Queensland’s attorney general says she was “shocked and saddened” by revelations that police failed to investigate a series of alleged sexual assaults against a 14-year-old girl, and has raised the matter with the state’s police minister.
Guardian Australia revealed on Tuesday that police failed to investigate the case, lost key documents, and later wrongly told the complainant that her 2004 statement had been destroyed.
The alleged victim, Karen Iles, has waived her legal right to anonymity in the belief that sharing her experience would help hold police to account.
The attorney general, Shannon Fentiman, said she would meet with Iles “to hear from her about her experience with the criminal justice system”.
“It is so important that when victim-survivors decide to take that brave step and come forward, they are believed and supported,” Fentiman said.
“I have been shocked and saddened to hear Karen’s story.”
Fentiman said she had raised the matter with the police minister, Mark Ryan.
Legal sources say one of the allegations – a gang-rape attack by up to 15 teenagers and adult men in a Gold Coast hotel room in 1993 – is among the most serious ever reported to authorities in Australia.
Iles came forward in 2004, when she was in her early 20s, and made a statement to New South Wales police. It contained names, photographs and other identifying features of her alleged attackers; maps and locations of the alleged assaults; the names of witnesses and a co-victim; and contemporaneous evidence from her childhood diary.
Police records released under freedom of information laws show the case was assigned to Queensland detectives, but soon stalled due to inaction by officers in NSW. It then appears to have simply been forgotten in both states for more than a decade.
There is no evidence that a substantive investigation ever took place, or that named suspects and witnesses were ever interviewed or contacted.
In 2018, Queensland police told Iles they believed case documents, including her 2004 statement, had been shredded a few years earlier. A copy of the statement was unearthed last year, with no explanation.
In a statement, Queensland police confirmed Iles had been advised incorrectly that her statement was destroyed.
“The … file and statement have not been destroyed and the QPS continues to retain a copy. The QPS apologises unreservedly for any emotional distress this misinformation may have caused.”
The case remains technically open in Queensland, but is not being actively investigated.
On Tuesday, a friend of Iles began a petition calling for new laws that would compel police to investigate child sexual assault.
The petition demands “a duty of care and a minimum duty to investigate child sex crimes”; independent, transparent and effective mechanisms to hold police to account; and a national framework to ensure consistency in police responses to child sexual assault and violence against women.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
