Rights and reporting

Once you have taken the steps that work best for your physical and emotional wellbeing, it can be helpful to know what your rights are and what reporting your sexual assault to the police might look like.

Just like when receiving healthcare, you are in control of this process, including what reporting looks like, to who you might do it, including the decision to not report it at all.

Everybody has the right to live a life free of violence, coercion, and harm. Sexual assault is a crime, and never the fault of the victim or survivor, even if it may feel like it, or if others say or imply that is the case.

Everyone deserves to live a life free from the threat and perpetration of sexual assault, and to seek justice and help if they are harmed.

Confidentiality

When talking to any counselling, healthcare or police-related service, you have a right for your information to remain confidential and can request further information about how your records will be stored and shared from that service.

When attending a Sexual Assault Service, you may be asked to have a private conversation with your counsellor. Under the Sexual Assault Communications Privileges Act, anything said to your counsellor with no one else present is not able to be used in a criminal case or in a court hearing without your consent. Talking with your counsellor is a good space to air your feelings and thoughts, and ask any questions you might have.

Seeking justice

When you have been harmed or assaulted, you are entitled to seek justice. Seeking justice for a sexual assault is no different in this way – you deserve support and compassion for what happened – however the legal process of reporting and seeking restitution for an assault can be complex so having support is often essential.

It is important to remember that no matter what the criminal justice system says or rules, your experiences really happened, and you deserve support.

In the sections below we discuss what the ways of reporting a sexual assault look like, and how to support yourself while doing so.

Whether or not to involve the police, or to report the crime, is a decision that will be different for everyone. If you are 16 or over, the police will only be involved if you want them to be, unless there’s a direct risk of harm to you. Whatever you decide to do is okay, and there is no wrong decision.

If you want to report a sexual assault, you can either go directly to the police, or ask the clinician or counsellor you’ve been working with to help you get in touch with them.

Going to the police

When working with police, it can be helpful to find an officer that will work with you and who is trained to understand particular communities and the ways violence and harm affect them.

A list of all the Police stations in NSW is available on the Police NSW website here.

There are officers that are specially trained to work with different communities, including:

• A GLLO officer (or LGBTIQ+ Liaison officer)

• A DVLO officer (or Domestic Violence Liaison officer)

• An ACLO officer (or Aboriginal Community Liaison officer)

• A MCLO officer (or Multicultural Community Liaison officer)

If you contact a  police station, you can also ask to speak to a detective or duty officer (a senior police officer). The duty officer can then give you the name of the detective who will work with you so when you get to the police station you don’t need to explain to the front desk why you’re there.

You can bring a support person with you and this may be a partner, friend, family member, or health professional. It can be overwhelming to engage in any legal system by yourself, and you don’t have to do it alone.

If at any point it feels like too much, or too difficult, you can ask to leave. You can find out more about working with or reporting to police here.

Help is also available through the Inner City Legal Centre’s Safe Relationships Project. They also offer a state-wide free legal service for trans and gender diverse people.

Making a formal police report

A police report allows the police to investigate the crime, and potentially arrest and charge someone as a result. It’s important to understand that a police report includes making a statement, which can take a long time and involves telling the police what happened in detail.

After making a formal, the report will be investigated by detectives. This may include obtaining further statements and collecting information, after which they will make an assessment about whether there is enough evidence to take the report to court. You will be kept informed by the detectives throughout this process.

You are able to attend a Sexual Assault Service before making a formal complaint, and they can guide you through the process, any forensic testing, and provide support during and afterwards. You can find a complete list of SAS’s here.

Reporting using a SARO

A SARO (Sexual Assault Reporting Option) is a NSW Police online questionnaire that you can be used instead of making a formal complaint. A SARO is only a record, and no investigation will occur as a result of the report, but it can be used by the police to reduce repeat offending, protect the community, and to assist in other prosecutions against offenders.

A SARO can be completed anonymously, and you can choose how much information you put into the report. You can find the SARO form on the NSW Police website here.

Sexual assault is something that unfortunately many trans people experience. Being able to talk about our experiences, good and bad, is an important way of looking after ourselves and our communities, and receiving support from those around us.

While talking about our experiences is important, it can be helpful to consider when and where we do. Good places to share about ourselves are with trusted friends and family, with counsellors or other mental health support, with doctors or health professionals we trust, or in group support settings.

However, maintaining boundaries is an important way of taking care of ourselves too. There are also settings in which sharing our experiences may not be a helpful part of healing, or be actively harmful to us. An example of this is Australia’s strict defamation laws, which can see an individual taken to court over things said about another person in public.

Talking about what has happened to us is an important part of healing, but so is keeping ourselves safe as we do talk about our experiences. We recommend contacting your local Sexual Assault Service and talking to a counsellor – the service is confidential and free.