community attitudes to sexual assaults, and that the individuals that perpetuate the victim shaming, that now exists and is so prevalent, are called out.

This is why Member Protection policies exist, and the relevant punitive measures outlined in these policies should be followed up on, and whilst in the scheme of things this was a relatively small matter, it is playing out over and over again. This is evident by the current media coverage, and our experience is in no way unique.”

Marie and her family are still waiting on an outcome of the investigation on how this entire incident was handled.

*Images of rowing crews are illustrative only and bear no relation to the events recounted in this article.

To be continued … the investigation, comments from the President, the trial, Rowing Australia Member Protection Policy